Why can cancer cells be so resilient, even when faced with the onslaught of nearly toxic drug cocktails, radiation, and even our own immune system?

A new research report appearing in the March 2015 issue of The FASEB Journal, shows that intermediate filaments formed by a protein called "vimentin" or VIF, effectively "insulate" the mitochondria in cancer cells from any attempt to destroy the cell. Under normal circumstances, VIF serves as the "skeleton" for cells by helping them maintain their shapes.

A new sequencing technique may provide a clearer picture of how genes in mitochondria, the "powerhouses" that turn sugar into energy in human cells, shape each person's inherited risk for diabetes, heart disease and cancer, according to a study.

The powerful new tool may help researchers better explain why some people get sick and others do not despite being the same age and weight, or having the same bad habits (e.g. smoking). Researchers have long sought to determine these risks by looking at diet and variations in nuclear genes inherited from both parents. These analyses have left out differences in mitochondrial genes (mtDNA), the second kind of DNA in every cell, which we inherit from our mothers.

Intensified land-use, sewage discharge, and climate change have likely favored disproportionate development of harmful algae in freshwaters. A new study found that blooms of one type of harmful algae, called cyanobacteria, have increased disproportionately over the past two centuries relative to other species, with the greatest increases since 1945.
Cyanobacteria pose a serious threat to drinking water sources worldwide because they can release toxins into the surrounding environment.

Fast food advertising doesn't emphasize healthy menu items enough, and by giving away toys in things like Happy Meals restaurants are being deceptive even by their own self-regulation standards, according to scholars who showed 100 children aged 3–7 years McDonald’s and Burger King children and adult meal ads, randomly drawn from ads that aired on national U.S. television from 2010–11.

After seeing the ad, children were asked to recall what they had seen and transcripts evaluated for descriptors of food, healthy food (apples or milk), and premiums/tie-ins. All children’s ads contained images of healthy foods, like apples and milk, but premiums/tie-ins were recalled much more frequently than healthy food.

A deadly fungus responsible for the extinction of more than 200 amphibian species worldwide has coexisted harmlessly with animals in Illinois and Korea for more than a century, a pair of studies have found.

Amphibians in Illinois have been coexisting with the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or Bd, for at least 126 years without adverse effects seen in other parts of the world such as mass-die offs, according to research published Jan. 13 in the journal Biological Conservation. In a study published March 4 in PLOS ONE, researchers were able to date the fungus in Korea back to 1911. The results will help scientists better understand the disease caused by Bd, chytridiomycosis, and the conditions under which it can be survived.

You can see it through a telescope, or watch a documentary about it, but you can't stick your nose out and take a whiff. Speaking of Chemistry returns this week to answer the very important question, "What does space smell like?" Matt Davenport, Ph.D., reveals the stinky secrets of the cosmos from the people who have been there.