Researchers who thought they had identified the bacterial perpetrator of the often severe disease caused by community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) had better keep looking: Scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, have exonerated a toxin widely thought to be the guilty party.

Cigarette smoking, which causes over 8.6 million illnesses annually in the U.S., has been shown to have harmful effects on a variety of orthopedic conditions. Studies have shown that the numerous toxins contained in cigarette smoke can undermine fracture and ligament repair following injury. In addition, smokers have higher rates of hip fracture, fracture healing problems and bone infections and smoking has been shown to impair soft tissue wound healing. Two new studies, funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Football League Charities, examined the effects of smoking on fractures and ligament healing in mice and found that healing of both types of injury was delayed. The studies are published in the December 2006 issue of the Journal of Orthopaedic Research (http://www.interscience.wiley.com/journal/jor), the official journal of the Orthopaedic Research Society.

Researchers led by a University of Utah medicinal chemist have developed a novel method to make drugs for cancer and other diseases from bacteria found in sponges and other small ocean creatures.

The device looks like something out of an old science fiction movie, but researchers at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago say it holds promise in the treatment of cancer.

Dialogue, not a monologue, is the basis of all good communication. Stem cells are no exception. Recent University of Washington (UW) research has found an early indication of two-way cellular communication in the miniscule niches of the body where the futures of stem cells are determined.

Researchers have found that aged mice undergoing weekly light-cycle shifts--similar to those that humans experience with jet lag or rotating shift work--experienced significantly higher death rates than did old mice kept on a normal daylight schedule over the same eight-week period. The findings may not come as a great surprise to exhausted globe-trotting business travelers, but the research nonetheless provides, in rather stark terms, new insight into how the disruption of circadian rhythms can impact well-being and physiology, and how those impacts might change with age. The mouse study is reported by a group led by Gene Block and Alec Davidson of the University of Virginia and appears in the November 7th issue of the journal Current Biology, published by Cell Press.

Scientists at the University of Michigan Medical School have discovered a previously unknown cause for a severe, early-onset form of kidney disease and renal failure in children: recessive mutations in a gene called phospholipase C epsilon or PLCE1.

Rhinoceros horns have long been objects of mythological beliefs. Some cultures prize them for their supposed magical or medicinal qualities. Others have used them as dagger handles or good luck charms. But new research at Ohio University removes some of the mystique by explaining how the horn gets its distinctive curve and sharply pointed tip.

Negative perceptions about radiation therapy can strongly influence a prostate cancer patient's choice to avoid external beam radiation therapy, even though studies have proven the treatment to be as safe and effective as other treatments for the disease, including surgery, according to a study presented November 5, 2006, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology's 48th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.

A team led by bioengineering researchers at UC San Diego report in the November issue of Nature Genetics rapid evolutionary changes in a bacterial genome, observed in near-real time over a few days. Scientists have previously published static "snapshots" of the genome sequences of more than 100 bacterial species, from the harmless to those that cause plague, but this new report shows how these genomes are moving targets.