Dr. Cornelia de Moor and her research team from The University of Nottingham have devised a new method for investigating a novel cancer drug called cordycepin - originally derived from the mushroom, Cordyceps. This rare, and strange parasitic fungus, grows on caterpillars - and has long been used as a ingredient in Chinese medicines.

Finding and treating a tumor without disturbing normal tissue presents challenges -- sometimes the most effective therapies can be invasive and harsh.

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have devised a way they might deliver the right therapy directly to tumors using special molecules, called aptamers, which specifically bind to living tumor tissue.

A new way for scientists to interact with and understand the structure of
important biological molecules critical to human health is now available. Called
iSee, it’s now possible to interactively fly over, zoom into and dive through 3D
visualisations of these molecules in atomic detail.
 

Scientists recently discovered that a cyanobacteria, collected off the coast of Papua New Guinea, produces a compound with a structure that has never before been seen in biomedicine.

Researchers at the Jewish General Hospital Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research and McGill University in Montreal have used a new immune-suppressing treatment to completely reverse multiple sclerosis (MS) in mice - sending the autoimmune disease into remission.

Since it was first suggested as the reason for red wines cardioprotective effects in 1992, it has been known that resveratrol acts as an anti-inflammatory. Exactly how this phytoalexin - or plant antibiotic - controlled inflammation has alluded researchers until recently.

Researchers from Purdue University have recently synthesized a molecule that locates and binds to the prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) - a protein that is found on the membrane of more than 90% of all prostate cancers - giving promise of targeted drug treatment.

Dr. Katherine Borden of the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) of the Université de Montréal, has recently published a study in the journal Blood, demonstrating that ribavirin, a common anti-viral drug, suppresses the activities of a gene linked to making cells cancerous.

University of Washington researchers have discovered that by combining chlorotoxin - a small peptide isolated from the venom of scorpions - with nanoparticles, they were able to cut the spread of cancerous cells by 98 percent.

A biophysics professor from Iowa State University reveals the results of a study that shows that pharmaceutical drugs aimed at reducing overall cholesterol levels by inhibiting production in the liver, may also keep the brain from making cholesterol, which is vital to brain function.