— The US National Institutes of Health might soon allow the use of human embryonic stem cells derived from embryos as young as eight-cells old. The proposed new rules, which will be available for a month of public comment beginning tomorrow, would allow taxpayer-backed researchers to create stem cell lines from embryos much earlier than the current regulations. Those rules define stem cells as being taken from a blastocyst stage embryo, which comes around five days after fertilization. (NYTimes)

— An osteoporosis researcher at the University of Sheffield, UK, faced a disciplinary hearing last week after she violated a university contract with the French drug maker Sanofi-Aventis. Guirong Jang submitted data to a symposium without permission from the pharmaceutical company, which is funding research related to its osteoporosis drug Actonel. (Times Higher Ed)

— Charles Grassley just keeps planting his probes. The Republican senator from Iowa oversaw a report linking the diabetes drug Avandia to heart problems. When the report was released on Saturday, the US Food and Drug Administration said in response that it will have an advisory panel review the drug once again (Reuters). Grassley also sent a letter to WebMD last Thursday, asking that it disclose its financial ties to Eli Lilly. The drug maker sponsored a depression-screening test on the health information provider’s website, featuring ads for Lilly’s anti-depressant Cymbalta. (Pharmalot)

— Researchers are singing praises over a new clinical trial for stroke therapy. Speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting this past weekend, trial leaders described how ‘melodic intonation therapy’ — which involves stroke patients singing their words to regain verbal function — improved brain development in patients’ speech centers, as well as increased their vocabulary compared to usual teaching methods. (BBC)

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— An AIDS vaccine touted as being 31% effective over three years might not actually stay protective for that long. Researchers announced yesterday that the low HIV infection rate among the Thai population tested may have distorted the study’s findings, first reported in September. “It is very likely that this vaccine only worked for a short period of time,” possibly only a year, said study author Nelson Michael of the Walter Reed Army Research Institute in Maryland. (Reuters)

— GE Healthcare has dropped its libel suit against Henrik Thomsen, a Danish clinician who allegedly claimed that the company’s MRI contrast drug Omniscan can sometimes cause potentially fatal complications among patients with kidney disease. Thomsen had filed a countersuit earlier this week, retaliating over a since-removed GE press release that said he made “knowingly false and inaccurate statements.” Yesterday, GE said it welcomes a “principled debate” over safety. (The Guardian)

— Andrew Wakefield, the controversial doctor behind a retracted study linking MMR vaccination and autism, has stepped down as executive director and research chief of the Thoughtful House Center for Children in Austin, Texas. The non-profit autism center says Wakefield left voluntarily, three weeks after his research actions were deemed unethical by the UK General Medical Council. (London Times)

— The latest animal model to catch researchers’ eyes is none other than the friendly mammal of the sea: the dolphin. Scientists at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting yesterday said that dolphins could be the first animal model for human type 2 diabetes. The aquatic mammals enter a diabetic state at night when not feeding, likely triggered by a genetic switch that researchers could potentially find in humans. Dolphins are also the only animals, besides humans, that can harbor multiple papillomavirus infections, which could help shed light on the cervical cancer these viruses cause in humans — although dolphins themselves show no sign of cervical cancer development. All this research, however, may be impeded by scientists’ belief that dolphins have sophisticated intelligence, and thus a vulnerability to suffering and trauma.

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— Next year’s seasonal flu vaccine will include the pandemic H1N1 strain, along with the current influenza A and B strains, the World Health Organization announced today. Officials say, however, that individual countries can still determine whether to administer the vaccines in a single shot or separately. (Reuters)

— An international team of scientists has sequenced the genomes of five southern Africans: four San hunter-gatherer tribesmen and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the South African civil-rights activist of Bantu descent. With these first genomes from minority populations, the researchers have already found adaptations associated with living in the desert, such as gene variants for faster sprinting and avoidance of toxic plants. (NYTimes)

— The European Union is being criticized for its policy on the use of chimpanzees in research. Prompted by lobbying from animal rights activists, the European Ombudsman said he would reanalyze a 2008 report that helped craft legislation, approved by parliament last year, that restricted the use of primates but did not impose a blanket ban. Animal rights groups say that the task force behind the report ignored much of the evidence provided, and didn’t have sufficient expertise to make an informed decision. (ScienceInsider)

— According to a review in the journal Exercise Physiology, Olympic athletes, especially those in endurance sports, need at least two weeks to acclimate to high altitudes — just enough time for the games to end. What lasts longer than that? The high of winning a gold medal.

