Calorie-restricted diets are thought to protect against cancer and slow tumor growth, and a new study published in this week's Nature begins to tease out why the measure works for some tumors, and not for others. Chubby, and more cancer prone Image: Gaetan_lee/flickr For almost a century, researchers have known that fasting helps animals live longer and avoid some cancers, "but which type of cancers would be amenable to this approach, from a therapeutic standpoint, is still an open question,"

A world-renowned Massachusetts anesthesiologist appears to have perpetrated what may be one of the most extensive cases of medical fraud, faking data and even making up entire studies in at least 21 cases. Scott Reuben, the former chief of acute pain at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass., admitted that he falsified data in 10 articles in Anesthesia and Analgesia, as well as an additional 11 articles in journals including Acute Pain, Anesthesiology, and others. The studies all relat

Chimpanzees may have the ability to plan further into the future than previously thought, according to an article in the online version of Current Biology.Chimpanzee Image: barnoid/flickr The study by Matthias Osvath, a primatologist at Lund University in Sweden, was based on the case report of Santino, a 21-year-old chimpanzee living in on a small island surrounded by a water moat at the Furuvik Zoo in Sweden. For several years, Santino would calmly collect and hoard stones and chunks of conc

Credit: Ajin Mandaokar / Washington State University" /> Credit: Ajin Mandaokar / Washington State University The paper: B. Thines et al., "JAZ repressor proteins are targets of the SCFCOI1 complex during jasmonate signaling," Nature, 448: 661-8, 2007. (Cited in 81 papers) The finding: John Browse of Washington State University and colleagues used transcript profiling and d

The Whitehead Institute shot to first place this year, up from 14th the year before, after not even making the list in 2007 or 2006. According to Jennifer Hughes, a recently-promoted research scientist and former genetics postdoc at the Whitehead Institute, one reason for the Cambridge, Mass., institution's dramatic rise in the rankings is a renewed focus on postdocs and a generous benefits

The generic drug giant Ranbaxy falsified data on shelf life and efficacy on products made in their Paonta Sahib plant in India, the FDA said in a press conference today (Feb.26). In response, the FDA has invoked a regulatory action called the Application Integrity Policy (AIP). Until the company complies with the FDA, the "FDA will stop all scientific review of pending applications at Paonta Sahib, and no new applications will be reviewed," said Doug Throckmorton, a supervisory medical office

Giving birth to live young is thought to mainly occur in mammals and sharks, but a new study suggests that it was once a common mechanism for reproduction. A large group of ancient fish carried its embryos internally and bore live offspring, says a study published in Nature this week. Reconstructed Arhtrodira anatomy Image: Peter Trusler A team led by John Long, a paleontologist at the Museum Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, identified embryos in extinct, jawed fish from a group called Arthro

A single antibody may soon provide a one-size-fits-all antiviral for multiple strains of influenza. Researchers in the online version of Nature Structural and Molecular Biology have identified a human antibody that disarms the flu virus by jamming the machinery it uses to fuse with host cells. Hemagglutinin and antibody in complex Image: William Hwang Genes that code the influenza surface protein hemagglutinin are constantly reshuffled and tweaked, helping the virus hide from the immune syst

The FDA issued a warning yesterday confirming that another patient taking the psoriasis drug Raptiva developed a rare form of brain infection called progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML). The warning came after Genentech reported that a 47 year old man in Germany had been hospitalized for the infection. Two other patients--a 70 year old and a 73 year old--died of PML in October and November of last year. All of the patients who developed PML were taking the psoriasis drug for more th

The formation of fingers and toes in mice depends on multiple, interlocking signaling pathways, researchers in this week's Science report. These linked pathways protect the process of digit formation from mutations that could make it go awry. A team led by Rolf Zeller, a developmental biologist at the University of Basel in Switzerland, wanted to understand why the complicated business of limb formation in a developing embryo turns out okay most of the time. Signaling in the mouse embryo limb

A neural stem cell transplant from fetal cells performed in Russia led to a brain tumor in a teenage boy, researchers in this week's PLoS Medicine report, raising concerns about the safety of neural stem cells treatments. MRI of brain lesion, courtesy of PLoS MedicineThe researchers confirmed that the cancer originated from the donor tissue, not the boy's own cells. This is the first report of cancer following fetal neural stem cell transplant. However, outside experts raised concerns about th

The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology has moved its 2011 meeting from New Orleans to Utah in protest of Louisiana's decision to allow religious materials in science class, but it's too late for the Experimental Biology meeting to do the same, according to organizers. The April Experimental Biology meeting--which includes organizations like the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, and the American Physio