Lab Report: Health, Science and Medicine

Alan Schein / Corbis
Crowd of people in Grand Central Station, New York, USA.

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An international group of scientists has uncovered genetic changes in five stretches of DNA that increase the risk of ovarian cancer. Four of these variants contribute to more aggressive forms of the disease, so researchers hope to eventually test for them and identify patients early, when treatments can be more effective.

GOING TO THE BIRDS

Researchers have a new resource for tracking antibiotic-resistant bugs: seagull droppings. By studying fecal samples, scientists in Portugal documented that 10% of wild birds living in a preserve harbored bacteria resistant to vancomycin, a last-resort antibiotic. The feces also yielded new proteins that may be helping bugs evade drugs and could become targets for novel antibiotics.