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— A New York state addiction researcher accused of falsifying data in 2004 used professional actors to clear his name, according to the NY attorney general. William Fals-Stewart, a former University of Buffalo professor, allegedly hired three actors, who each testified by phone, believing it was a mock trial. After being cleared in 2008, Fals-Stewart, now at the University of Rochester, sued the state for $4 million in damages; now, however, the new allegations against him mean that he could face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty. (WGRZ)

— Henrik Thomsen, a Danish clinician who claims that the MRI drug Omniscan can cause potentially fatal complications among patients with kidney disease, has launched a countersuit against GE Healthcare. As reported in December, the company sued Thomsen for defaming its drug, but the clinician is retaliating after a GE press release said he was making “knowingly false and inaccurate statements.” (Guardian)

— King Tut’s killer was none other than the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, according to new research. Authors found DNA traces of the protozoan parasite and say the illness debilitated the young pharaoh, who also had a bone disorder. But some experts disagree with the post-mortem diagnosis, noting that malaria was common at the time and so the DNA finding isn’t surprising. (NYTimes)

— The US Patent Office has partially rejected Pfizer’s Viagra patent because an enzyme inhibitor in the impotence drug was deemed similar to that found in a Chinese herbal remedy. The culprit: yin yang huo, better known as horny goat weed. And you thought Viagra commercials were explicit. (Reuters)

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— The enzyme responsible for the tuberculosis bacterium outsmarting the immune system has been found. By blocking the enzyme mPTPB, which inhibits the production of infection-fighting cytokines, researchers managed to prevent further bacterium growth in lab tests. Your move, TB. (ScienceDaily)

— A word of caution: Always be careful of the fine print, especially when it’s your DNA. An Australian private health insurer is now offering half-price genetic testing to 5,000 of its customers. While deal-takers won’t have to provide their results back to the company, called NIB, the fine print notes how people applying for life insurance, which NIB also sells, might have to hand over the data. Americans, beware: The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) doesn’t include protection from life insurers either. (ABC News)

— Oxytocin, the hormone known for mother-child bonding, may help alleviate symptoms of autism. Among 13 high-functioning autism patients, those who inhaled a dose of oxytocin were more likely to trust a fictitious partner in a ball-throwing game, as well as pay more attention to faces. For an earlier look at oxytocin’s potential, check out our 2008 story. (Reuters)

— Pre-meds, rejoice! Getting into medical school could be a little easier in just a few years. Nearly two dozen schools are expected to open in the US soon, amounting to an 18% boost in the 131 medical schools currently dotted across the country. (NYTimes)

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— Religion helps bring communities together, but it might be bringing us too close to each other. An outbreak of mumps among more than 1,500 people at an Orthodox Jewish summer camp in upstate New York, most of whom were immunized, suggest that the unique characteristics of religious communities — such as large family sizes and longer school hours — could help spread disease. (LA Times)

— New details are emerging in the case of the neurobiologist accused of shooting three colleagues after being denied tenure at the University of Alabama, Huntsville. On Saturday, police in Braintree, Massachusetts, said that Amy Bishop killed her teenage brother more than two decades ago, and yesterday, a law enforcement official in Boston said that Bishop was questioned in the attempted mail bombing of a Harvard Medical School professor in 1993. (Boston Globe)

— Score another point for generics companies in India: The Delhi high court last week refused to block approval of a copycat version of Bayer’s billion dollar cancer drug Nexavar. The ruling is the latest indication that India’s patent office and courts do not plan to recognize drug patents just because they are granted in the United States and other western countries. “The US would grant a patent to a piece of toilet paper,” Amar Lulla, chief executive of the Mumbai–based drugmaker Cipla, told the Wall Street Journal.

— A drug used to treat genital herpes can also slow the progression of HIV in patients with both diseases, researchers reported today. The African trial of more than 3,300 heterosexual people dually infected with herpes simplex virus type 2 and HIV-1 found that two years of treatment with the anti-HSV2 drug aciclovir led to a 16% reduction in the number of patients with dangerously low T cell counts. (BBC)

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