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Autopsy, histology and cytology have been and histology and cytology still are the main diagnostic tools in surgical pathology. During the last two decades molecular biology gradually has extended the diagnostic armamentarium. In tumor pathology molecular biology techniques are used to diagnose and subclassify tumors, predict response to therapies and identify therapeutic targets. Molecular pathology has evolved into a novel focus of clinical pathology and transforms the historically morphology based discipline. Traditional pathology and molecular pathology combine and guide tumor therapy.

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Text-mining in molecular biology -- defined as the automatic extraction of information about genes, proteins and their functional relationships from text documents -- has emerged as a hybrid discipline on the edges of the fields of information science, bioinformatics and computational linguistics. A range of text-mining applications have been developed recently that will improve access to knowledge for biologists and database annotators.

Bacteriophage research continues to break new ground in our understanding of the basic molecular mechanisms of gene action and biological structure. The abundance of bacteriophages in nature and the diversity of their genomes are two reasons why phage research brims with excitement. The pages of Virology Journal will reflect the excitement of the "New Phage Biology."

Thermodynamic principles are basic to an understanding of the complex fluxes of energy and information required to keep cells alive. These microscopic machines are nonequilibrium systems at the micron scale that are maintained in pseudo-steady-state conditions by very sophisticated processes. Therefore, several nonstandard concepts need to be taught to rationalize why these very ordered systems proliferate actively all over our planet in seeming contradiction to the second law of thermodynamics. We propose a model consisting of boxes with different shapes that contain small balls that are in constant motion due to a stream of air blowing from below. This is a simple macroscopic system that can be easily visualized by students and that can be understood as mimicking the behavior of a set of molecules exchanging energy. With such boxes, the basic concepts of entropy, enthalpy, and free energy can be taught while reinforcing a molecular understanding of the concepts and stressing the stochastic nature of the thermodynamic laws. In addition, time-related concepts, such as reaction rates and activation energy, can be readily visualized. Moreover, the boxes provide an intuitive way to introduce the role in cellular organization of "information" and Maxwell's demons operating under nonequilibrium conditions.

Stress exposure has been proposed to contribute to the etiology of breast cancer. However, the validity of this assertion and the possible mechanisms involved are not well established. Epidemiologic studies differ in their assessment of the relative contribution of stress to breast cancer risk, while physiological studies propose a clear connection but lack the knowledge of intracellular pathways involved. The present review aims to consolidate the findings from different fields of research (including epidemiology, physiology, and molecular biology) in order to present a comprehensive picture of what we know to date about the role of stress in breast cancer development.

CHARGE syndrome is an autosomal-dominant, multiple congenital anomaly condition characterized by vision and hearing loss, congenital heart disease, and malformations of craniofacial and other structures. Pathogenic variants in CHD7, encoding adenosine triphosphate-dependent chromodomain helicase DNA binding protein 7, are present in the majority of affected individuals. However, no causal variant can be found in 5-30% (depending on the cohort) of individuals with a clinical diagnosis of CHARGE syndrome.

Laboratory stocks are the hardware of research. They must be stored and managed with mimimum loss of material and information. Plasmids, oligonucleotides and strains are regularly exchanged between collaborators within and between laboratories. Managing and sharing information about every item is crucial for retrieval of reagents, for planning experiments and for reproducing past experimental results. We have developed a web-based application to manage stocks commonly used in a molecular biology laboratory. Its functionalities include user-defined privileges, visualization of plasmid maps directly from their sequence and the capacity to search items from fields of annotation or directly from a query sequence using BLAST. It is designed to handle records of plasmids, oligonucleotides, yeast strains, antibodies, pipettes and notebooks. Based on PHP/MySQL, it can easily be extended to handle other types of stocks and it can be installed on any server architecture. MyLabStocks is freely available from: https://forge.cbp.ens-lyon.fr/redmine/projects/mylabstocks under an open source licence.

An interactive, intellectual environment with good funding opportunities is essential for the development and success of basic research. The fast-growing economy and investment in science, together with a visionary plan, have attracted foreign scholars to work in China, motivated world-class Chinese scientists to return and strengthened the country's international collaborations. As a result, molecular and cell biology research in China has evolved rapidly over the past decade.

The centrifuge is an essential tool for many aspects of research and medical diagnostics. However, conventional centrifuges are often inaccessible outside of standard laboratory settings, such as remote field sites, because they require a constant external power source and can be prohibitively costly in resource-limited settings and Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-focused programs. Here we present the 3D-Fuge, a 3D-printed hand-powered centrifuge, as a novel alternative to standard benchtop centrifuges. Based on the design principles of a paper-based centrifuge, this 3D-printed instrument increases the volume capacity to 2 mL and can reach hand-powered centrifugation speeds up to 6,000 rpm. The 3D-Fuge devices presented here are capable of centrifugation of a wide variety of different solutions such as spinning down samples for biomarker applications and performing nucleotide extractions as part of a portable molecular lab setup. We introduce the design and proof-of-principle trials that demonstrate the utility of low-cost 3D-printed centrifuges for use in remote field biology and educational settings.

