DNA News and Research

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DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms. Nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA. Most DNA is located in the cell nucleus (where it is called nuclear DNA), but a small amount of DNA can also be found in the mitochondria (where it is called mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA).

Ship-in-a-bottle kit on a microchip

Sometimes physicists resort to tried and trusted model-making tricks. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research, the University of Stuttgart and the Colorado School of Mines have constructed micromachines using the same trick that model makers use to get ships into a bottle where the masts and rigging of the sailing ship are not erected until it is in the bottle.

3 Dec 2008

Large study looks at genetic risks for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

A multi-institution team of investigators led by researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) has received $19 million in funding from the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) for a groundbreaking effort to collect genetic information on tens of thousands of patients in order to study the genetic risks for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

3 Dec 2008

New technique provides closer look at DNA and mRNA

In a study in the advance online edition of Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, researchers from Albert Einstein College of Medicine describe a technique for looking more precisely at a fundamental step of a cell's life - a gene, DNA, being read into a message, mRNA.

3 Dec 2008

Fruit flies provide better understanding of human heart disease

Researchers at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research have shown in both fruit flies and humans that genes involved in embryonic heart development are also integral to adult heart function.

3 Dec 2008

Lab on a microfluidic chip for the GP's surgery

If doctors were able to conduct efficient genetic analysis at the point of care, using inexpensive, portable equipment, it would revolutionise disease detection and treatment. European researchers are close to enabling this revolution.

2 Dec 2008

GeoVax's HIV/AIDS human vaccine trials to begin in North and South America

GeoVax Labs, Inc. has announced that the launch of its Phase 2a Human Vaccine Trials will take place in twelve sites across North and South America.

1 Dec 2008

Researchers find that when cells shut down they also spew proteins into their surrounding environment

Cells shut down and stop dividing when their DNA is damaged, in a process known as cellular senescence, so as to prevent damaged DNA from leading to unregulated cell division and therefore cancer.

1 Dec 2008

Eating eggs when pregnant may help prevent breast cancer in offspring

A stunning discovery based on epigenetics (the inheritance of propensities acquired in the womb) reveals that consuming choline - a nutrient found in eggs and other foods - during pregnancy may significantly affect breast cancer outcomes for a mother's offspring.

1 Dec 2008

Scientists pinpoint two new risk factors for Wilms tumour

Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research have made significant progress in pinpointing two new risk factors associated with the most common childhood kidney cancer, known as Wilms tumour.

1 Dec 2008

Liver disease tackled with dedicated unit at Imperial College London

Liver disease death rates are rising in the UK, in contrast to other common diseases such as heart disease and cancer, and the new Robert Hesketh Hepatology Clinical Research Facility aims to provide care and develop new therapies to reverse this trend.

1 Dec 2008

Genetic variation in metabolism identified

Metabolic diseases - in particular the increasingly prevalent type 2 diabetes - are caused by a complex interaction between genetic disposition and unfavorable lifestyle, above all unbalanced diet and too little physical exercise.

30 Nov 2008

Condensin II proteins found to keep chromosomes apart when necessary

If chromosomes snuggle up too closely at the wrong times, the results can be genetic disaster.

28 Nov 2008

Discovery of new way in which epigenetic information is inherited

Hereditary information flows from parents to offspring not just through DNA but also through the millions of proteins and other molecules that cling to it.

28 Nov 2008

Researchers provide new evidence that aging can be slowed

New evidence may explain why it is that we lose not only our youthful looks, but also our youthful pattern of gene activity with age.

26 Nov 2008

Scientists uncover new RNA processing mechanism and a new class of small RNAs

A very small fraction of our genetic material - about 2% - performs the crucial task scientists once thought was the sole purpose of the genome: to serve as a blueprint for the production of proteins, the molecules that make cells work and sustain life.

26 Nov 2008

Researchers provide new insight into adaptive ability of cells

The Stowers Institute's Rong Li Lab has published findings that shed light on the ability of cells to adapt to disruptions to their basic division machineries - findings that may help explain how cancer cells elude the body's natural defense mechanisms or chemotherapy treatment.

26 Nov 2008