A team from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) and McGill University has made a major breakthrough by unraveling the inner workings of melatonin, also known as the "sleep hormone." The research, conducted in collaboration with scientists in Italy, reveals the key role played by the melatonin receptor in the brain that promotes deep, restorative sleep. This discovery led the researchers to develop a novel drug called UCM765, which selectively activates this receptor. The results, published in The Journal of Neuroscience, may pave the way for the development of new and promising treatments for insomnia, a common public health problem that affects millions of people worldwide.

Researchers at Mayo Clinic in Arizona (http://www.mayoclinic.org/arizona/) and the University of Georgia (UGA) have developed a vaccine that dramatically reduces tumors in a mouse model that mimics 90 percent of human breast and pancreatic cancer cases — including those that are resistant to common treatments.

Researchers from the University of Bristol have discovered that a chemical compound in the brain can weaken the synaptic connections between neurons in a region of the brain important for the formation of long-term memories. The findings, published today [13 Dec] in the Journal of Neuroscience, may also provide a potential explanation for the loss of memory associated with Alzheimer's.

__IMAGE_2 Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have discovered new protein fragments in semen that enhance the ability of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, to infect new cells -- a discovery that one day could help curb the global spread of this deadly pathogen.

This is a blue marlin with a PSAT (Popoff Satellite Archival Transmitting) tag used to monitor horizontal and vertical habitat use in a new study The science behind counting fish in the ocean to measure their abundance has never been simple. A new scientific paper in Nature Climate Change shows that expanding 'ocean dead zones' (areas of low oxygen) driven in part by climate change makes that science even more complex.