Chimpanzee News and Research

RSS

Discovery of mechanism by which Ebola and Marburg viruses cause disease

Researchers in the Greene Infectious Disease Laboratory at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Caribbean Primate Research Center have discovered a key mechanism by which the Filoviruses, Ebola and Marburg, cause disease.

16 Oct 2006

RNA gene found to be one of the fastest evolving regions in human genome

Since completing the sequencing of the chimpanzee genome last year, geneticists have spent many hours comparing human DNA sequences to those of our closest evolutionary relative, looking for the differences that distinguish the two species.

16 Aug 2006

Latest sequencing targets for NHGRI

The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) has announced several new sequencing targets including the Northern white-cheeked gibbon (Nomascus leucogenys).

19 Jul 2006

Birthplace of AIDS found

After a 10-year search for the origin of HIV, scientists say they have finally traced the initial source of the global pandemic presently affecting more than 40-million people worldwide.

29 May 2006

Gene regulation determines human-chimp differences

The vast differences between humans and chimpanzees are due more to changes in gene regulation than differences in individual genes themselves

9 Mar 2006

Drug partners in fight against AIDS say measles shot could be the answer!

Major drug company GlaxoSmithKline is hoping to develop an experimental AIDS vaccine by "piggy-backing" on a shot against measles.

29 Nov 2005

Mechanisms of evolution may be associated with disease

By comparing the human genome with that of the chimpanzee, man's closest living relative, researchers have discovered that chunks of similar DNA that have been flipped in orientation and reinserted into chromosomes are hundreds of times more common in primates than previously thought.

26 Oct 2005

Charting the path of the deadly Zaire strain of Ebola virus (ZEBOV) in central Africa

Over the past ten years, separate outbreaks of the deadly Zaire strain of Ebola virus (ZEBOV) have killed hundreds of humans and tens of thousands of great apes in Gabon and the Republic of Congo - which harbor roughly 80% of the last remaining wild gorilla and chimpanzee populations.

25 Oct 2005

Natural selection has played an important role in patterning the human genome

The most detailed analysis to date of how humans differ from one another at the DNA level shows strong evidence that natural selection has shaped the recent evolution of our species, according to researchers from Cornell University, Celera Genomics and Celera Diagnostics.

23 Oct 2005

Overall genome landscape between chimps and humans can be attributed to large segmental duplications

A study comparing the genomes of both humans and chimpanzees has found that much of the genetic difference between the two species came about in events called segmental duplications, in which segments of genetic code are copied many times in the genome.

4 Sep 2005

Human Y chromosome stays intact while chimp Y loses genes

The human and the chimpanzee Y chromosomes went their separate ways approximately 6 million years ago. But ever since this evolutionary parting, these two chromosomes have experienced different fates, new research indicates.

1 Sep 2005

Charles Darwin was right and chimp gene map proves it

According to scientists who have mapped the complete chimp genome and compared it to the human gene map, there is little genetic difference between humans and chimps, but those differences count for a lot.

31 Aug 2005

Aging profile of the human brain differs greatly from that seen in chimpanzees

Researchers have found that the two primary areas of the human brain appear to age in radically different ways: The cortex used in higher-level thought undergoes more extensive changes with age than the cerebellum, which regulates basic processes such as heartbeat, breathing and balance.

2 Aug 2005

Research challenges the evolutionary paradigm that continuous alterations occur during the course of genome evolution

Researchers report today that regions of the human genome have been hotspots for acquiring duplicated DNA sequences - but only at specific time-points during evolution.

16 Jun 2005

DNA discovery may help explain disorders such as autism

Researchers have made a discovery that may in future help to explain many aspects of human social behavior and disorders such as autism.

10 Jun 2005

Variations in genetic code affect social behavior

Why are some people shy while others are outgoing? A study in the current issue of Science demonstrates for the first time that social behavior may be shaped by differences in the length of seemingly non-functional DNA, sometimes referred to as junk DNA.

9 Jun 2005

Humans more prone to cancer than chimpanzees

Chimpanzees and humans share a common ancestor, and even today 99 percent of the two species' DNA is identical. But since the paths of man and chimp diverged 5 million years ago, that one percent of genetic difference appears to have changed humans in an unexpected way: It could have made people more prone to cancer.

15 May 2005

Common genetic mutation that increases the risk of inheriting Hirschsprung disease

Gene hunters at Johns Hopkins have discovered a common genetic mutation that increases the risk of inheriting a particular birth defect not by the usual route of disrupting the gene's protein-making instructions, but by altering a regulatory region of the gene. Although the condition, called Hirschsprung disease, is rare, its complex genetics mimics that of more common diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease.

13 Apr 2005

Fifteen-year hunt uncovers gene behind pseudothalidomide syndrome

A team of scientists from Colombia, the United States and elsewhere has successfully completed a 15-year-plus search for the genetic problems behind the very rare Roberts syndrome, whose physical manifestations often include cleft lip and palate and shortened limbs that resemble those of babies whose mothers took thalidomide during pregnancy.

11 Apr 2005

Ebola virus outbreaks linked to infected wild animal carcasses

All recent Ebola virus outbreaks in humans in forests between Gabon and the Republic of Congo were the result of handling infected wild animal carcasses, according to a study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and its regional partners

14 Feb 2005