Silk may be able to help repair damaged nerves, according to scientists.
The UK researchers have shown how nerve cells can grow along bundles of a special fibre, which has properties similar to spider silk.
They hope the silk will encourage cell re-growth across severed nerves, possibly even in damaged spinal cords. [BBC]

Scientists Vivian Cheung and Warren Ewens from the University of Pennsylvania have developed a new approach for the diagnosis of medical disorders that are inherited in a recessive manner. Their method is based on identifying subtle but distinct differences in genome-wide expression profiles using microarray technology. An article describing the approach appears online this week in the journal Genome Research. [Medical News Today]