Bacteria have several ways to defend themselves against antibiotics. Out-and-out resistance through mutations in the bacterial genome is one. But there is a related phenomenon, persistence, that could perhaps best be described as "I'm not deaf; I'm ignoring you."

Transcription activator-like effector nucleases, or TALENs, were named as one of the year's most exciting developments in Science magazine's 2012 list of top scientific advances, and 2013 began with another advance in the area of genome editing.

Chemotherapy combinations, Michael Hemann told BioWorld Today, are currently determined in "a process of trial and error that has no fundamental logic, other than trying to give patients drugs that do not have the same side effects."

The FDA is your friend. Controversial as that sentiment may be among drug developers, it is the opinion of Lawrence Friedhoff, developer of Alzheimer's drug Aricept (donepezil, Pfizer Inc.) and number of other drugs.

"The phenotype we describe as cancer is really related to a loss of growth control," Owen Witte told BioWorld Today. "Most frequently, we think of [that loss] as occurring in the cells themselves."

By integrating fragments of target proteins into the antibodies that bind to them, researchers have been able to take up to 10 amyloid proteins per antibody out of commission, preventing them from forming toxic amyloid fibrils.

When Science magazine published its annual breakthrough of the year issue last week, one of the contenders for the top scientific advance of the year – an honor that went to the discovery of the Higgs boson – was a new genome editing technique, transcription activator-like effector nucleases or TALENs.

It's the time of year to make lists and check them twice. Science published its Breakthrough of the Year issue describing its picks for the most important scientific advances of the year on Friday.

It's a cell-eat-cell world in there. And apparently, that's a good thing, too. "In the body, almost any cell can eat other cells," Kodi Ravichandran told BioWorld International. "Especially their neighbors who are dying."

It's a cell-eat-cell world in there. And apparently, that's a good thing, too. "In the body, almost any cell can eat other cells," Kodi Ravichandran told BioWorld Today. "Especially their neighbors who are dying."