Features Articles - cell & molecular biology and cancer

Freezing Time

By Vern L. Schramm | May 1, 2012

Targeting the briefest moment in chemistry may lead to an exceptionally strong new class of drugs.

Telomeres in Disease

By Rodrigo Calado and Neal Young | May 1, 2012

Telomeres have been linked to numerous diseases over the years, but how exactly short telomeres cause diseases and how medicine can prevent telomere erosion are still up for debate.

15 Comments

Are Cancer Stem Cells Ready for Prime Time?

By Suling Liu, Hasan Korkaya, and Max S. Wicha | April 1, 2012

A flood of new discoveries has refined our definition of cancer stem cells. Now it’s up to human clinical trials to test if they can make a difference in patients.

48 Comments

What it Takes to Develop Better Drugs for Kids

By J. Steven Leeder | March 1, 2012

Over the past 15 years, new laws and regulations in the United States and the European Union have expanded to require the inclusion of pediatric patients in clinical drug trials. Before these laws were enacted, the US Food and Drug Administration (F

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Vitamin D on Trial

By Amy Maxmen | March 1, 2012

Prevention trials for vitamins and supplements are notoriously difficult, but some researchers aren’t giving up on finding proof that vitamin D helps ward off disease.

52 Comments

The Enigmatic Membrane

By Muriel Mari, Sharon A. Tooze, and Fulvio Reggiori | February 1, 2012

Despite years of research, the longstanding mystery of where the autophagosome gets its double lipid bilayers is not much clearer.

6 Comments

Top Ten Innovations 2011

By The Scientist Staff | January 1, 2012

Our list of the best and brightest products that 2011 had to offer the life scientist

5 Comments

Matters of Taste

By Thomas E. Finger and Sue C. Kinnamon | December 1, 2011

Compounds we perceive as sweet or bitter in the mouth trigger similar receptors and signaling pathways elsewhere in the body, helping to regulate digestion, respiration, and other systems.

7 Comments

A Small Revolution

By Erica Westly | October 1, 2011

In fewer than 15 years, nanomedicine has gone from fantasy to reality.

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Nanomedicine

October 1, 2011

At the nanoscale old materials acquire new properties that International Institute for Nanotechnology Director Chad Mirkin thinks will change the way medicine is practiced.

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