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Cerebral malaria kills over 3 million individuals a year. One of the main causes of disease is the adherence of blood cells known as platelets to small blood vessels in the brain. Currently, platelet accumulation can only be detected after the clinical signs of the disease are visible. However, researchers have now developed a new agent that enables platelet accumulation to be detected in the mouse brain before the clinical signs of disease are visible.

Researchers have slowed the growth of two particularly stubborn solid tumor cancers -- neuroblastoma and peripheral nerve sheath tumors -- without harming healthy tissues by inserting instructions to inhibit tissue growth into an engineered virus, according to a new study.

Scientists have created a waterproof adhesive bandage inspired by gecko lizards that may soon join sutures and staples as a basic operating room tool for patching up surgical wounds or internal injuries. Drawing on some of the principles that make gecko paws unique, the surface of the bandage has the same kind of nanoscale hills and valleys that allow the lizards to cling to walls and ceilings. Layered over this landscape is a thin coating of glue that helps the bandage stick in wet environments, such as to heart, bladder or lung tissue.

Researchers have demonstrated that a bacterial toxin from the common bacterium Staphylococcus aureus shuts down the control mechanism of the tunnel, called an ion channel, in immune cell membranes. Shutting down ion channels has long been known to suppress the immune response, and the bacteria may use the toxin to neutralize host defenses against bacteria. This research has implications for finding new ways to fight MRSA.

Scientists have taken a significant step in understanding how retroviruses such as HIV can move between species and the biological mechanisms behind the "jumping genes" which make some monkeys immune. They will now use this knowledge to develop a gene therapy treatment for HIV/AIDS in humans.

Doctors do not think like the general public when it comes to making decisions about how to treat -- or not treat -- severely ill patients. The majority of doctors would withhold treatment in certain circumstances, whereas most members of the public would not.

The Uukuniemi virus is the first bunyavirus whose structure researchers have been able to determine. Together with more detailed studies of the viral membrane proteins, knowledge of the Uukuniemi virus may provide a basis for development of drugs for treating bunyavirus diseases, such as hemorrhagic fever and encephalitis.

LOS ANGELES -- U.S. scientists have discovered biomarkers that predict which patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer will better respond to specific treatments. The researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center said the biomarkers predict which such patients will respond to a combination treatment of the anti-inflammatory drug Celebrex and the growth factor receptor blocker Tarceva. The scientists said their finding might help oncologists personalize treatment, prescribing drugs they know patients will respond to and sparing them from therapies that won't work. Dr.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Breaking news from the Diagnostic Center for Disease(TM) in Sarasota, Florida, identifies a previously underestimated risk that routine prostate biopsy performed to evaluate for prostate cancer spreads cancer cells and may be the reason that men have a recurrence of disease many years after the prostate was removed successfully with clear surgical margins. Traditionally, an ultrasound and prostate biopsy is commonly recommended and performed by Urologists when a patient presents with a prostate specific antigen (PSA) of 2.5 ng/ml or above.

An innovative research approach has identified a previously unsuspected protein as a key player in the resistance to particular forms of breast cancer therapy. The study, published by Cell Press in the February issue of Cancer Cell, significantly advances the understanding of the molecular response to breast cancer therapies that target estrogen signaling. Most breast tumors express estrogen receptor and are dependent on estrogen signaling.