Mosquitoes engineered to not transmit malaria fare better than their unaltered siblings, according to new research. The work rekindles hope that transgenic mosquitoes could one day be used to wipe out natural insects in the wild, helping to control the spread of malaria.

New tests to rapidly detect the flu are allowing doctors to cut down on the number of hospital patients who receive antibiotics, helping soften the rapidly worsening threat of antibiotic resistance, according to a study to appear in the Feb. 26 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. The study was posted online by the journal Jan. 22 because of the importance of the findings to public health.

The long-suspected link between Alzheimer's disease and abnormalities in the way amyloid protein is processed in the brain has been confirmed at last. Usually harmless, the amyloid protein is thought to trigger neurological damage when it is broken down and transformed into toxic fragments of beta-amyloid. Previous studies have shown that people with Alzheimer's have reduced levels of several proteins involved in processing amyloid.

Scientists who recreated "Spanish flu" - the 1918 virus which killed up to 50m people - have witnessed its remarkable killing power first hand. The lungs of infected monkeys were destroyed in just days as their immune systems went into overdrive after a Canadian laboratory rebuilt the virus.

The deadliest form of skin cancer appears to cheat chemotherapy by disguising itself as a normal cell.

People who have had a kidney transplant are three times more likely to develop any of a wide range of cancers, a new study finds. The researchers think immune-suppressing drugs taken by the patients are to blame. The results also suggest that, in the general population, viruses may cause more cancers than previously believed.

Researchers are developing a malaria vaccine which blocks development of the disease-causing parasite while it is still inside the mosquito.

One of the root causes of type 1 diabetes may need rethinking – the condition may be triggered by faulty nerves in the pancreas, a new study reveals.

A pilot without a map can locate an airport by first finding a nearby landmark, like a big river, and then searching for the airport. New research from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) and Scripps Research Institute shows how the astonishingly powerful botulinum toxin uses a similar strategy to latch onto nerve cells, the first step in inactivating them. The research helps explain how the toxin first attaches to a receptor on the surface of a nerve cell, then looks for a second type of receptor that is nearby. Once the toxin links to this second receptor, it can enter the nerve cell and break a protein needed to deliver molecules that can signal other nerve cells.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans have revealed key changes in the brain's grey matter in a small group before they developed symptoms. The finding suggests tracking these changes over time, combined with traditional assessments, could help doctors to predict illness. The research, published in BioMed Central Medicine, was carried out by the University of Edinburgh.