Epigenetics News and Research

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Epigenetics is the study of chemical reactions that influence gene expression, through activation or deactivation of genes at specific times and locations.

Childhood poverty, demographics associated with DNA methylation patterns

A University of British Columbia and Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics (CMMT) study has revealed that childhood poverty, stress as an adult, and demographics such as age, sex and ethnicity, all leave an imprint on a person's genes. And, that this imprint could play a role in our immune response.

20 Oct 2012

New study decodes complete epigenome of chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Researchers of the University of Oviedo have contributed to decipher the first epigenomes of chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

20 Oct 2012

Researchers identify critical mechanisms of epigenetic cell programming

A team of researchers at the IRCM, supervised by Dr. Jacques Drouin, reprogrammed the identity of cells in the pituitary gland and identified critical mechanisms of epigenetic cell programming.

17 Oct 2012

Resverlogix commences RVX-208 Phase 2 trial in pre-diabetes mellitus

Resverlogix Corp. today announced that it has initiated an exploratory Phase 2 clinical trial in patients with pre-diabetes mellitus to examine the effects of RVX-208 and ApoA-I production on glucose metabolism.

17 Oct 2012

New findings on Alzheimer's disease presented at Neuroscience 2012

Curtailing the imminent rise in Alzheimer's disease (AD) will require early, accurate diagnostic tests and treatments, and researchers are closer to achieving these two goals. New findings in medical imaging, molecular analysis of neurological diseases, and development of treatments using mouse models were presented at Neuroscience 2012, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world's largest source of emerging news about brain science and health.

15 Oct 2012

Einstein College receives $3M grant to establish Glenn Center for the Biology of Human Aging Research

Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University has received a $3 million grant from the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research to establish the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Human Aging Research. The grant will fund research to translate recent laboratory and animal discoveries into therapies to slow human aging.

15 Oct 2012

Chromosome 3p21.1 locus contains common genetic risk for bipolar disorder

One of the biggest challenges in psychiatric genetics has been to replicate findings across large studies. Scientists at King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry have now performed one of the largest ever genetic replication studies of bipolar affective disorder, with 28,000 subjects recruited from 36 different research centers. Their findings provide compelling evidence that the chromosome 3p21.1 locus contains a common genetic risk for bipolar disorder, the PBRM1 gene.

15 Oct 2012

Scientists resolve new molecular circuit controlling cellular metabolism

Cancer, diabetes, and excess body weight have one thing in common: they alter cellular metabolism. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg and the Medical University of Vienna together with an international research team have jointly resolved a new molecular circuit controlling cellular metabolism.

15 Oct 2012

Tissue test detects oral cancer risk

A molecular diagnostic scoring system based on patients’ FOXM1-associated gene messenger RNA expression levels is able to quantitatively diagnose and stratify oral carcinoma and its aggressiveness, show UK and Norwegian study results.

11 Oct 2012

USC project seeks to answer important questions about cancer

Three groups of University of Southern California (USC) researchers-representing medicine, chemistry and chemical engineering-are recipients of highly competitive grants from the National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute (NCI).

11 Oct 2012

Researchers decipher how AP-1 gene regulator controls survival of liver tumor-initiating cells

Researchers headed by Erwin Wagner, the Director of the BBVA Foundation-CNIO Cancer Cell Biology Programme at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), have deciphered how a stress-inducible gene regulator, AP-1, controls the survival of liver tumor-initiating cells. These results, published in the online edition of Nature Cell Biology, could provide new preventive strategies and identify potentially targetable molecules to prevent liver cancer.

8 Oct 2012

Rare study highlights anal cancer prognosis risks

The presence of palpable, clinically involved inguinal lymph nodes and male gender are both independent risk factors for poor prognosis in anal cancer, confirm the results of a UK analysis.

3 Oct 2012

Study identifies epigenetic changes that occur in adult stem cells to generate different body tissues

The team led by Manel Esteller, director of the Cancer Epigenetics and Biology Program in the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), Professor of Genetics at the University of Barcelona and ICREA researcher, has identified epigenetic changes that occur in adult stem cells to generate different body tissues. The finding is published this week in The American Journal of Pathology.

3 Oct 2012

Zinc deficiency mechanism associated with many health problems, aging

A new study has outlined for the first time a biological mechanism by which zinc deficiency can develop with age, leading to a decline of the immune system and increased inflammation associated with many health problems, including cancer, heart disease, autoimmune disease and diabetes.

2 Oct 2012

People with SIRT1 genetic variation more likely to develop vibration-induced white finger disease

Vibration-induced white finger disease (VWF) is caused by continued use of vibrating hand held machinery (high frequency vibration >50 Hz), and affects tens of thousands of people. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Clinical Epigenetics finds that people with a genetic polymorphism (A2191G) in sirtuin1 (SIRT1), a protein involved in the regulation of endothelial NOS (eNOS), are more likely to suffer from vibration-induced white finger disease.

1 Oct 2012

Autism Speaks announces new round of research grants

Autism Speaks, the world's leading autism science and advocacy organization, today announced the awarding of new research grants totaling nearly $5 million. "Autism Speaks is committed to continuing our research which has tremendous potential to increase our understanding of autism and addressing the needs of individuals with autism," said Autism Speaks Co-founder Bob Wright, "and we are grateful to the donors who make this research possible."

29 Sep 2012

DNp63a protein employs epigenetics to keep cancer cells alive

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is diagnosed in about 700,000 people in the United States every year. Commonly contributing to SCC is a protein called DNp63a - it goes abnormally high and the ability of a patient's body to kill cancer cells goes abnormally low. In many cases of SCC, it's just that simple. And science thought the function of DNp63a was simple, as well: the tumor suppressor gene p53 is responsible for recognizing and killing cancer cells, and in SCC, it's usually inactivated. It looked like high DNp63a repressed p53, made SCC.

27 Sep 2012

Researchers discover path to identify why genetic variants increase breast cancer risk

Cancer researchers studying 44 known genetic variants associated with breast cancer have found the way to identify why they increase cancer risk, opening the door to future therapeutic applications based on personalized medicine.

25 Sep 2012

PAM50 potentially simplifies underlying breast tumor biology

On September 23, researchers published online in the journal Nature a study of the molecular biology of breast cancer, using the intrinsic subtypes as defined by the PAM50 gene signature as an organizing framework for analyzing genomic and proteomic aberrations. This landmark study both underscores the emergence of the intrinsic subtypes as a powerful taxonomy of breast cancer in research, and PAM50's role as the gold standard for categorizing breast cancer by subtype.

From NanoString Technologies 25 Sep 2012

Study on epigenetics link of PTSD and respiratory disease in 9/11 responders

The "Epigenetics Link of PTSD and Respiratory Disease in 9/11 Responders" study is the first to investigate the association between genetic changes and the development of both conditions in the 9/11 responder patient population. Approximately 500 patients treated at the LI-CCE for both conditions will be evaluated during the two-year study.

24 Sep 2012