An international medical conference here heard that an Australian developed anti-cancer therapy based on the use of a common cold virus to control cancer cell growth has begun safety testing in human subjects.

The research was presented to the third International Meeting on Replicating Oncolytic Virus Therapeutics, on Friday 11 March by Newcastle University associate professor, Darren Shafren.

As tattoos have grown in popularity, so have complaints of adverse side effects associated with both their application and removal. A new study, done by chemistry students at Northern Arizona University, looked at the chemical composition of a variety of tattoo inks to better understand their potential health risks.

The findings, presented today at the 229th national meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society, suggest that closer regulation of the tattoo industry may be warranted, according to the researchers.

If you have ever covered a flashlight with your hand and seen the red light that still comes through, then you have seen light in the therapeutic window – that magic wavelength that is not absorbed or reflected away by tissue. Scientists believe that they can use light at that wavelength to signal manmade molecules to release drugs at disease sites in the body.

Such possibilities will be discussed in a poster and a talk by Virginia Tech researchers presenting at the 229th American Chemical Society national meeting in San Diego on March 13-17.

Aiming to thwart persistent bacterial infections and better control group behaviors of certain microorganisms, scientists are creating artificial chemicals that infiltrate and sabotage bacterial "mobs."

Reporting the work here today (March 13) at the 229th national meeting of the American Chemical Society, University of Wisconsin-Madison chemistry professor Helen Blackwell described the ongoing construction of a new class of molecules that conduct such chemical warfare.

With 33 presentations of original research that showcase applications ranging from early-stage disease diagnosis to fuel cells and batteries, the University of Houston will be well represented at the 229th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), March 13 to 17 in San Diego.

Scientists at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland have used RNA interference in transgenic mice to silence a mutated gene that causes inherited cases of amytrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), substantially delaying both the onset and the progression rate of the fatal motor neuron disease. Their results will be published in the April issue of Nature Medicine, and in the journal's advanced online publication March 13.

The complex and life-sustaining series of steps by which hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) give rise to all of the body's red and white blood cells and platelets has now been discovered to depend in large part on a single protein called Mcl-1. This finding, from an investigator at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, is published in the February 18 issue of Science.

Part of the immune system's pro-inflammatory response to bacterial invasion is to increase nitric oxide levels with an enzyme called inducible nitric oxide synthase. In a study published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, scientists report that the predominantly anti-inflammatory enzyme, endothelial nitric oxide synthase, is also involved in nitric oxide production in response to infection. This discovery may eventually provide a new target to treat sepsis, which is caused by overproduction of nitric oxide.