Researchers have successfully used a chemical called casein kinase 1 to reset and restart the natural 24-hour body clock in mice. This opens up the possibility of treatments for human mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder which are associated with abnormalities of the body clock.

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• Journal: PNAS
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1005101107
• Publication date: 24 Aug 10

Monkeys treated with a therapy that targets specific viral genes survived deadly Ebola and Marbug infections.

Scientists working with ‘antisense' compounds developed a therapy which protected guinea pigs, mice and monkeys from exposure to the Ebola virus. It is believed that the antisense compound enters host cells and prevents the pathogen from replicating.

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• Journal: Nature Medicine
• DOI: 10.1038/nm.2202
• Publication date: 22 Aug 10

The barrier between blood vessels and the brain may no longer limit the delivery of medicines to tumours, research on rats shows.

Ultrasound waves were used to temporarily disrupt the blood-brain barrier. While the barrier was open a strong magnetic field attracted medicine coated, magnetically charged nanoparticles towards the tumour, targeting the medicine to where it is needed, achieving 20 times the previously achieved concentration.

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• Journal: PNAS
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1003388107
• Publication date: 9 Aug 10

Scientists have created a ‘knockout rat' that can be used to model certain diseases in the same way as mice. Researchers made knockout rats by extracting embryonic stem cells (ESCs) from rat embryos, then genetically engineered the cells so that a specific gene no longer functions.

This powerful technique, already widely used in mice, provides greater control than previous methods used to create GM rats.

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• Journal: Nature
• DOI: 10.1038/nature09368
• Publication date: 11 Aug 10