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Genetics is the study of genes and heredity. Heredity is the passing of genetic information and traits (such as eye color and an increased chance of getting a certain disease) from parents to offspring.
Georgia Tech and Emory University receive $4 million grant to establish HERCULES Center

Georgia Tech and Emory University receive $4 million grant to establish HERCULES Center

Investigators at Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, along with partners at the Georgia Institute of Technology, have received a $4 million grant over four years to establish the HERCULES Center at Emory University (Health and Exposome Research Center: Understanding Lifetime Exposures). The grant is the first exposome-based center grant awarded in the United States. [More]

Study finds differences in the brains of patients suffering from psychiatric diseases

Studying the networks of connections in the brains of people affected by schizophrenia, bipolar disease or depression has allowed Dr. Peter Williamson, from Western University, to gain a better understanding of the biological basis of these important diseases. [More]
Study suggests possible way to halt cancer development in premalignant cells

Study suggests possible way to halt cancer development in premalignant cells

Scientists have uncovered a survival mechanism that occurs in breast cells that have just turned premalignant-cells on the cusp between normalcy and cancers-which may lead to new methods of stopping tumors. [More]
Weekend reading: Mental illness stigma, health insurance mazes and female libido

Weekend reading: Mental illness stigma, health insurance mazes and female libido

Linneah sat at a desk at the Center for Sexual Medicine at Sheppard Pratt in the suburbs of Baltimore and filled out a questionnaire. She read briskly, making swift checks beside her selected answers, and when she was finished, she handed the pages across the desk to Martina Miller, who gave her a round of pills. [More]
Cinnamon compounds show some promise in the effort to fight Alzheimer's disease

Cinnamon compounds show some promise in the effort to fight Alzheimer's disease

Cinnamon: Can the red-brown spice with the unmistakable fragrance and variety of uses offer an important benefit? The common baking spice might hold the key to delaying the onset of -- or warding off -- the effects of Alzheimer's disease. [More]
Novel multiplex immunoassay approach to capture HIV antibodies

Novel multiplex immunoassay approach to capture HIV antibodies

Detection of HIV antibodies is used to diagnose HIV infection and monitor trials of experimental HIV/AIDS vaccines. New, more sensitive detection systems being developed use microspheres to capture HIV antibodies and can measure even small amounts of multiple antibodies at one time. [More]
Most residents dissatisfied with quality of substance-abuse training, survey finds

Most residents dissatisfied with quality of substance-abuse training, survey finds

A 2012 survey of internal medicine residents at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) - one of the nation's leading teaching hospitals - found that more than half rated the training they had received in addiction and other substance use disorders as fair or poor. [More]

Second annual conference to reduce genomic health disparities

Researchers in genomic health disparities from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and the Stanford University School of Medicine have teamed up to hold the second annual "Why We Can't Wait: Conference to Eliminate Health Disparities in Genomic Medicine." [More]
Mayo Clinic, Cancer Genetics form joint venture to improve cancer care

Mayo Clinic, Cancer Genetics form joint venture to improve cancer care

Mayo Clinic and Cancer Genetics Inc. today launched OncoSpire Genomics, a joint venture with the singular goal of improving cancer care by discovering and commercializing diagnostic tests that leverage next-generation sequencing. [More]

Study explains gender differences in the impact of OSA on cardiovascular disease, mortality

A new study from researchers in Japan indicates that obstructive sleep apnea is independently associated with visceral (abdominal) fat accumulation only in men, perhaps explaining gender differences in the impact of OSA on cardiovascular disease and mortality. [More]
March of Dimes, Ohio research centers and hospitals establish new research program to prevent preterm birth

March of Dimes, Ohio research centers and hospitals establish new research program to prevent preterm birth

Three major Ohio universities and four hospitals have joined with the March of Dimes Foundation to establish a new collaborative research program aimed exclusively at finding the unknown causes of premature birth. [More]

Viewpoints: Slowing health costs; What causes genetic testing to be so expensive; Iowa governor offers Medicaid supports a 'glimmer of hope'

We have done it. We have decreased the increase in the cost of healthcare. ... Is this decline the desperately needed bend in the healthcare cost curve or just the impact of the depressed economy? ... A slower growth of healthcare cost would mean less burden on the individual family, freeing that family to invest in and live a higher quality of life. [More]
Nearly 35% of Mexican young adults may have genetic predisposition for obesity, says U of I scientist

Nearly 35% of Mexican young adults may have genetic predisposition for obesity, says U of I scientist

As many as 35 percent of Mexican young adults may have a genetic predisposition for obesity, said a University of Illinois scientist who conducted a study at the Universidad Aut-noma de San Luis Potosί. [More]
Vitamin C kills drug-resistant TB bacteria in lab

Vitamin C kills drug-resistant TB bacteria in lab

In a striking, unexpected discovery, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have determined that vitamin C kills drug-resistant tuberculosis bacteria in laboratory culture. [More]
Nutritional supplement improves functioning of genes involved in degenerative brain disorders

Nutritional supplement improves functioning of genes involved in degenerative brain disorders

Widely available in pharmacies and health stores, phosphatidylserine is a natural food supplement produced from beef, oysters, and soy. Proven to improve cognition and slow memory loss, it's a popular treatment for older people experiencing memory impairment. [More]

PGDx to identify novel kinase targets in collaboration with Blueprint Medicines

Personal Genome Diagnostics Inc., today announced that it will use its proprietary methodologies and expertise in genomic analysis of defined cancer subtypes to identify novel kinase targets in collaboration with Blueprint Medicines. [More]
The Biology of Cancer: New second edition now available

The Biology of Cancer: New second edition now available

Garland Science is proud to announce the publication of the much-anticipated Second Edition of The Biology of Cancer by Robert A. Weinberg. [More]
Researchers say that receiving cancer radiation therapy late in the day may minimize hair loss

Researchers say that receiving cancer radiation therapy late in the day may minimize hair loss

Discovering that mouse hair has a circadian clock - a 24-hour cycle of growth followed by restorative repair - researchers suspect that hair loss in humans from toxic cancer radiotherapy and chemotherapy might be minimized if these treatments are given late in the day. [More]
Researchers develop new mouse model to discover gene pathways that drive MPNST

Researchers develop new mouse model to discover gene pathways that drive MPNST

University of Minnesota Medical School researchers from the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, in partnership with the University's Brain Tumor Program, have developed a new mouse model of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors that allow them to discover new genes and gene pathways driving this type of cancer. [More]
Scientists design 'fishing' technique to show health benefits of foods

Scientists design 'fishing' technique to show health benefits of foods

New research suggests that a compound abundant in the Mediterranean diet takes away cancer cells' "superpower" to escape death. [More]