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ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- More imaging after thyroid cancer treatment identifies recurrence, but it does not always improve survival, a new study suggests.

Researchers from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center looked at 28,220 patients diagnosed with differentiated thyroid cancer, using data from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results-Medicare linked database.

A laboratory study has revealed an entirely unexpected process for acquiring drug resistance that bypasses the need to re-establish DNA damage repair in breast cancers that have mutant BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes. The findings, reported by Andre Nussenzweig, Ph.D., and Shyam Sharan, Ph.D., at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and colleagues, appeared July 21, 2016, in Nature.

Researchers at the University of California San Diego and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have come up with a strategy for using synthetic biology in therapeutics. The approach enables continual production and release of drugs at disease sites in mice while simultaneously limiting the size, over time, of the populations of bacteria engineered to produce the drugs. The findings are published in the July 20 online issue of Nature.

Researchers have succeeded in shedding light on the pathogenesis of DNA breakpoints that are associated with leukemia. A mechanism discovered in a recent study can explain up to 90% of DNA damages present in the most common type of leukemia in children. The study was carried out by the University of Eastern Finland and the University of Tampere, and the findings were published in eLife.

Research is shedding new light on the causes of divorce in monogamous year-round territorial birds. A Monash University study of the endangered Purple-crowned Fairy-wren has discovered the females are calling the shots when it comes to breaking up.

A new wonder compound developed by University of Bath scientists in collaboration with King's College London offers unprecedented protection against the harmful effects of UVA radiation in sunlight, which include photo-ageing, cell damage and cancer.

Most sunscreens on the market protect well against solar UVB radiation but have limited effectiveness against UVA-induced damage, relying on the reflective properties of creams to defend against dangerous UVA rays.

Exercise therapy is as effective as surgery for middle aged patients with a common type of knee injury known as meniscal tear (damage to the rubbery discs that cushion the knee joint), finds a study in The BMJ this week.

The researchers suggest that supervised exercise therapy should be considered as a treatment option for middle aged patients with this type of knee damage.

A marked rise in use of imaging tests after thyroid cancer has been associated with increased treatment for recurrence, but no clear improvement in survival from the disease, finds a study in The BMJ today.

These findings highlight the importance of curbing unnecessary imaging and tailoring imaging after treatment to patient risk, say the researchers.

The study has developed a pioneering methodology to analyse the genetic bases of pathogenic bacteria and can be used to identify therapeutic targets in order to develop new antimicrobial agents.

Respiratory diseases in pigs typically involve multiple infections from different pathogens. Some pathogens play a greater role than others in the progression of the disease. The fungus Pneumocystis carinii is a relatively common cause of pneumonia in Austrian pigs, but its role has so far remained largely unexplored. Pneumocystis is considered to be less dangerous than other pathogens, as it probably requires other underlying conditions to sufficiently weaken the immune defence of the animals first.

Family history of disease may be as much the result of shared lifestyle and surroundings as inherited genes, research has shown.

Factors that are common to the family environment - such as shared living space and common eating habits - can make a major contribution to a person's risk of disease, the study found.

A study of common diseases in families across the UK has highlighted the importance of such factors in estimating a person's risk for diseases such as high blood pressure, heart disease and depression.

Disease can be spread through contact with materials contaminated with infectious microorganism, making control of transmission an interesting objective of surface research. In order to develop "active surfaces" that can reduce or eliminate this contamination, a detailed understanding of the molecular mechanisms of interactions between the surfaces and the microorganisms is crucial. ICFO researchers in the groups led by ICREA Professor at ICFO Valerio Pruneri and Prof. Melike Lakadamyali, in collaboration with Dr.

For the first time, scientists believe they've discovered a cause of multiple types of birth defects triggered by environmental stresses.

The breakthrough made by scientists at the Victor Chang Institute, shows that cellular stress could be the key to understanding why many babies are born with defects of the heart, vertebrae and kidney, among others.

Affecting 1 in 100 babies, childhood heart disease is the most common form of birth defect in the world. But despite its prevalence, surprisingly the genetic and environmental causes are very poorly understood.

Human cells can be easily deformed - they stretch or become squashed under external pressure. The relationship between force and cell deformation changes in diseases such as cancer, lung disease and heart disease, as well as muscle disorders. To gain a better understanding of these diseases it is important to study the mechanical properties of cells.

Despite a recent ban on the sale of menthol cigarettes in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Nova Scotia, cigarettes made with similar coloring and marketed as having the same taste are still being sold, new research from the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggests.