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Suetsugu Kenji, a Project Associate Professor at the Kobe University Graduate School of Science, has discovered a new species of plant on the subtropical Japanese island of Yakushima (located off the southern coast of Kyushu in Kagoshima prefecture) and named it Sciaphila yakushimensis. This research was published on 20th February in the Journal of Japanese Botany.

The renowned 'Animas', two marble heads considered one of the most important works of baroque sculptor, painter and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini's youth, are not a representation of a Christian soul's personification enjoying the pleasures of the Heaven or tormented by the punishment received in Hell (as believed until now), but they really are mythologically themed sculptures: a nymph and a satyr, respectively.

Plant health and interaction with microbes is maintained by intricate antennas - plant immune receptors. A certain class of receptors is turning out to be highly informative about plant disease resistance.

A three-dimensional 'map' of a critical protein that malaria parasites use to invade human red blood cells could lead to a vaccine countering the most widespread species of the parasite.

The discovery also raises the prospect of a vaccine that could target both the most prevalent and the most deadly malaria parasites that infect humans, a significant development for the future of malaria prevention.

Australian researchers have resolved a mystery about how a promising new class of anti-cancer drugs, called nutlins, work - paving the way for improving the future of cancer treatment.

Using the innovative DEPArray™ technology, scientists at Silicon Biosystems, a Bologna (Italy) and San Diego (CA, USA) based biotech company, were able to solve one of the biggest limitation in the study of cancer genetic: tumor samples heterogeneity.

Glioblastoma is the most aggressive manifestation of brain tumours. Due to its high invasive capacity and uncontrolled, infiltrating growth, it is particularly difficult to manage. Currently, the treatment for this disease consists of a combination of surgery (when possible), radiation and chemotherapy. Although current therapy raises the overall survival of patients by around 15 months, it remains inefficient at eradicating tumour cells and, unfortunately, recurrences are another of this cancer's characteristics.

The ability to map the human genome has transformed how scientists and researchers classify various cancers. In the past, cancer cells were examined through a microscope and their appearance, often enhanced with dyes or other agents, was used to categorize the type of cancer. Now, it is possible to extract the DNA or RNA from these cells and establish a classification according to the type and quantity of mutations, active and inactive genes, and other molecular characteristics.

Chemotherapy isn't supposed to make your hair fall out -- it's supposed to kill cancer cells. A new molecular delivery system created at U of T Engineering could help ensure that chemotherapy drugs get to their target while minimizing collateral damage.

Many cancer drugs target fast-growing cells. Injected into a patient, they swirl around in the bloodstream acting on fast-growing cells wherever they find them. That includes tumours, but unfortunately also hair follicles, the lining of your digestive system, and your skin.

A new study from the University of Calgary could change the way researchers understand and treat autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. The complexities of these diseases have made it very difficult to develop treatments that can stop disease without impairing normal immunity.

Lincoln, Neb. -- Instead of a pan and a pick ax, prospectors of the future might seek gold with a hand-held biosensor that uses a component of DNA to detect traces of the element in water.

The gold sensor is the latest in a series of metal-detecting biosensors under development by Rebecca Lai, an associate professor of chemistry at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Other sensors at various stages of development detect mercury, silver or platinum. Similar technology could be used to find cadmium, lead, arsenic, or other metals and metalloids.

Whether or not nerve cells are able to regrow after injury depends on their location in the body. Injured nerve cells in the peripheral nervous system, such as those in the arms and legs, can recover and regrow, at least to some extent. But nerve cells in the central nervous system -- the brain and spinal cord -- can't recover at all.

Long before the dinosaurs, hefty herbivores called pareiasaurs ruled the Earth. Now, for the first time, a detailed investigation of all Chinese specimens of these creatures - often described as the 'ugliest fossil reptiles' - has been published by a University of Bristol, UK palaeontologist.

Pareiasaurs have been reported from South Africa, Europe (Russia, Scotland, Germany), Asia (China), and South America, but it is not known whether there were distinct groups on each of these continents.

Montreal, February 19, 2016 - Having an occasional drink is fine, but "binge" drinking is a known health hazard and now high blood pressure may need to be added to the list of possible consequences. Young adults in their twenties who regularly binge drink have higher blood pressure which may increase the risk of developing hypertension, concludes a study conducted by researchers at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM).

Researchers have discovered that eliminating cells thought to aid tumor growth did not slow or halt the growth of cancer tumors. In fact, when the cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), were eliminated after 10 days, the risk of metastasis of the primary tumor to the lungs and bones of mice increased dramatically. Scientists used bioengineered CAFs equipped with genes that caused those cells to self-destruct at defined moments in tumor progression. The study, published in Scientific Reports on Feb.