Genes News and Research

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The interaction between genes and behavior

Our DNA determines a lot about who we are and how we play with others, but recent studies of social animals (birds and bees, among others) show that the interaction between genes and behavior is more of a two-way street than most of us realize.

7 Nov 2008

Silencing growth inhibitors could help recovery from brain injury

Silencing natural growth inhibitors may make it possible to regenerate nerves damaged by brain or spinal cord injury, finds a study from Children's Hospital Boston.

7 Nov 2008

Novel concept in chronic lymphoid leukemia treatment

Mayo Clinic researchers say they have moved closer to their goal of providing personalized care for a common blood cell cancer.

7 Nov 2008

Researchers find new path to antibiotics in dirt

A teaspoon of dirt contains an estimated 10,000 species of bacteria, but it's only one percent of these microbial bugs - the ones that can be grown easily in a lab - that have brought us antibiotics, anticancer agents and other useful drugs.

7 Nov 2008

10 years of stem cells science

Ten years ago this month (Nov. 6, 1998), the publication in the journal Science of a short paper entitled "Embryonic Stem Cell Lines Derived from Human Blastocysts" rocked biology - and the world - as the all-purpose stem cell and its possibilities were ushered into the limelight.

7 Nov 2008

Pregnancy diabetes doubles the risk of language development problems in children

Children born to mothers with pregnancy-related diabetes run twice the risk of language development problems, according to a research team directed by Professor Ginette Dionne of Université Laval's School of Psychology.

7 Nov 2008

Researchers screen 700 molecules by RNAi to identify host factors involved in malaria infection

The researchers of the Malaria Unit at Instituto de Medicina Molecular (IMM, Lisbon, Portugal) publish in the peer reviewed journal PLoS Pathogens the results of a large scale screening of more than 700 genes to identify host factors involved in the liver stage of malaria infection.

7 Nov 2008

Impulse control area in brain affected in teens with genetic vulnerability for alcoholism

A new study suggests that genetic factors influence size variations in a certain region of the brain, which could in turn be partly responsible for increased susceptibility to alcohol dependence.

7 Nov 2008

How RNA polymerase kick starts gene activation revealed

How 'molecular machines' inside cells swing into action to activate genes at different times in a cell's life is revealed in new research published in Molecular Cell.

7 Nov 2008

Australian-led global initiative to improve diagnosis of genetic disorders

An Australian-led global initiative to improve the diagnosis of genetic disorders and reduce errors in the reporting of genetic variations has been published today in the prestigious scientific journal Science.

7 Nov 2008

A virus-infecting virus

Using the Genome Sequencer System from 454 Life Sciences, a Roche company, French scientists have identified a small virus that can actually be parasitic to a larger one.

7 Nov 2008

Scientists confirm a molecular clipping mechanism behind stem cell development

Stem cells don't just become a part of the liver or the brain in a flash; it takes a complex molecular choreography and requires that specific genes be switched on and off at specific times.

6 Nov 2008

Newly discovered protein may help explain tuberculosis' resiliency

Weill Cornell scientists have located a protein produced by the tuberculosis bacterium that may tell researchers more about how the invader lives so resiliently inside of the body.

6 Nov 2008

Scientists sequence genome of a cancer patient

For the first time, scientists have decoded the complete DNA of a cancer patient and traced her disease - acute myelogenous leukemia - to its genetic roots.

6 Nov 2008

New research sheds light on key trigger of embryonic stem cell differentiation

Clusters of mouse embryonic stem cells called embryoid bodies more closely approximate true embryos in organization and structure than previously thought, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

6 Nov 2008

Scientists identify compounds for stem-cell production from adult cells

In the study, the scientists screened known drugs and identified small molecules that could replace conventional reprogramming genes, which can have dangerous side effects.

6 Nov 2008

H5N1 protein hides in tiny tubules

A protein found in the virulent avian influenza virus strain called H5N1 forms tiny tubules in which it "hides" the pieces of double-stranded RNA formed during viral infection, which otherwise would prompt an antiviral immune response from infected cells, said Baylor College of Medicine researchers in an online report in the journal Nature.

6 Nov 2008