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In comparison to their relatives on the mainland, the Channel Island foxes living on six of California's Channel Islands are dwarves, at two-thirds the size. The island foxes most likely evolved from gray foxes brought to the northern islands by humans over 7,000 years ago. Some think island foxes may have been partially domesticated by Native Americans. Like many island species, they have little fear of humans.

When the dinosaurs became extinct, plenty of small bird-like dinosaurs disappeared along with giants like Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops. Why only some of them survived to become modern-day birds remains a mystery. Now, researchers reporting April 21 in Current Biology suggest that abrupt ecological changes following a meteor impact may have been more detrimental to carnivorous bird-like dinosaurs, and early modern birds with toothless beaks were able to survive on seeds when other food sources declined.

Thanks to combination antiretroviral therapy, many people with HIV can be expected to live decades after being infected. Yet doctors have observed that these patients often show signs of premature aging. Now a study published April 21 in Molecular Cell has applied a highly accurate biomarker to measure just how much HIV infection ages people at the biological level--an average of almost 5 years.

LA JOLLA, Calif. - An eight-year-long accrual and analysis of the whole genome sequences of healthy elderly people, or "Wellderly," has revealed a higher-than-normal presence of genetic variants offering protection from cognitive decline, researchers from the Scripps Translational Science Institute (STSI) reported today in the journal Cell.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Researchers believe that genetically modified bacteria can help explain how a developing animal keeps all of its parts and organs in the same general proportions as every other member of its species.

In 1952, Alan Turing mathematically demonstrated how the nearly endless variety of patterns seen in nature -- spots on cheetahs or the distinctive coats of leopards, for example -- could be explained by chemicals spreading and interacting by simple rules. Many scientists, however, remained unconvinced, and believed there must be more to the story.

(NEW YORK, NY, April 18, 2016) -- RAS genes are mutated in more than 30 percent of human cancers and represent one of the most sought-after cancer targets for drug developers. However, this goal has been elusive because of the absence of any drug-binding pockets in the mutant RAS protein. A new study published in the April 20 issue of the journal Cell by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai led by E. Premkumar Reddy, PhD, has identified a new mechanism for targeting this important cancer gene.

Tiny structures in our cells, called centrioles, control both cell division and motility. The number of these structures is highly monitored, with deviations causing infertility, microcephaly and accelerating cancer. But how do mother cells know they provide the right number of centrioles to their daughters? They do it by copying those structures only once, so that each daughter inherits one of the copies.

NEW YORK, NY (April 21, 2016)--A multicenter research team led by Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) has discovered a new neurodevelopmental syndrome and the genetic mutations that cause it. The discovery is an important step toward creating targeted therapies for individuals with this syndrome, which causes severe developmental delays, abnormal muscle tone, seizures, and eye complications.

The study was published online today in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

In a new Cell Reports paper, a team led by John P. Cooke, M.D., Ph.D., of the Houston Methodist Research Institute, has identified and characterized a biological factor critical to the transformation of adult somatic cells (cells that are not sperm or egg cells) into stem cells.

MONTREAL, QC (April 21 2016) - Anaphylaxis, known to be a sudden and potentially life-threatening allergic reaction, seems to be increasing among children, according to a new study led by a team at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC). The findings, published this week in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI), reveal that the percentage of emergency department (ED) visits due to anaphylaxis doubled over a four-year period based on data collected from the Montreal Children's Hospital of the MUHC (MCH-MUHC).

PASADENA, Calif., April 21, 2016 --In a new study from Kaiser Permanente, researchers found the use of aromatase inhibitors, hormone-therapy drugs used to treat patients with breast cancer, was not associated with an increased risk of fatal cardiovascular events, including heart attacks or stroke, compared with tamoxifen, another commonly prescribed anti-cancer drug that works on hormones and which has been associated with a serious risk of stroke.

New data analyses found no association between anthracycline chemotherapy and greater risk of cognitive decline in breast cancer survivors, according to an article published online by JAMA Oncology.

Possible adverse effects of breast cancer treatment on cognitive function have been acknowledged but the risks of specific chemotherapies remain undetermined.

When patients have facial paralysis, many rehabilitation specialists and facial reanimation surgeons use the time-tested Sunnybrook Facial Grading System (FGS) to measure and look for changes in facial function. A new electronic and digitally graded facial measurement scale called eFace was recently created to provide similar information to the Sunnybrook FGS.

A new article published online by JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery looked at scores on the eFace and the Sunnybrook FGS to compared the reliability of the two scales for facial grading.

Research scientists from A.N. Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, the Lomonosov Moscow State University demonstrated how it is possible to suppress the resistance of fungi to antifungal drugs. The results of the work which can serve as a basis for the development of effective antifungal pharmaceuticals have been published in the journal FEMS Yeast Research.

ROSEMONT, Ill. (April 21, 2016)--A large study of hand and shoulder surgeries performed at a freestanding, outpatient center found few complications--0.2 percent in nearly 29,000 patients over an 11-year period. The study appears in the new issue of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.