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).

Telomerase finding has major implications for cancer

UCLA biochemists have determined the three-dimensional structure of a major domain of telomerase, the enzyme that helps maintain telomeres - small pieces of DNA on the ends of chromosomes that act as protective caps - allowing DNA ends to be copied completely when cells are replicated.

9 Mar 2005

Finding may open new horizons for understanding the initiation of chemically induced cancers

A team from the chemistry and biology departments of New York University, in collaboration with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), has uncovered a conformational switch - a change in shape in a carcinogen-damaged DNA site - in tumor suppressor genes altered by a known cancer-causing chemical found in cigarette smoke.

9 Mar 2005

New chemotherapy gives hope to brain tumour patients

A large international study conducted by the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC) Clinical Trials Group demonstrated that the addition of a novel chemotherapy agent, Temozolomide (brand name: Temodal®) to radiation therapy increases survival in patients suffering from glioblastoma, a very aggressive form of a brain tumour.

9 Mar 2005

UN votes to ban human cloning

By a vote of 84 in favor, 34 against and 37 abstaining, with 36 absent, the UN today approved a declaration calling on all UN Member States to ban all forms of human cloning, including cloning for medical treatment, as incompatible with human dignity and the protection of human life.

9 Mar 2005

Pregnant women who smoke risk their child getting cancer

Smoking has a wide range of possible consequences during and after pregnancy, such as infertility, coagulation problems, obstetric complications such as extrauterine pregnancy and placenta previa, and intrauterine growth retardation, according to background information in a recent study.

8 Mar 2005

Progress toward development of a breast cancer vaccine

Progress toward development of a breast cancer vaccine has been reported by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine and the Siteman Cancer Center in St. Louis.

8 Mar 2005

Nano-enabled drug discovery solutions will generate revenues of $1.3 billion in 2009

According to a new report by NanoMarkets, an industry consultancy based here, nano-enabled drug discovery solutions will generate revenues of $1.3 billion in 2009 and grow to $2.5 billion in 2012.

8 Mar 2005

Medical tests in the privacy of your own home

A San Francisco-based testing company is currently offering genetic testing, for a predisposition to cystic fibrosis, blood clotting, iron overload and a heightened risk for lung and liver diseases; prices ranging from $199 to $380.

7 Mar 2005

DNA ejection from single phage particles

Studying phage, a primitive class of virus that infects bacteria by injecting its genomic DNA into host cells, researchers have gained insight into the driving force behind this poorly understood injection process, which has been proposed in the past to occur through the release of pressure accumulated within the viral particle itself.

7 Mar 2005

Air Genome Project to sample air using whole genome shotgun sequencing

The J. Craig Venter Institute is launching a pilot project to better understand the diversity of microbes in urban air. In addition to more deeply characterizing the microbes we breathe every day, researchers anticipate that the results will provide information vital to designing systems that detect potentially dangerous biological substances in the air.

7 Mar 2005

First genetic marker to help identify ruptured brain aneurysm

Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered a genetic marker that may pave the way for a fast, inexpensive blood test to predict one type of deadly stroke that strikes 30,000 people in the United States annually.

6 Mar 2005

Scientists have identified a key network that prevents damage by oxygen radicals

Reactive oxygen species (ROS), or 'oxygen radicals', have been identified as major contributors to signs of premature aging, increased cancer prevalence linked to inflammation-associated syndromes and a variety of human diseases.

6 Mar 2005

Proteins link cellular aging and response to calorie restriction

In the March 3 issue of Nature, Johns Hopkins researchers report that two proteins best known for very different activities actually come together to turn the liver into a sugar-producing factory when food is scarce.

6 Mar 2005

Discovery gives clinicians new targets for making existing therapies more effective and developing drugs to inhibit the growth of cancers

A team of researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute in Toronto have discovered how a key enzyme involved in repairing DNA is put together and how it works--a development that opens up new therapies for making cancer cells more vulnerable to attack.

3 Mar 2005

Important advance in our understanding of colorectal cancer

An international team of medical scientists has made an important advance in our understanding of the second most fatal form of cancer in the industrialized world. Professor Jeremy R. Jass, who holds a Canada Research Chair in Gastrointestinal Pathology at McGill University in Montreal

3 Mar 2005

Genetic cause of dyslexia

A gene which is likely to be one of the causes of dyslexia in children has been discovered by researchers at Cardiff University.

3 Mar 2005

Inherited traits and tumor mutations affect response to treatment of leukemia

The outcome of chemotherapy treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) depends not only on the acquired genetic make-up of the leukemic cells, but on genes that children inherit from their parents. This study, from investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, is published in the online edition of Blood.

3 Mar 2005

Researchers identify first known mutation to occur in lung cancer patients who have never smoked

Dr.Adi Gazdar, professor of pathology in the Nancy B. and Jake L. Hamon Center for Therapeutic Oncology Research and senior author of the study in today's issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, explains that the findings may show why certain lung cancer patients respond dramatically to a specific form of targeted therapy while others have little or no response.

2 Mar 2005

Future diabetes drugs may target new protein interaction

2 Mar 2005

How and why people become addicted to alcohol

Virginia Commonwealth University researchers have identified several genetic changes in the brains of mice caused by ethanol, which may help researchers better understand how and why people become addicted to alcohol.

2 Mar 2005