University of Arizona researchers have identified a clue to explain the reversible memory loss sometimes caused by the use of statins, one of the most widely prescribed medications in the world.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and physicians continue to document that some patients experience fuzzy thinking and memory loss while taking statins, a class of global top-selling cholesterol-lowering drugs.

DALLAS – April 22, 2013 – Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found that alternative splicing – a process that allows a single gene to code for multiple proteins – appears to be a new potential target for anti-telomerase cancer therapy.

PHILADELPHIA — A new diagnostic test that uses a scientific technique known as metabolomic analysis may be a safe and easy screening method that could improve the prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer through earlier detection.

Researchers examined the utility of metabolomic analysis as a diagnostic method for pancreatic cancer and then validated the new approach, according to study results published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

The Food and Drug Administration looks set for a great 2012; with a few days left to go, it has approved 40 new drugs and vaccines, one of the most impressive totals ever, according to data from Pharmaceutical Approvals Monthly and FDA press releases. In this haul, one medicine stands out for its scientific and medical importance.

(ATLANTA, December 8, 2012) –The promising investigational targeted therapy ibrutinib and its mechanism of silencing gene communication pathways critical to the development of cancer may be an effective way to combat chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), according to studies presented today at the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH).

2 gene mutations I.D.'d in neuroblastoma, says researcher from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Using powerful gene-analysis tools, researchers have discovered mutations in two related genes, ARID1A and ARID1B, that are involved in the most aggressive form of the childhood cancer neuroblastoma. While these findings do not immediately improve clinical treatments, they identify a novel pathway that is defective in these cancers, a pathway that scientists can now study to develop potential new therapies.

Promising target for the development of novel drugs.

With the X-ray vision of DESY's light source DORIS, a research team from Hamburg and Iceland has uncovered the molecular structure of a master regulator central to the most deadly form of skin cancer, melanoma. The results, published in the scientific journal "Genes & Development", throw new light on the workings of the so-called Microphthalmia-associated Transcription Factor MITF, that is not only connected to skin cancer, but also to a variety of hereditary diseases where the production of the skin pigment melanin is disturbed, and to certain aspects of ageing. "Our data could provide a rational basis for the development of tailor-made drugs targeting MITF", explains first author Vivian Pogenberg from the Hamburg branch of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY is the leading German accelerator centre and one of the leading in the world. Among other things, DESY develops and provides accelerator based light sources for research.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow Devin Koestler is a biostatistician in the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. He develops and applies statistical methods to large volumes of data, seeking new approaches for understanding disease, cancer in particular. Koestler and his colleagues are investigating the potential use of white blood cell variation as a diagnostic, predictive, and research tool in the study of non-blood cancers.

Disruption of cytoskeleton pathways contribute to ALS pathogenesis

WORCESTER, Mass. — A new genetic mutation that causes familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a fatal neurological disorder also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, has been identified by a team of scientists led by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS). Mutations to the profilin (PFN1) gene, which is essential to the growth and development of nerve cell axons, is estimated to account for one to two percent of inherited ALS cases. The finding, described today in the online edition of Nature, points to defects in a neuron's cytoskeleton structure as a potential common feature among diverse ALS genes.

Ewing’s sarcoma is a bone cancer commonly diagnosed in about 250 U.S. teenagers per year. If early chemotherapy is effective, improvement can be durable. But for children and teens who respond poorly to a first attempt at chemotherapy or if the disease spreads, long-term survival can be less than 10 percent.