A review of published data on use of human growth hormone (GH) by healthy elderly people found that the synthetic hormone was associated with small changes in body composition but not in body weight or other clinically important outcomes.

Measuring a patient's ratio of white blood cell types may help physicians accurately distinguish between the similar conditions infectious mononucleosis and bacterial tonsillitis, potentially guiding treatment decisions, according to an article in the January issue of Archives of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Humans continued to evolve significantly long after they were established in Europe, and interbred with Neandertals as they settled across the continent, according to new research published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) USA.

Combination gene therapy delivered in lipid-based nanoparticles drastically reduces the number and size of human non-small cell lung cancer tumors in mice, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center report in the Jan. 15 edition of Cancer Research.

Variations in a gene known as SORL1 may be a factor in the development of late onset Alzheimer's disease, an international team of researchers has discovered. The genetic clue, which could lead to a better understanding of one cause of Alzheimer's, is reported in Nature Genetics online, Jan. 14, 2007, and was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

A new discovery in stem cell research may mean big things for cancer patients in the future. Gary Van Zant, Ph.D., and a research team at the University of Kentucky published their findings today in Nature Genetics, an international scientific journal.

A novel antibacterial medicine that kills the superbug MRSA is being developed under a new scheme launched by the Wellcome Trust. The Seeding Drug Discovery initiative is aimed at catalysing the development of new drugs in areas of unmet need.

A lost dog is more likely to be reunited with its owner than a lost cat, according to two new studies.

A hormone found naturally in the gut is the basis of a new drug to tackle obesity, one of three inaugural awards under the Wellcome Trust's Seeding Drug Discovery initiative. The drug is being developed by one of the world's leading obesity experts, Professor Steve Bloom at Imperial College London's Hammersmith Hospital campus.

Researchers have linked a structural protein called nestin to a particularly deadly form of breast cancer, identifying a new biomarker that could lead to earlier detection and better treatment.