PUBLIC HEALTH: Test Shows AIDS Drug Can Protect Both Babies and Mothers
A drug given to pregnant women with HIV/AIDS to protect their babies from acquiring HIV does not jeopardize the effectiveness of the same drug in the later treatment of the mother—if she can wait at least six months before starting therapy. The findings, based on a study of 218 women in Botswana, have been incorporated into the latest international guidelines for developing countries, where nevirapine remains the cornerstone of preventing mother-to-child transmission and a key ingredient in the three-drug antiretroviral regimen. The study, reported in the Jan. 11 New England Journal of Medicine, was led by Shahin Lockman (right) in a project overseen by Max Essex.

NEUROLOGY: Alzheimer’s Meta-study Yields 13 Prime Risk Genes
Over the past decade, hundreds of genetic variants have been offered up as possible risk factors for the late-onset form of Alzheimer’s disease, only to be knocked down by disconfirming studies. Rudolph Tanzi (left), Lars Bertram (right), Matthew McQueen, and colleagues have systematically analyzed 789 papers covering 802 polymorphisms in 277 genes and have identified the most viable Alzheimer’s disease susceptibility gene candidates. The 13 genes are published in the January Nature Genetics.

ONCOLOGY: Cancer Ahead? Shift into Neutral
Are some cancers benign because their cells have been lulled to sleep? Evidence has been building that switching on oncogenes in some cell types does not send them down the path of cancer, but rather causes them to enter the permanent sleep of senescence. In a study published in the December Cancer Cell, a team led by Karen Cichowski (left) and Stéphanie Courtois-Cox begins to unravel the mechanism underlying this phenomenon. They find that activating the oncogene Ras initiates a negative feedback loop that drives cells to inactivity.