Surfing the web, I uncovered these news items worth sharing

• Researchers at the University of Twente have developed a 3D-printed robot designed to take biopsies in an MRI scanner.
• The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently announced its new director. Brenda Fitzgerald has been selected to lead the agency. Dr. Fitzgerald will succeed acting director Dr. Anne Schuchat, who took over when Dr. Tom Frieden resigned from the post in January.
• Funded by Marie Curie and Dimbleby Cancer Care, researchers from the University of Southampton, Cardiff University and University of Leeds have developed a nurse-led intervention to help carers with medication management. For more, see article in Palliative Medicine.
• Researchers in Japan have developed a new method to image cancer at the single cell-level by using chemical techniques to make whole mouse bodies and organs highly transparent. Discussion found in Cell Reports.

Read on for some of the latest developments in cancer research.

• German researchers have decoded the genome of ancient Egyptians:

• A recent post on the NCI’s Cancer Currents Blog commented on a genomic study seeking answers regarding breast cancer disparities. The study relied on tumor and germline DNA samples in the Cancer Genome Atlas of both black and white women. Results were published in JAMA Oncology.
• Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) have been able to view brain cancer using a simple sugar solution rather than conventional contrast agents. The novel MRI approach is discussed in the journal Radiology.

The latest in Cancer Research News

• The Smithsonian.com recently reported on the discovery of the oldest cancer case in Central America. The bones of the young teen, who died 700 years ago, were excavated in the province of Bocas Del Toro in Panama in 1970.  Recently, a bioarchaeologist and a postdoctoral fellow took a closer look at the bones and noticed a lumpy calcified mass.  See the featured story here.
• Researchers at the Australian National University are working on a new treatment for Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) that outperforms standard chemotherapies. The compound under observation is CX-546. The full report has been published in the journal Blood.
• A study conducted by researchers at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas concludes that human missions to Mars poses a risk of cancer to astronauts exposed to cosmic rays. Read more on their findings in Scientific Reports.
• New research coming out of Ohio State University found that changes among proteins that relay information from one immune cell to another are weakened in the blood of brain cancer patients within five years before the cancer is diagnosed. That information could one day lead to earlier diagnosis of brain cancer. Read more about this in ScienceDaily.