Scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), all parts of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), describe how combining engineered anthrax toxin proteins and existing chemotherapy drugs could potentially yield a therapy to reduce or eliminate cancerous tumors. The findings, based on testing in mice, will appear this week in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Red blood cells must be small and flexible enough to squeeze through the tiniest capillaries of the body, where they deliver oxygen to surrounding cells. In the late 1960s, scientists proposed that the minute dimensions of these capillaries, which are less than 4 micrometers in diameter, are responsible for defining the size and shape of red blood cells.

However, a new study led by MIT researchers reveals that these blood cell traits are actually determined by the smallest opening in the spleen. This narrow passage, known as the interendothelial slit, imposes a more stringent "physical fitness test" that all blood cells must pass before continuing to circulate through the body.

San Antonio -- June 27, 2016 -- A Southwest Research Institute-led team has discovered an elusive, dark moon orbiting Makemake, one of the "big four" dwarf planets populating the Kuiper Belt region at the edge of our solar system. The findings are detailed in the paper "Discovery of a Makemakean Moon," published in the June 27 issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Matthew Gdovin, an associate professor in the UTSA Department of Biology, has developed a newly patented method to kill cancer cells. His discovery, described in a new study in The Journal of Clinical Oncology, may tremendously help people with inoperable or hard-to-reach tumors, as well as young children stricken with cancer.

Gdovin's top-tier research involves injecting a chemical compound, nitrobenzaldehyde, into the tumor and allowing it to diffuse into the tissue. He then aims a beam of light at the tissue, causing the cells to become very acidic inside and, essentially, commit suicide. Within two hours, Gdovin estimates up to 95 percent of the targeted cancer cells are dead.

In a study of older women with newly diagnosed stage I to III breast cancer, approximately one in five lost the ability to complete some of the basic tasks necessary for independent living within one year of initiating treatment. The study also found that a simple survey can help identify which women are at risk of such functional decline. The findings are published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Around 4.6 billion years ago, the universe was a chaos of collapsing gas and spinning debris. Small particles of gas and dust clumped together into larger and more massive meteoroids that in turn smashed together to form planets. Scientists believe that shortly after their formation, these planets -- and particularly Mercury -- were fiery spheres of molten material, which cooled over millions of years.

Now, geologists at MIT have traced part of Mercury's cooling history and found that between 4.2 and 3.7 billion years ago, soon after the planet formed, its interior temperatures plummeted by 240 degrees Celsius, or 464 degrees Fahrenheit.