An international team of biomedical engineers has demonstrated for the first time that it is possible to grow healthy new bone reliably in one part of the body and use it to repair damaged bone at a different location.

The research, which is based on a dramatic departure from the current practice in tissue engineering, is described in a paper titled "In vivo engineering of organs: The bone bioreactor" published online next week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Using customized nanoparticles that they developed, University at Buffalo scientists have for the first time delivered genes into the brains of living mice with an efficiency that is similar to, or better than, viral vectors and with no observable toxic effect, according to a paper published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A single prenatal dose of methamphetamine – commonly known as speed – may be enough to cause long-term neurodevelopmental problems in babies, say University of Toronto researchers.

Researchers have isolated bacteria which can grow on and 'mop up' smelly compounds in the mouth that are linked to bad breath. These smelly, highly reactive 'one-carbon' compounds are naturally produced from the breakdown of sulphur-containing amino acids in the mouth.

At home in the deep, dark Arctic Ocean, the marine bacterium Colwellia psychrerythraea 34H keeps very cool--typically below 5° degrees Celsius. How does the bacterium function in this frigid environment? To find out, scientists at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) and collaborators have sequenced and analyzed C. psychrerythraea's genome.

Age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in older adults, yet researchers are still in the dark about many of the factors that cause this incurable disease.

But new insight from University of Florida and German researchers bout a genetic link between rhesus monkeys with macular degeneration and humans could unlock secrets about the earliest stages of the disease, when severe vision loss could still be stopped.

Biologists have discovered that a common corn fungus is by far nature's most powerful known cannoneer, blasting its spores out with a force of 870,000 times the force of gravity. Farmers need not worry about being nailed by a fungal supergun, however. The infinitesimal spore travels only two-tenths of an inch (5 millimeters) before plummeting.

Multiple strains of the flu virus, circulating in a population at the same time, can reshuffle their genes and create a new virus, one capable of infecting many more people, according to a new study in the open-access journal PLoS Biology. This finding may help scientists make better predictions about which viral strains will attack during upcoming flu seasons and design more effective flu vaccines.