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SANTA MONICA, Calif., Feb. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- FEARnet is redefining "March Madness," unleashing an all-star roster loaded with haunted houses, evil arms, vampires, slashers and Jigsaw. The beastly bracket features matchups between some of the top stars in the genre, putting their skills to the test in the "SAW Sunday" Stunt, the "Mangled Madness" Marathon, and premieres of acclaimed hits such as the genre indie Buried, the fan favorite Night Watch, the cult classic Body Parts, and much more!

March Highlights Include:

In summary:

About FEARnet FEARnet is a multi-platform programming service delivering original and acquired horror, thriller and suspense content as a cable TV movie network, a video-on-demand outlet and web portal. FEARnet, a partnership among Sony Pictures Television, Lionsgate Entertainment and Comcast Corporation, features a robust lineup of popular titles from major film studios and independents, encompassing 300 plus movie titles a year, including 14 world television and 22 theatrical broadcast premieres. The Network is distributed to U.S. cable subscribers across the country on various systems and is often ranked as the number-one free HD VOD movie service available in more than 27 million homes. The website, FEARnet.com, ranks as one of the most popular sites in the genre category among total uniques and duration per visit. Follow FEARnet on Facebook and Twitter (@FEARnet). For more information about the company, visit http://www.FEARnet.com. To access photos visit FEARnetPR on flickr.

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FEARnet Is Going Mad This March, With A Month-Long Tournament Of Terror Filled With The Broadcast Premieres Of 'BURIED ...

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Jason Lee

My Name Is Earl's Jason Lee is returning to the police force.

The former star of TNT's Memphis Beat has been tapped to star in CBS' police drama Second Sight, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

PHOTOS: The Faces of Pilot Season 2013

Based on the U.K. series of the same name by Paula Milne, which starsClive Owen,the gothic psychological thriller revolves around a detective who is suddenly afflicted with an autoimmune virus that causes hallucinations reflective of his subconscious. He discovers that catching the killer depends as much on insight as eyesight.

Lee will star as Ross Tanner, the lead detective within the New Orleans Police Department, who is concealing a troubling secret: He has an ocular disorder that causes him to have horrifying and visually stimulating anxiety dreams and hallucinations. Told by his doctor that he will not go blind, he's encouraged to think of the disorder's effects as a gift -- signposts from his subconscious.

STORY: TV Pilots 2013: The Complete Guide

Homeland's Michael Cuesta will pen the drama alongside his brother, Gerald Cuesta. Both will exec produce, with the former also directing the pilot. CSI's Carol Mendelsohn will also exec produce the CBS Television Studios drama alongside Julie Weitz, Nick Reed, Phil Goldfine andPaula Milne.

The new role for Lee comes after he starred as a Memphis cop for two seasons on TNT's Memphis Beat. Lee most recently had a multiple-episode arc on Raising Hope, reuniting with Earl's Greg Garcia, as well as a handful of episodes of Up All Night. He's repped by CAA,Ribisi Entertainment and Hansen Jacobson.

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'My Name Is Earl's' Jason Lee to Star in CBS Drama 'Second Sight'

Marie McCullough, Inquirer Staff Writer Posted: Wednesday, February 20, 2013, 3:01 AM Philadelphia researchers have detected part of the virus that causes cervical cancer in a surprising place: a congenital brain malformation that causes an intractable form of epilepsy in children. This is the first study to uncover evidence of the microbe - human papillomavirus (HPV) - in the brain. It is also the first to suggest that an infection in the fetal brain leads to the malformation, which has no known genetic or environmental cause.

Temple University neurologist Peter Crino and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania did the study, published in the Annals of Neurology.

The malformation, focal cortical dysplasia, is marked by enlarged "balloon" cells that disrupt nerve signals in a brain region that governs thought and memory.

In both children and adults, the malformation is a common cause of epilepsy that does not respond to antiseizure drugs and requires brain surgery.

A link between the malformation and the virus could lead to new ways to manage or even prevent some forms of epilepsy, Crino said. Vaccines that prevent HPV infection are already available, as are drugs that might interfere in the virus' signaling pathway.

Imad Najm, director of the Cleveland Clinic epilepsy center, called the findings "exciting."

"It shows that some of these malformations may not be determined just by some congenital abnormality, but by an infection," Najm said. "Or, at least, an infection could be playing a role."

Others were skeptical.

Neurologist Lawrence Brown, an epilepsy expert at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said, "How do you get from a viral colonization in the cervix to a brain malformation in a fetus? It's just really hard to connect the dots."

Pathologist Richard Schlegel at Georgetown University, a coinventor of the HPV vaccine, pointed out that Crino's team found only part of the virus, not its whole genetic code. That suggests that the virus was not replicating in the brain, and thus could not be causing infection.