China has set a goal to eliminate all malaria in the country by 2020, but it is unclear if current understanding of malaria vectors and transmission is sufficient to achieve this objective. Anopheles sinensis is the most widespread malaria vector specie in China, which is also responsible for vivax malaria outbreak in central China. We reviewed literature from 1954 to 2016 on An. sinensis with emphasis on biology, bionomics, and molecular biology. A total of 538 references were relevant and included. An. sienesis occurs in 29 Chinese provinces. Temperature can affect most life-history parameters. Most An. sinensis are zoophilic, but sometimes they are facultatively anthropophilic. Sporozoite analysis demonstrated An. sinensis efficacy on Plasmodium vivax transmission. An. sinensis was not stringently refractory to P. falciparum under experimental conditions, however, sporozoite was not found in salivary glands of field collected An. sinensis. The literature on An. sienesis biology and bionomics was abundant, but molecular studies, such as gene functions and mechanisms, were limited. Only 12 molecules (genes, proteins or enzymes) have been studied. In addition, there were considerable untapped omics resources for potential vector control tools. Existing information on An. sienesis could serve as a baseline for advanced research on biology, bionomics and genetics relevant to vector control strategies.

Self-incompatibility (SI) is defined as the inability to produce zygotes after self-pollination in a fertile hermaphrodite plant, which has stamens and pistils in the same flower. This structural organization of the hermaphrodite flower increases the risk of self-pollination, leading to low genetic diversity. To avoid this problem plants have established several pollination systems, among which the most elegant system is surely SI. The SI trait can be observed in Brassica crops, including cabbage, broccoli, turnip and radish. To produce hybrid seed of these crops efficiently, the SI trait has been employed in an agricultural context. From another point of view, the recognition reaction of SI during pollen-stigma interaction is an excellent model system for cell-cell communication and signal transduction in higher plants. In this review, we describe the molecular mechanisms of SI in Brassicaceae, which have been dissected by genetic, physiological, and biological approaches, and we discuss the future prospects in relation to associated scientific fields and new technologies.

Obesity is associated with an increased risk of developing breast cancer (BC) and worse prognosis in BC patients, yet its impact on BC biology remains understudied in humans. This study investigates how the biology of untreated primary BC differs according to patients' body mass index (BMI) using data from >2,000 patients. We identify several genomic alterations that are differentially prevalent in overweight or obese patients compared to lean patients. We report evidence supporting an ageing accelerating effect of obesity at the genetic level. We show that BMI-associated differences in bulk transcriptomic profile are subtle, while single cell profiling allows detection of more pronounced changes in different cell compartments. These analyses further reveal an elevated and unresolved inflammation of the BC tumor microenvironment associated with obesity, with distinct characteristics contingent on the estrogen receptor status. Collectively, our analyses imply that obesity is associated with an inflammaging-like phenotype. We conclude that patient adiposity may play a significant role in the heterogeneity of BC and should be considered for BC treatment tailoring.

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Olive cultivation blends with the history of the Mediterranean countries since ancient times. Even today, activities around the olive tree constitute major engagements of several people in the countryside of both sides of the Mediterranean basin. The olive fly is, beyond doubt, the most destructive pest of cultivated olives. The female fly leaves its eggs in the olive fruit. Upon emergence, the larvae feed on the olive sap, thus destroying the fruit. If untreated, practically all olives get infected. The use of chemical insecticides constitutes the principal olive fly control approach. The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), an environmentally friendly alternative control method, had been tried in pilot field applications in the 1970's, albeit with no practical success. This was mainly attributed to the low, non-antagonistic quality of the mixed-sex released insects. Many years of experience from successful SIT applications in related species, primarily the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata, demonstrated that efficient SIT protocols require the availability of fundamental genetic and molecular information.

A report on the European Science Foundation Workshop on Modeling of Molecular Networks, Granada, Spain, 11-14 June 2002.

Cancer is a genetic disease and mainly arises due to a number of reasons include activation of onco-genes, malfunction of tumor suppressor genes or mutagenesis due to external factors.

In recent decades, advances in methods in molecular biology and genetics have revolutionized multiple areas of the life and health sciences. However, there remains a global need for the development of more refined and effective methods across these fields of research. In this current Collection, we aim to showcase articles presenting novel molecular biology and genetics techniques developed by scientists from around the world.