University of Arizona researchers devised a new method to deliver cancer chemotherapy drugs to pancreatic and breast cancer tumors more effectively and with less damage to healthy tissues than standard forms of chemotherapy. They repackaged the drug paclitaxel, creating a new formulation that may help overcome some common limitations of chemotherapy drugs, including toxicity, setting the stage for a promising new platform for treating cancer and other diseases.

In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers found that the brain’s control center for a lost appendage can persist long after surgical amputation, which stands in stark contrast to longstanding theories about the brain’s ability to reorganize itself, also known as plasticity. Scientists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and their colleagues examined human brain activity before and after arm amputation and found that the loss of a limb does not prompt a large-scale cerebral overhaul. Published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, this study offers new insight into the mysterious phantom limb syndrome and could help guide the development of neuroprosthetics and pain treatments for people with limb loss.