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Philadelphia researchers detect a link between cervical-cancer virus and a form of epilepsy

Just saying, "the pox" out loud sends a microbial shiver down the spine, given the tremendous amount of death and disease the poxviruses have wreaked on mankind. The scourge of perhaps the most notorious member of the poxvirus family, variola virus, which causes smallpox, extended across human history from the ancient Egyptian dynasty to the late 20th century.This continued until the widespread implementation of an overwhelmingly successful vaccine developed through the efforts of a certain gentleman scientist, Edward Jenner. He famously observed that milkmaids who came into contact with cowpox virus (a close cousin of variola virus) experienced a mild skin infection that protected them against smallpox. After inoculating other people with material scraped from the milkmaids' eruptions, Jenner noted that they, too, became immune to smallpox.Nowadays, in a pleasant refinement from pustule scrapings, the smallpox vaccine contains a live version of vaccinia virus, a related but much milder poxvirus that looks and behaves enough like variola virus to trick the immune system into developing "smallpox" immunity.So, poxviruses, like vaccinia virus, can be tamed and moulded from old villains into useful tools to avert or treat human disease. This is particularly true for cancer. Since the mid-1800's, natural virus infections, such as influenza, have been reported to cure cancer patients of their disease. Such testimonials helped to drive the modern development of poxviruses as anti-cancer agents, harnessing their natural preference to search out, infect and kill cancer tissue while shunning normal, healthy areas.For a poxvirus focused on replicating to produce lots of tiny virus offspring, tumour tissue is a surefire location for success: the mutations that allow cancer cells to grow so quickly also render them defenceless to viral attack. Typically, viral replication in tumour cells pops them open, disgorging their contents and releasing newly-hatched viruses to spread throughout the tumour, before being mopped up, neutralised and contained by the immune system. This approach can have brilliant results for some cancer patients, and poxvirus-based cancer treatments are now into advanced stage clinical trials.Recently, poxviruses have also been applied to address a long-standing problem affecting cancer patients undergoing tumour removal surgery. Particularly after long and complicated procedures, cancer patients naturally enter a bodywide state of repair, where most energy is diverted into the healing process. Perversely, this temporary disturbance in the natural biological balance actually encourages any missed bits of tumour to spread, causing new patches of disease to spring up. While the reason for this is not entirely understood, suppression of the normal immune response, in particular a specific population of immune cells known as, 'natural killer' cells, is at least part of the problem.A team at the University of Ottawa, led by surgical oncologist Dr. Rebecca Auer, reasoned that applying an engineered poxvirus an hour before surgery, which would home to the tumour and deploy immune-stimulating payloads, could restore the balance of the immune system. As they report in the journal, Cancer Research, this happily proved to be true: the virus kicked the apathetic natural killer cells into upping their game, reinvigorated the surgically-stunned immune system and, in mice at least, prevented the surgery-induced spread of tumour material. Poxviruses were therefore blended seamlessly into a normal surgical regime with excellent results.Since poxviruses have been so widely applied to humans in the smallpox vaccine, there is a huge amount of safety data to recommend their use in the clinic, and in the treatment of over 500 cancer patients, there have been no serious complications. Incorporating a naturally-adapted cancer-loving microorganism like poxvirus into the available arsenal of anti-cancer treatments is plainly a splendidly progressive choice.Image: Pox, by Sanofi Pasteur on Flickr Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs.Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news. 2013 ScientificAmerican.com. All rights reserved.

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Fighting Cancer with Poxviruses

Health workers most at risk from Hepatitis C

Staff Reporter / 18 February 2013

Healthcare workers are among thoses most at risk of contracting Hepatitis C, the Abu Dhabi Municipality said at a lecture for employees aimed at spreading awareness about the often incurable virus.

Working under the theme, Protect Your Liver, Protect Yourself, the lecture was organised in collaboration with the Health Authority Abu Dhabi (Haad), Gulf Diagnostic Centre and Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.

The Hepatitis C virus is most commonly transmitted through exposure to contaminated blood or the use of non-sterile tools. The most susceptible are the healthcare workers who run the risk of infection after injury with a needle contaminated with Hepatitis C virus, along with chronic renal failure patients who used to require hemodialysis before 1992, said Dr Ahmed Abdullah, director of Communicable Diseases at Haad. In addition, sharing some personal care items such as razors, toothbrushes and nail clippers can cause transmission, while drug addicts and those who gets tattoo may catch the disease through the needle.

Dr Abdullah cited the different types of viruses that can infect the liver such as Hepatitis A, B and C, which transmits through the blood and causes cirrhosis of the liver or even cancer.

Most cases are discovered by chance during periodic medical examinations or for any other reason since Hepatitis C is usually chronic, and it has no specific symptoms, he continued.

Scientific researchers have shown that the response to treatment is more significant when starting treatment early, before the virus becomes more aggressive and invades the liver at large scale, he explained.

Dr George Attinawi, from the Gulf Diagnostic Centre, defined Hepatitis C as a silent killer, since it takes several years for the infected person to discover the infection, during which he/she may show no symptoms and pass on the virus to others.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says between three to four million people are infected with Hepatitis C every year. About 150 million are chronically infected and at risk of developing liver cirrhosis and/or liver cancer, resulting in more than 350,000 people dying annually from Hepatitis C-related liver diseases.

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Health workers most at risk from Hepatitis C