Researchers studying the remains of a prehistoric woman who lived around 10,500 years ago in what is now Belgium have produced a reconstruction of her face using ancient DNA.

A team led by scientists from Ghent University found that the woman would have had blue eyes and slightly lighter skin than most other people from the Mesolithic period in Western Europe who have been analyzed to date, according to a statement from the university on Tuesday.

Isabelle De Groote, an archaeologist at Ghent University who leads the research project on Mesolithic Belgium, told CNN that the woman came from the same population group as the Cheddar Man, who lived in what is now the United Kingdom at around the same time, but had lighter skin.

A Maryland scientist developed synthetic blood that could save lives when seconds count and fresh blood is out of reach.

Dr. Allan Doctor is a professor-scientist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. His shelf-stable synthetic blood product is called ErythroMer, under development by KaloCyte.

The blood alternative could be used in the field without a refrigerator or a donor match, he said.

Cases of chikungunya fever are rising in southern China, prompting local authorities to take measures to curb its spread.

Here is what you need to know about the disease:

What is chikungunya?

Chikungunya is caused by a virus that can be passed to humans by infected mosquitoes, with most cases occurring in Africa, Asia and the Americas.

Neuroblastoma can be a particularly insidious cancer. In about half of all cases, tumors regress, even without therapy. In the other half, tumors grow very quickly. These tumors often respond well to chemotherapy at first, but usually return after one to two years. A characteristic feature of such aggressive neuroblastoma cells is an abnormally high number of copies of the oncogene MYCN.

A team led by Dr. Jan Dörr and Professor Anton Henssen from the Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC), a joint institution of Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Max Delbrück Center, has now discovered that the location of the MYCN gene plays an important role in the aggressiveness of neuroblastoma: If it is located outside chromosomes, cancer cells enter a dormant state and thereby render themselves immune to therapy.

In Cancer Discovery, the research team proposes a new treatment strategy that targets these dormant tumor cells. Their approach has already proven successful in a mouse model.