Science Editor Editor's note: This is part two of a two-part series on immune cells that are directly under the control of neurons

Science Editor Editor's note: This is part one of a two-part series on immune cells that are directly under the control of neurons

BioWorld Today Science Editor Science awards season kicked off Monday with the announcement that the 2011 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award went jointly to Ulrich Hartl, of the German Max-Planck Institute for Biochemistry, and Arthur Horwich, of Yale University

BioWorld Today Science Editor In work that has moved from the lab to the clinic and back, and is now poised to enter the clinic yet again, researchers have figured out how to manufacture and administer what they believe is the first highly effective malaria vaccine – one that can provide protection lasting at least six to 24 months to 80 percent of those vaccinated

Science Editor Science awards season kicked off Monday with the announcement that the 2011 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award went jointly to Ulrich Hartl, of the German Max-Planck Institute for Biochemistry, and Arthur Horwich, of Yale University

Science Editor The Alzheimer's battlefield is at a point strewn with several bloody corpses: Since 2007, no fewer than four drugs have failed in late-stage trials

Ion Channel Critical for Chronic Pain Researchers from the University of Cambridge have identified an ion channel that plays an important role in two types of chronic pain: neuropathic pain, which comes from nerve damage that renders normal stimuli painful, and inflammatory pain. The authors knocked out HCN2 in pain-sensitive neurons, and found that this did not affect their response to run-of-the-mill painful stimuli. But in the knockouts, inflammation did not cause the hypersensitivity to

Science Editor In work that has moved from the lab to the clinic and back, and is now poised to enter the clinic yet again, researchers have figured out how to manufacture and administer what they believe is the first highly effective malaria vaccine – one that can provide protection lasting at least six to 24 months to 80 percent of those vaccinated

Science Editor A study published this week presents evidence that – through mechanisms unknown at this point – antibodies appear to be able to enter cancer cells, bind to intracellular proteins and, ultimately, kill the cells

BioWorld Today Science Editor By looking at how single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) relate to the level of key metabolites in the blood, a multinational team of scientists identified nearly 40 variants that are associated with various metabolic traits

More Brain-Immune Connections Discovered Scientists from Stanford University have found that metabolites circulating in the blood affect brain aging through their effects on neural stem cells. By doing so-called parabiosis experiments in animals, where two animals share the same circulatory system, the authors found that blood or plasma from aged animals slowed down the rate at which they developed new neurons in younger animals, whereas the older animals had an increased rate of neurogenesis

Science Editor By looking at how single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) relate to the level of key metabolites in the blood, a multinational team of scientists identified nearly 40 variants that are associated with various metabolic traits

Science Editor Scientists reported this week that they have developed a novel way to drive cancer cells to suicide: by delivering what they termed a "gene circuit" that sensed the levels of half a dozen miRNAs and, if they matched the expected profile for cancer cells, induced expression of a protein that drove the cells to apoptosis

Science Editor Results from a Phase I trial of Jennerex Inc.'s experimental cancer drug JX-594, which is based on the pox virus, demonstrated that after intravenous administration of a single dose of the drug, JX-594 was able to specifically replicate in metastatic tumors

BioWorld Today Science Editor Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have discovered an unexpected role for Parkin, a protein that plays a role in many cases of early onset Alzheimer's: it plays a role in regulating fat uptake, partly through stabilizing a surface molecule that helps cells take up fat

Science Editor Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have discovered an unexpected role for Parkin, a protein that plays a role in many cases of early onset Alzheimer's: it plays a role in regulating fat uptake, partly through stabilizing a surface molecule that helps cells take up fat

Science Editor As beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so speed may be, too

Their work appeared in the Aug. 22, 2011, online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. – Anette Breindl, Science Editor

Science Editor In experiments that could ultimately bear practical fruit for the treatment of both cancer and autoimmune disorders, scientists have discovered that hypoxia inducible factor, or HIF-1, plays a major role in determining whether T cells develop into pro-inflammatory TH17 cells or regulatory T cells, which inhibit the actions of other T cells and prevent the immune response from going out of control