If blood and death make you uneasy, be careful with today’s dose. Skip to the end, which has FDA news.

— Researchers have developed a new cancer vaccine that blocks the formation of functional blood vessels in tumors. Among mice, breast cancer growth was successfully slowed by promoting an immune response against delta-like ligand 4, a protein involved in blood vessel regulation. (ScienceDaily)

— More than 60 potentially life-threatening pathogens are not currently screened in the blood donation process, according to the Wall Street Journal. Many blood centers don’t, for example, screen for Dengue, a recent problem in the Florida Keys, or babesia, a parasite that has caused ten deaths through transfusion since 2006.

— Researchers are coming to terms with their own death, The Scientist reports. Problems might arise when an investigator passes away — including distribution of data, equipment, and grant money — so careful planning is recommended. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), for example, encourages formal documentation to transfer a grant within a lab.

— The US Food and Drug Administration and NIH launched today a public web portal for safety reporting. The site currently only handles food, pet products, animal drugs, and certain clinical trials (those involving human gene transfer), but the agencies expect to soon cover more areas under their purview. Everyone from researchers to physicians to consumers is encouraged to use the portal.

Image by cesarastudillo via Flickr Creative Commons