New Haven, Connecticut - A team of Yale researchers has developed a simple method that could significantly reduce the time and cost of probing gene expression on a large scale. The findings were published March 2 in the journal Nature Methods.

Sacramento, California - Today at the State Capitol, Assemblymember Katcho Achadjian (R-San Luis Obispo), in partnership with the California Healthcare Institute (CHI) and the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD), presented an Assembly resolution recognizing Feb. 28, 2015 as Rare Disease Day for the families and healthcare professionals caring for millions of Californians living with nearly 7,000 rare diseases.

San Diego, California - The therapeutic promise of human stem cells is indisputably huge, but the process of translating their potential into effective, real-world treatments involves deciphering and resolving a host of daunting complexities.

Los Angeles, California - In greater than 90 percent of cases in which treatment for metastatic cancer fails, the reason is that the cancer is resistant to the drugs being used. To treat drug-resistant tumors, doctors typically use multiple drugs simultaneously, a practice called combination therapy. And one of their greatest challenges is determining which ratio and combination - from the large number of medications available - is best for each individual patient.

San Diego, California - Obesity causes inflammation, which can in turn lead to type 2 diabetes. What isn’t well established is how inflammation causes diabetes - or what we can do to stop it. Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered that the inflammatory molecule LTB4 promotes insulin resistance, a first step in developing type 2 diabetes. What’s more, the team found that genetically removing the cell receptor that responds to LTB4, or blocking it with a drug, improves insulin sensitivity in obese mice. The study is published Feb. 23 by Nature Medicine.

Dallas, Texas - If your “bad” cholesterol level stays the same or increases after you take statin drugs, you may have more blocked arteries than people whose levels drop, according to research in the American Heart Association journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.