University of Queensland researchers have made a giant leap forward in the race to develop a vaccine for the potentially debilitating West Nile virus.

A simple blood test may be able to detect lung cancer in its earliest stages with unprecedented accuracy, according to new research to be presented at American Thoracic Society’s 2008 International Conference in Toronto on Tuesday, May 20.

An orthopaedic surgeon at the University of Liverpool has performed a groundbreaking operation on a chimp in Cameroon to correct a deformity more commonly seen in dogs.

An herb used in traditional medicine by many Middle Eastern countries may help in the fight against pancreatic cancer, one of the most difficult cancers to treat. Researchers at the Kimmel Cancer at Jefferson in Philadelphia have found that thymoquinone, an extract of nigella sativa seed oil, blocked pancreatic cancer cell growth and killed the cells by enhancing the process of programmed cell death.

Largely unexplored deep-sea coral reefs, some perhaps hundreds of thousands of years old, off the coast of the southeastern U.S. are not only larger than expected but also home to commercially valuable fish populations and many newly discovered and unusual species. Results from a series of NOAA-funded expeditions to document these previously unstudied and diverse habitats and their associated marine life have revealed some surprising results.

It has long been known that prolonged exposure to the suns harmful UV rays can lead to Melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. An unanswered question, however, is why some people are more likely to develop melanoma than others. Despite years of research and clinical development, melanoma incidences continue to rise around the world. According to the National Cancer Institute, the percentage of people in the United States who develop melanoma each year has more than doubled in the past 30 years.

The current issue of CELL TRANSPLANTATION (Vol. 17:4) features a number of publications by researchers seeking new ways to treat Parkinson’s disease (PD), a neurological disease characterized by muscle rigidity, tremor and slowed physical movements related to insufficient levels of dopamine (DA) in the basal ganglia of the brain, by using primate models to examine the potential therapy role of transplanted cells.