A new advance by UCLA biochemists has brought scientists one step closer to developing treatments that could delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease and prevent the sexual transmission of HIV.

Emil L. Smith, a biochemist who led the first U.S. scientific delegation to China, has died in Los Angeles.

By Julie Schmit SAN FRANCISCO -- About 150 imported food shipments a month are tested at a laboratory here for contaminants consumers shouldn't eat, like mercury in swordfish, salmonella in shrimp and filth in mushrooms.

A U.S.-led international study suggests Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other degenerative diseases are more molecularly linked than has been thought.

An international team of chemists and molecular biologists has discovered a fundamental molecular mechanism that seems to play an important role in Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, mad cow disease and two-dozen other degenerative and fatal diseases.