— 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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