Recent evidence demonstrating the feasibility of using novel CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology to make targeted changes in the DNA of human embryos is forcing researchers, clinicians, and ethicists to revisit the highly controversial issue of altering the inherited human genome.

Currently, developed nations prohibit altering inherited factors, including ones related to disease, because that would open the door for editing to achieve positive traits. The United Kingdom recently allowed "Three-Person IVF" to try and prevent some cases of mitochondrial disease and say they were legally in bounds, though court cases have yet to be decided.

Patients with type 2 diabetes who are overweight - but not obese - live longer than those who are normal weight or thin. 

Obesity is a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Studies show that overweight patients with cardiovascular disease live longer than normal-weight patients with cardiovascular disease.  This is called the obesity paradox.

To determine if the same could be true about patients with diabetes, researchers followed more than 10,500 patients with type 2 diabetes and no known cardiovascular disease for a median of 10.6 years and collected information about cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality.

The vivid pigmentation of zebras, the massive jaws of sharks, the fight or flight instinct and the diverse beaks of Darwin's finches. These and other remarkable features of the world's vertebrates stem from a small group of powerful cells, called neural crest cells, but little is known about their origin.

Scientists have proposes a new model for how neural crest cells, and thus vertebrates, arose more than 500 million years ago. 

The researchers postulate that, unlike other early embryonic cells that have their potential progressively restricted as an embryo develops, neural crest cells retain the molecular underpinnings that control pluripotency -- the ability to give rise to all the cell types that make up the body. 

One of developmental biology's biggest mysteries is ontogeny and the signals that transform masses of undifferentiated cells into tremendously complex organisms. 

A new paper suggests that it all begins with a single "master" growth factor receptor,  nuclear Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor 1 (nFGFR1), that regulates the entire genome.  The research using mouse embryonic stem cells hopes to challenge the supposition that specific types of growth factors only functioned at a cell's surface and that growth factors function from within the nucleus.

There is always interest in exploring new therapeutic uses for existing drugs, because existing medications are probably generic, and therefore less expensive because generic companies don't have to do any creative science or fund clinical trials, and popular drugs already have known side effect profiles.

Alzheimer's disease may affect as many as 5.5 million Americans and treatment costs are high with inconsistent benefits so one goal of science it to help stave off the disease or prevent it completely. 

A research paper has correlated a compound found in green tea and exercise with slowing the progression of the disease in mice. More speculative is that it may reverse its effects.