Scientists on the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have designed two new drug candidates to target prostate and triple negative breast cancers. The new research, published recently as two separate studies in ACS Central Science and the Journal of the American Chemical Society, demonstrates that a new class of drugs called small molecule RNA inhibitors can successfully target and kill specific types of cancer.

An epidemiological study published in Frontiers in Oncology suggests that a diet high in carotenoids and vitamin C may protect against lung cancer. The study authors found that vitamin C appears to reduce the risk of lung cancer in heavy smokers while beta-carotene, alpha-carotene, beta-cryptoxanthin, and lycopene play the same role in male heavy smokers.

Sulforaphane, a phytochemical contained in broccoli sprouts at relatively high concentrations, has been known to exert effects of cancer prevention by activating a transcription factor, Nrf2 (nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2), which regulates the balance of oxidation - reduction in the cell, and by enhancing anti-oxidation ability of the body and detoxication of chemical compounds taken into the body.

University of Alberta scientists have pulled into the lead in a race to use nanomachines for improved disease detection and drug delivery in patients. In a study published in Nature Communications, the researchers describe the creation of synthetic DNA motors in living cells. The process - previously only successful in test tubes - demonstrates how DNA motors can be used to accomplish specific and focused biological functions in live cells.

In September 2015, the German Volkswagen Group, the world's largest car producer, admitted to having installed "defeat devices" in 11 million diesel cars sold worldwide between 2008 and 2015. The devices were designed to detect and adapt to laboratory tests, making the cars appear to comply with environmental standards when, in fact, they emitted pollutants called nitric oxides, or NOx, at levels that were on average four times the applicable European test-stand limit.

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago report that increasing expression of a chemical cytokine called LIGHT in mice with colon cancer activated the immune system's natural cancer-killing T-cells and caused primary tumors and metastatic tumors in the liver to shrink.

Tens of millions of Americans with lung disease use metered-dose inhalers each day, and new studies by Rice University electrical engineers and pulmonologists at Baylor College of Medicine have identified critical errors that are causing many inhaler users to get only about half as much medicine as they should from each puff.