DNA News and Research

RSS

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).

Spread of endogenous retrovirus K is similar in the DNA of humans and rhesus monkeys

According to paleontologic and molecular studies, the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) is the closer relative to the humans (Homo sapiens) and that both lineages had a common ancestor at 5 to 7 million years ago.

10 Oct 2007

Network approach finds potential breast cancer susceptibility gene

Like a crossword-puzzle solver who uses the letters in some answers to figure out others, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and an international group of collaborators have used data on genes involved in inherited forms of breast cancer to identify a gene linked to non-hereditary cases of the disease.

10 Oct 2007

Tiny radioactive molecules provide novel way to fight colorectal cancer

Johns Hopkins scientists have developed a potentially novel way to fight colorectal cancer using tiny molecules to deliver potent barrages of radiation inside cancer cells, unlike current treatments that bind to the surface of cells and attack from the outside and cause unwanted side effects.

10 Oct 2007

Better understanding of what genomic changes paved the way for modern humans

Researchers have answered a similarly vexing (and far more relevant) genomic question: Which of the thousands of long stretches of repeated DNA in the human genome came first?

9 Oct 2007

One injection of gene therapy spreads through brain in animal study

By targeting a site in a mouse brain well connected to other areas, researchers successfully delivered a beneficial gene to the entire brain - after one injection of gene therapy.

9 Oct 2007

New insight on jumping genes

Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) announced that Dr. Animesh Ray, KGI professor and director of KGI's PhD program, has published a paper in the international online journal PLoS ONE that sheds new light on the evolution of moveable genetic elements, or "jumping genes."

9 Oct 2007

Link between woman's hips and daughter's risk of breast cancer

In a study of the maternity records of more than 6,000 women, David J.P. Barker, M.D., Ph.D., and Kent Thornburg, Ph.D., of Oregon Health & Science University discovered a strong correlation between the size and shape of a woman's hips and her daughter's risk of breast cancer.

9 Oct 2007

Mario Capecchi shares Nobel Prize in medicine for knockout mice technology

Mario R. Capecchi, Ph.D., distinguished professor of human genetics and biology at the University of Utah's Eccles Institute of Human Genetics and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, has won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

9 Oct 2007

Sir Martin Evans wins Nobel prize for stem cell research

Medical Research Council funded scientist Sir Martin Evans, has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2007 alongside Mario R. Capecchi and Oliver Smithies for their discoveries of "principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells".

9 Oct 2007

Genes that increase rheumatoid arthritis risk found

Researchers in the United States and Sweden have identified a genetic region associated with increased risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a chronic and debilitating inflammatory disease of the joints that affects an estimated 2.1 million Americans.

8 Oct 2007

Fungus genome yielding answers to protect grains, people and animals

Why a pathogen is a pathogen may be answered as scientists study the recently mapped genetic makeup of a fungus that spawns the worst cereal grains disease known and also can produce toxins potentially fatal to people and livestock.

8 Oct 2007

Researchers create modular, multi-functional drug delivery system

There are two aspects to creating an effective drug: finding a chemical compound that has the desired biological effect and minimal side-effects and then delivering it to the right place in the body for it to do its job.

8 Oct 2007

Simplest circadian clocks operate via orderly phosphate transfers

Researchers at Harvard University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute have found that a simple circadian clock found in some bacteria operates by the rhythmic addition and subtraction of phosphate groups at two key locations on a single protein.

4 Oct 2007

Human embryonic stem cells remain embryonic because of epigenetic factors

A human embryonic stem cell is reined in - prevented from giving up its unique characteristics of self-renewal and pluripotency - by the presence of a protein modification that stifles any genes that would prematurely instruct the cell to develop into heart or other specialized tissue.

4 Oct 2007

Specific immune deficiency pinpointed as likely cause of ulcerative colitis

In a series of mouse experiments, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have pinpointed a specific immune deficiency as the likely fundamental cause of ulcerative colitis, a chronic, sometimes severe inflammatory disease of the colon or large intestine that afflicts half a million Americans.

4 Oct 2007

Ground-breaking techniques to study telomeres in human cells may lead to early cancer detection

A test to detect the very early stages of cancer could one day result from new research by Cardiff University scientists.

4 Oct 2007

Gene-chip studies provide new leads in treating abnormal lung development in premature newborns

Some 20 to 40 percent of extremely premature infants suffer abnormal lung development leading to bronchopulmonary dysplasia, a chronic lung disease that can cause long-term breathing problems.

4 Oct 2007

Indian bug is the ancestor of Crohn's disease pathogen

An Indian team of researchers led by Seyed E. Hasnain of the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS), University of Hyderabad, India has found that a seemingly unknown mycobacterial organism Mycobacterium indicus pranii (MIP) could be the earliest ancestor of the 'generalist' branch of mycobacterial pathogens.

3 Oct 2007

Low doses of a red wine ingredient resveratrol fights diabetes in mice

A chemical found in the skins of red grapes and in red wine can improve the sensitivity of mice to the hormone insulin, according to a report in the October issue of Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication.

3 Oct 2007

Fetal cell transplant could be a hidden link between childbirth and reduced risk of breast cancer

Some benefits of motherhood are intangible, but one has been validated through biostatistical research: women who bear children have a reduced risk of developing breast cancer.

3 Oct 2007