Genes News and Research

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CARTaGENE database meets 20k participant milestone

This week, the last questionnaire was filled out and the final vial of blood was drawn, closing CARTaGENE's first ambitious goal of collecting samples and data from 20 000 Quebecers.

25 Oct 2010

BAFF protein can promote aggressive leukemia and lymphomas

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells survive and thrive not just by their own innate wiles, but by also acquiring aid and support from host cells in their surrounding environment.

25 Oct 2010

Two researchers receive European Research Council Starting Grants

Two European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grants worth almost one and a half million euros each over the next five years have been awarded to two researchers from the Max Delbr-ck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch and the Charit Universit-tsmedizin, Berlin in Germany.

25 Oct 2010

Research on worms may help develop ways to maintain fertility in humans

Princeton scientists have identified genes responsible for controlling reproductive life span in worms and found they may control genes regulating similar functions in humans. The work suggests that someday researchers may be able to develop ways to maintain fertility in humans, allowing women who want to delay having children to preserve that capacity and extend their reproduction, and to prevent maternal age-related birth defects.

25 Oct 2010

Scientists use Affymetrix custom microarray to advance malarial study

Affymetrix, Inc. announced today that an international team of researchers led by scientists at Boston College, the Broad Institute, and Imperial College London used an Affymetrix custom microarray to advance the study of malaria by assessing the variation in genetic structure and detecting known and novel genetic differences among malaria vector mosquito populations.

25 Oct 2010

Research could lead to new therapies for breast cancers

WORK by scientists in Australia could open the door to a new way of treating certain breast cancers. The disease is now the most common cancer in the UK, with around 125 women in the country diagnosed every day.

22 Oct 2010

Researchers use fruit fly for cancer research

SMALL and with a life cycle of just two weeks, fruit flies are seen by many as pests and a problem all year round. However, for nearly a century, the humble insect, officially known as Drosophila melanogaster, which measures no more than 3mm, has performed a vital role in genetics and developmental biology.Fruit flies are genetically diverse and easy to use in research, helping scientists in a variety of studies, from how the brain functions to how cancer develops.

22 Oct 2010

LifeGen Technologies awarded Phase I Small Business Innovative Research grant

LifeGen Technologies, LLC has been awarded a Phase I Small Business Innovative Research grant from the United States National Institute on Aging. The project is focused on identifying a robust panel of genes in adipose tissue (fat) that are regulated by a calorie restricted diet. According to Dr. Jamie Barger, Director of Operations at LifeGen, the technology developed under the NIH grant will allow LifeGen to screen for compounds that have beneficial effects on adipose tissue in a manner similar to that of a calorie restricted diet.

22 Oct 2010

New review outlines Bionovo's platform of estrogen receptor modulators for menopausal conditions

Bionovo, Inc. today announced the publication of a review of results from studies discussing new classes of estrogen receptor modulating drugs with distinct mechanism for pharmacological effect. The review is published in the most recent edition of Current Opinion in Pharmacology.

22 Oct 2010

Research suggests lowering cholesterol can reduce benign prostatic hyperplasia

A cholesterol-lowering drug reduced the enlarged prostates of hamsters to the same extent as a drug commonly used to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), report researchers at Children's Hospital Boston and their colleagues in the October issue of the Journal of Urology. Together, the drugs worked even better.

22 Oct 2010

Researchers suggest gene therapy may treat patients with major depression

In a report published in the Oct. 20 issue of Science Translational Medicine, researchers at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center say animal and human data suggest gene therapy to the brain may be able to treat patients with major depression who do not respond to traditional drug treatment.

22 Oct 2010

Australian stem cell line offers fresh approach to diabetes cure

Australian researchers have developed the country’s first diabetes specific stem cell line, a major advance for patients suffering from the chronic disease.

21 Oct 2010

Highlights of Frontiers in Optics 2010/Laser Science XXVI Meeting

Scientists and engineers from around the world will gather on the shores of Lake Ontario in Rochester, N.Y. next week to discuss some of the latest breakthroughs in lasers and optics and their applications to cutting-edge science, the development of new materials, and medicine.

21 Oct 2010

Research identifies key regulators that control transmission of malaria parasite

Scientists at The University of Nottingham and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute near Cambridge have pin-pointed the 72 molecular switches that control the three key stages in the life cycle of the malaria parasite and have discovered that over a third of these switches can be disrupted in some way.

21 Oct 2010

Researchers investigate reverse zoonosis in marine invertebrate

The spread of lethal diseases from animals to humans has long been an issue of great concern to public health officials. But what about diseases that spread in the other direction, from humans to wildlife. A multidisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Georgia has just been awarded a five-year $2 million Ecology of Infectious Diseases grant from the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health to study the first known case of such a "reverse zoonosis" that involves the transmission of a human pathogen to a marine invertebrate, elkhorn coral.

21 Oct 2010

New mechanism controlling transmission of abnormal signal at origin of several cancers identified

Researchers at the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) of the Universit- de Montr-al have identified a new mechanism controlling the transmission of an abnormal signal at the origin of several cancers. In an article published in the journal Cell, Marc Therrien's team explains the recent discovery of a protein complex that controls the RAS/MAPK signalling pathway, responsible for some of the deadliest cancers, including pancreatic, colon and lung cancers, and melanomas.

21 Oct 2010

New immunoSEQ bioinformatics software platform helps monitor adaptive immune system

Adaptive TCR Technologies, a biotech firm based in Seattle, WA, announced today the release of its immunoSEQ profiling service and immunoSEQ Analyzer bioinformatics software platform. Together, these tools provide researchers and clinicians the ability to profile and monitor the adaptive immune system at a level of detail that has never before been possible.

21 Oct 2010

Plant-derived compound for treatment of nicotine addiction also effective against alcoholism

South Dakota State University researchers have demonstrated for the first time that a plant-derived compound used to treat nicotine addiction also has significant effects against alcohol addiction.

21 Oct 2010

Menopausal estrogen replacement therapy speeds growth of ovarian cancer

Estrogen therapy used by menopausal women causes a type of ovarian cancer to grow five times faster, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Colorado Cancer Center.

21 Oct 2010

Study: p63 gene stifles spread of cancer

Long overshadowed by p53, its famous tumor-suppressing sibling, the p63 gene does the tougher, important job of stifling the spread of cancer to other organs, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report in the Oct. 21 issue of Nature.

21 Oct 2010