New advances in therapeutics seem to be everywhere these days, and two new studies point to this encouraging progress. One, a pilot study conducted by Duke University Medical Center, has found that in conjunction with another chemo drug, Avastin helps to shrink deadly brain tumors by cutting off their blood supply. They found that together, the two drugs stopped tumor growth up to two times as long as other therapies. In another study, a new drug candidate has been found to reduce the mental retardation associated with Down syndrome. The researchers, whose results were published in yesterday’s Nature Neuroscience, used mice models that had two copies of chromosome 16. For a crib notes version, ScienceBlogs blogger Shelley Batts wraps it up pretty well.