BU researchers have a paper in Cell this week describing a common bug-killing mechanism shared by three major classes of antibiotics, even though they target different pathways. It seems that the drugs all stimulate the increased production of hydroxyl free radicals via oxidative damage. Antibiotics could be made more effective if they targeted the systems bacteria use to fend off free radical damage, the researchers say. (From news@nature)

In the latest issue of Science, there’s a paper from Harvard researchers about how they grew rat heart muscle cells on a synthetic polymer film that they designed to ‘guide’ the growth of the muscle tissue. The resulting tissue-film hybrid could contract like real muscle and could even grip, pump and walk. The researchers say that this could one day be used to repair the heart or even be used as muscles in robots. (From news@nature)

And UMass Medical School continues to reap of the benefits of Craig Mello and his Nobel. The school has managed to recruit two top RNA researchers: one from Dartmouth (Victor Ambros, who discovered the first microRNA) and Melissa Moore, an HHMI investigator, from Brandeis. According to the Globe, Mello approached Ambros about moving to Worcester and Phil Zamore recruited Moore. Zamore and Moore were in the lab of Phil Sharpe (Nobel Laureate) at one point and Ambros was in the lab next door. Ambros worked in the labs of David Baltimore and Robert Horvitz while at MIT. Talk about the Nobel network!