Science, Health & Recalls May 26

Researchers at Cancer Research UK‘s London Research Institute said scientists have been looking for proteins or “tags” on dendritic cells for more than 30 years and have made a discovery that may identify a protein on immune cells that will be able to stimulate the body’s attack on a tumor, BBC reports. The research, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, suggests that a vaccine with a foreign molecule from a cancer cell could be targeted to the dendritic cells, which would then push the immune system to attack the cancer cells. The researchers say treating HIV and malaria would require the same approach.

California company BioArts plans to hold online auctions on June 18 starting at $100,000 to clone five dogs, The New York Times reports. Scientists says dogs are hard to clone because their reproductive biology is more complex than humans. BioArts says it has licensed patents issued in 1990s after researchers in Scotland cloned Dolly the sheep and it also has a partnership with South Korea’s Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, one of whose researchers was involved in cloning an Afghan hound in 2005.

An expedition by the Canadian military discovered new cracks in the artic ice cap during an assessment of the ice shelves in Canada’s north, BBC reports. The team found a network of cracks that lasted for more than 10 miles on the area’s largest shelf, Ward Hunt. The ice blocks are seen as a way of viewing the state of climate change. One scientist, Derek Mueller of Trent University in Ontario, said “It means the ice shelf is disintegrating, the pieces are pinned together like a jigsaw but could float away.”