In its annual list of the year's top ten scientific breakthroughs, the journal Science has given top honors to research that produced "made-to-order" cell lines by reprogramming cells from ill patients. These cell lines, and the techniques for producing them,

The fabled laboratory mouse -- from which we have learned so much about how the immune system works -- can teach us only so much about how we humans get sick and what to do about it, says a leading

The US Environmental Protection Agency should examine whether combined exposures to chemicals known as phthalates could cause adverse health effects in humans, says a new report from the National Research Council.

Scientists have successfully pushed nature beyond its limits by genetically modifying Escherichia coli, a bacterium often associated with food poisoning, to produce unusually long-chain alcohols essential in the creation of biofuels.

Scientists are looking to outer space for help in their attempt to prevent new outbreaks of the tropical disease schistosomiasis in southern China. Once the Three Gorges Dam is fully operational, researchers plan to use satellite data from space to

Scientists have for the first time developed a technique for generating novel types of rat and human stem cells with characteristics similar to mouse embryonic stem cells, currently the predominant type of stem cells used for creating animal models of

Children who participated in family-based or parent-only group weight-management programs were not as overweight after six months as children in a control group.

A new type of highly sensitive microscopy could greatly expand the limits of modern biomedical imaging, allowing scientists to track the location of minuscule metabolites and drugs in living cells and tissues without the use of any kind of fluorescent

Alfuzosin, a drug commonly prescribed for men with chronic prostatitis, a painful disorder of the prostate and surrounding pelvic area, failed to significantly reduce symptoms in recently diagnosed men who had not been previously treated with this drug, according to

Learning how leukemia takes over privileged 'niches' within the bone marrow is helping researchers develop treatment strategies that could protect healthy blood-forming stem cells and improve the outcomes of bone marrow transplantation for leukemia and other types of cancer.

Recent evidence suggests that parts of the ubiquitin-proteasome system are involved in regulating gene expression. Ubiquitylation controls factors such as transcriptional activators, coactivators, and histones, but how precisely it modifies transcription is largely unknown. Scientists have now discovered that in

Prozac is regularly prescribed to ease the emotional pain of patients who are being treated for cancer. But can this common anti-depressant help to fight cancer itself?

It's as simple as A, T, G, C. Scientists have exploited the Watson-Crick base pairing of DNA to provide a defensive tool that could be used to fight the spread of antibiotic resistance in bacteria. They discovered that a special

The maintenance of genome stability is crucial for protecting an organism against the onset of cancer and the study of the mechanisms controlling genome stability represents one of the most promising frontiers in cancer research.

Scientists are now studying the molecular underpinnings of cancer by probing individual bonds between an asbestos fiber and human cells. Though any clinical application is years away, the researchers hope their findings could aid in drug development efforts targeting illnesses

A discovery by Canada-US biophysicists will improve the understanding of ion channels, akin to little "nano-machines" or "nano-valves" in our body, which when they malfunction can cause genetic illnesses that attack muscles, the central nervous system and the heart.

Entirely new protein structures are very rarely found to drive known biochemical processes. But molecular biologists have just succeeded in finding an example. They studied the protein ASST, present in pathogenic E. coli bacteria, which cause urinary tract infections. In

A preliminary study suggests that economic incentives appear to be effective for achieving short-term weight loss.

A system that can recognize human gestures could provide a new way for people with physical disabilities to interact with computers. A related system for the able bodied could also be used to make virtual worlds more realistic.

Throughout the world, 10 million breast cancer survivors have a lifetime risk for developing lymphedema, a chronic condition that involves swelling of the limbs and impacts physical and psychosocial health. In a new study, researchers found that the risk of