A team led by Gregorio Valdez, an assistant professor at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, have created a search engine called EvoCor that identifies genes that are functionally linked.

EvoCor is a portmanteau of "evolution" and "correlation" and connotes the idea that genes with a similar evolutionary history and expression pattern have evolved together to control a specific biological process.

Individuals who are hospitalized for the skin conditions of Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis appear to have a high risk of recurrence, according to a new study.

Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) are life-threatening conditions that develop primarily as responses to drugs, and result in extensive epidermal detachment (upper layers of the skin detach from the lower layers). Recurrence has been reported in isolated cases, and the overall risk of recurrence has been unknown, according to background information in the article.

One of Leonardo da Vinci's masterpieces, a self-portrait, was drawn in red chalk on paper during the early 1500s. As you can imagine, a chalk drawing on paper from the Renaissance is in extremely poor condition.

Centuries of exposure to humid storage conditions and a lack of understanding about preservation has led to widespread and localized yellowing and browning of the paper, which is reducing the contrast between the colors of chalk and paper and substantially diminishing the visibility of the drawing - but a group of researchers from Italy and Poland are trying to help. 

A new study in the journal Molecular Psychiatry has linked children who later developed autism with exposure to elevated levels of steroid hormones (for example testosterone, progesterone and cortisol) in the womb.

Liver cancer is among the fastest-growing and deadliest cancers in the United States with a 17 percent three-year survival rate. Vaccines help direct the immune system to attack invaders by showing it a representative substance, called an antigen, that the body will recognize as foreign, in this case,  Alpha-Fetoprotein (AFP) – normally expressed during development and by liver cancer cells. 

AFP is expressed by about 80 percent of most common liver cancer cells but not typically by healthy adults. For cancer to flourish, cells must revert to an immature state, called dedifferentiation, which is why liver cancer cells express a protein during development and why the immune system can recognize AFP as "self."

Researchers have reported the discovery of 46 ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaurs (marine reptiles)  in the vicinity of the Tyndall Glacier in the Torres del Paine National Park of southern Chile. Among them are numerous articulated and virtually complete skeletons of adults, pregnant females, and juveniles. 

Preservation is excellent and occasionally includes soft tissue and embryos. The skeletons are associated with ammonites, belemnites, inoceramid bivalves, and fishes as well as numerous plant remains.

The enormous concentration of ichthyosaurs is unique for Chile and South America and places the Tyndall locality among the prime fossil Lagerstätten for Early Cretaceous marine reptiles worldwide.