Genetic Engineering News and Research

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Secreted signaling protein called Wnt10b secret to new drugs for preventing or treating osteoporosis

Leaping tall buildings in a single bound may be out of the question, but the genetically engineered "supermice" in Ormond MacDougald's laboratory at the University of Michigan Medical School are definitely stronger than average.

22 Feb 2005

Americans support appropriate use of reproductive genetic testing

A majority of Americans believes it is appropriate to use reproductive genetic testing to avoid having a child with a life-threatening disease, or to test embryos to see if they will be a good match to provide cells to help a sick sibling, a new report of the Genetics and Public Policy Center reveals.

20 Feb 2005

Link between diabetes and obesity

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis used genetically modified mice to uncover a potentially important link between diabetes and obesity.

15 Feb 2005

Genetically engineered potatoes offer new hope in the fight against the Hepatitis B

Genetically engineered potatoes offer new hope in the fight against the Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), an acute sometimes fatal form of viral hepatitis caused by a DNA virus that persists in the blood serum and is transmitted by sexual contact or by transfusion or by ingestion of contaminated blood or other bodily fluids.

14 Feb 2005

Chronic nicotine exposure worsens some Alzheimer’s-related brain abnormalities

UCI researchers have determined that chronic nicotine exposure worsens some Alzheimer’s-related brain abnormalities, contradicting the common belief that nicotine can actually be used to treat the disease.

9 Feb 2005

India trials investigational vaccine candidate designed to prevent HIV/AIDS

Announcing the trial, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss, said: "Developing a vaccine to prevent AIDS is one of the most difficult scientific challenges of our time. It is also one of the most urgent health needs. Perseverance is the way forward, and India has a long- term commitment."

7 Feb 2005

Origins of skin cancer melanoma

Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have found an important clue about the origins of the deadly skin cancer melanoma.

7 Feb 2005

Gene therapy helps generate bone around dental implants

A University of Michigan research team has found that introducing a growth factor protein into a mouth wound using gene therapy helped generate bone around dental implants, according to a new paper in the February issue of the journal Molecular Therapy.

3 Feb 2005

Americans pay little attention to genetically modified foods

According to a national study of 1,200 Americans commissioned by the Food Policy Institute (FPI) at Rutgers-Cook College, while most Americans say they are interested in the technology and have opinions about it, most lack the tools and background needed for an informed assessment.

31 Jan 2005

Viagra protects cardiomyocytes against cell death

Virginia Commonwealth University researchers have shown that a widely used drug for treating erectile dysfunction, Viagra, reduces the death of heart cells under heart attack-like conditions in a laboratory model.

31 Jan 2005

Startling results from new biomedical research will smooth path to the market place

Researchers have discovered how to convert liver cells of mice into pancreatic cells using a single injection. This may eventually lead to a cure for diabetes. Dr. James Mittra, one of the organisers of an international conference in Edinburgh on the Evolution of the Life Science Industries asks, “How does the pharmaceutical industry respond to this kind of work? They are primarily interested in treatments, not cures. Do they see this kind of research as a threat?”

27 Jan 2005

Research may provide the basis for development of a new, extensive immunotherapy for human tumors

Scientists have made significant progress towards understanding how the immune system can be more specifically and efficiently targeted against cancer cells. The research, published in the January issue of Immunity, may provide the basis for development of a new, extensive immunotherapy for human tumors.

26 Jan 2005

ID Biomedical begins development of pandemic influenza vaccine

ID Biomedical announced today that it has begun development of an experimental ("mock") vaccine against a strain of the influenza virus, H5N1, that experts believe could cause a deadly worldwide epidemic (pandemic) of influenza.

19 Jan 2005

Biodegradable mosquito trap - latest weapon against the spread of dengue fever

University of Queensland researchers are working with a biodegradable packaging business, < Plantic>, James Cook University and Queensland Health to design and produce the traps.

18 Jan 2005

Researchers have identified the cellular receptor for the JC virus

Researchers funded in part by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) have identified the cellular receptor for the JC virus, which causes the fatal neurological disease progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML).

17 Jan 2005

Low carbohydrate diet may prevent Alzheimer's disease

Researchers found that a low carbohydrate diet that reduced total caloric intake by 30% prevented the development of a fundamental feature of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in mice genetically engineered to develop the disease. The diet eliminated amyloid plaque development, which is the underlying pathology in AD.

12 Jan 2005

Novel vaccine that uses immune cells as factories to produce Her2/neu protein may offer a way to treat some breast cancers

Based on successful animal studies, a novel vaccine that uses immune cells as factories to produce Her2/neu protein may offer a way to treat some human breast cancers, say researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

10 Jan 2005

Scientists identify genes that promote the growth and recurrence of skin cancer

Andrzej Dlugosz, M.D., a professor of dermatology in the U-M Medical School, and colleagues at the University of Michigan and the National Cancer Institute examined the functions of the Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway in basal cell carcinoma – the most common form of cancer – and uncovered a subset of tumor cells that were resistant to inhibition of the Hedgehog pathway.

10 Jan 2005

Gene sequencing explains why natural bioremediation 'bug' has big appetite for chlorinated pollutants

"The born-to-dechlorinate bug" is what Cornell University researchers called Dehalococcoides ethenogenes Strain 195 when they found the bacterium obligingly detoxifying the pollutant PCE, or perchloroethylene (a chlorinated solvent used for dry cleaning), in sludge from an Ithaca, N.Y., sewage treatment plant.

6 Jan 2005

Antibiotics protect nerves in mice by turning on genes

A family of antibiotics that includes penicillin may help prevent nerve damage and death in a wide variety of neurological diseases, including Lou Gehrig's disease, dementia, stroke, and epilepsy, Johns Hopkins researchers have found.

6 Jan 2005