Viruses aren't just disease agents any more.  Scientists now know they can be used in therapies for cancer but concerns over the safety of  'oncolytic viruses' remain because they can also damage healthy tissues.

But Mayo Clinic researchers say they have discovered a way of controlling the viruses behind potential cancer therapeutics by engineering the virus's genetic sequence, using microRNAs to restrict them to specific tissues. The microRNAs destabilize the virus's genome, making it impossible for the virus to run amok. The discovery is reported in the current issue of Nature Medicine.

Scientists have expressed genes from snapdragon in tomatoes to grow purple tomatoes high in health-protecting anthocyanins.  Anthocyanins are naturally occurring pigments found at particularly high levels in berries such as blackberry, cranberry and chokeberry. Scientists are investigating ways to increase the levels of health-promoting compounds in more commonly eaten fruits and vegetables.

Anthocyanins offer protection against certain cancers, cardiovascular disease and age-related degenerative diseases. There is evidence that anthocyanins also have anti-inflammatory activity, promote visual acuity and hinder obesity and diabetes.

A University of Iowa study suggests that the prolonged fatigue after mild exercise that occurs in people with many forms of muscular dystrophy is distinct from the inherent muscle weakness caused by the disease.

The research, which is published in Nature Advance Online Publication Oct. 26, identifies a faulty signaling pathway that appears to cause exercise-induced fatigue in mouse models of muscular dystrophy. Moreover, the study shows that Viagra can overcome the signaling defect and relieve the fatigue. The findings suggest that targeting the signaling pathway may lead to therapies for this type of fatigue.

Twenty-four years, a political party and a gulf of ideology separates the first two women to share the nation’s major party tickets. But has the way the media talks about Sarah Palin and Geraldine Ferraro changed?

Not so much, according to ongoing research by members of “the Palin Watch” at The University of Alabama.  

Newspapers around North America have used similar media frames to describe these very different women, who made vice-presidential runs at different times and for different parties.

Both of these women’s candidacies were framed by the media around, 1) their questionable experience, 2) their selection as a political stunt, and 3) their selection as a gamble.

Clubfoot, one of the most common birth defects, has long been thought to have a genetic component. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report they have found the first gene linked to clubfoot in humans.

By studying a multi-generation family with clubfoot, the scientists traced the condition to a mutation in a gene critical for early development of lower limbs called PITX1. While other genes are also likely to be linked to clubfoot, the new finding is a first step toward improved genetic counseling and the development of novel therapies.

The birth of new neurons (neurogenesis) does not end completely during development but continues throughout all life in two areas of the adult nervous system, i.e. subventricular zone and hippocampus. Recent research has shown that hippocampal neurogenesis is crucial for memory formation. These studies, however, have not yet clarified how the newborn neurons are integrated in the existing circuits and thus contribute to new memories formation and to the maintenance of old ones.