A comprehensive investigation into the axial complex of sea urchins (Echinoidea), an internal structure with unknown function, has shown that within that group of marine invertebrates there exists a structural evolutionary interdependence of various internal organs. The research, published in BioMed Central's open access journal Frontiers in Zoology, demonstrates that the approach of combining all structural data available on a given organ in combination with a broad taxonomic coverage can yield novel insights into the evolution of internal organ systems.

In a new study, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists disprove a century-old theory about why cancer cells often have too many or too few chromosomes, and show that the actual reason may hold the key to a novel approach to cancer therapy.

Computer/console gamers who play for more than seven hours a week and who identify their gaming as an addiction sleep less during the weekdays and experience greater sleepiness than casual or non-gamers, according to a research abstract that will be presented on Monday, June 8 at SLEEP 2009, the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies

The genome of complex organisms is stashed away inside each cell's nucleus, a little like a sovereign shielded from the threatening world outside. The genome cannot govern from its protective chamber, however, without knowing what's going on in the realm beyond and having the ability to project power there. Guarding access to the nuclear chamber is the job of large, intimidating gatekeepers known as nuclear pore complexes (NPCs), which stud the nuclear membrane, filtering all of the biochemical information passing in or out. In new research, scientists have for the first time glimpsed in three dimensions an entire subcomplex of the NPC; it's the key building block of this little understood and evolutionarily ancient structure, an innovation fundamental to the development of nearly all multicellular life on earth.

Women continue to be under-enrolled in cancer clinical trials, according to a new review, published in the July 15, 2009 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. The study's results suggest that greater efforts are needed to ensure that oncologists know the true effects of treatments and medical procedures in female patients.