Genes News and Research

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NIH launches "Knockout Mouse Project"

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) today awarded a set of cooperative agreements, totaling up to $52 million over five years, to launch the Knockout Mouse Project.

7 Sep 2006

Genetic code for breast and colon cancers

Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center scientists have completed the first draft of the genetic code for breast and colon cancers.

7 Sep 2006

New avenue for the pursuit of therapies for Alzheimer's disease

The genes responsible for an inherited form of Alzheimer's disease play a direct role within cells that has largely been overlooked, according to a report in the September 8, 2006 issue of the journal Cell.

7 Sep 2006

Closing in on lethal arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia in young athletes

Johns Hopkins experts on the genetics of a potentially lethal heart rhythm defect that runs in families and targets young athletes report they have greatly narrowed the hunt for the specific genetic mutations that contribute to the problem.

7 Sep 2006

FDA releases draft guidelines regulating complex diagnostic tests

FDA on Tuesday released draft guidelines that assert the agency's authority for regulating gene- and protein-based diagnostic tests for conditions such as breast cancer and ovarian cancer, the Wall Street Journal reports.

6 Sep 2006

New York Times examines debate over preimplantation genetic diagnosis

The New York Times on Sunday examined the debate over preimplantation genetic diagnosis, a technique that allows physicians to identify embryos without genetic defects or chromosomal abnormalities and then implant the embryos most likely to result in a live, healthy infant.

5 Sep 2006

Discovery of a new gene that stimulates the growth of natural bypasses

World Congress of Cardiology Report - Researchers from the Max-Planck-Institute for Heart and Lung Research (MPI) in Bad Nauheim, Germany, have identified a gene, whose therapeutic use may be beneficial for patients suffering from obstructive arterial diseases.

5 Sep 2006

New map for human genome expression

ExonHit Therapeutics has announced the completion of a new messenger RNA (transcripts) map coming from human genome expression.

5 Sep 2006

Researchers identify genetic risk for type 1 diabetes

A discovery at the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes has identified a genetic risk for type 1 diabetes three to four times higher than previously thought possible.

4 Sep 2006

Mature muscle fibers can revert to become cancerous

Mature muscle fibers, rather than their less-developed neighbors, are the tissues that turn malignant in a soft-tissue cancer that strikes children and teens, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center and Children's Medical Center Dallas have found.

4 Sep 2006

New method of gene therapy alters immune cells for treatment of advanced melanoma

A team of researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, has demonstrated sustained regression of advanced melanoma in a study of 17 patients by genetically engineering patients' own white blood cells to recognize and attack cancer cells.

4 Sep 2006

Cancer Research Technology announce colorectal cancer research collaboration with AstraZeneca

Cancer Research Technology (CRT), the oncology-focused development and commercialisation company wholly owned by Cancer Research UK, today announce that they have entered into an agreement with AstraZeneca focused on colorectal cancer.

4 Sep 2006

Scientists create tumour zapping T cells which knock out cancer

Scientists in the United States have genetically engineered normal immune cells to become specialized fighters and used them to attack cancerous tumours.

31 Aug 2006

Largest review of Loeys-Dietz syndrome to date

At least three severe, potentially fatal genetic diseases leave patients with aortas so flimsy that they can rupture in pregnancy and labor or even lesser activities, often without warning.

31 Aug 2006

Hopkins develops online tool to aid research on certain "orphan diseases"

Many people are afflicted with rare illnesses of unknown cause, and finding a common link to such under-studied or "orphaned" diseases as Bardet-Biedl, Alstrom and Meckel-Gruber syndromes can significantly advance the search for causes and treatment.

31 Aug 2006

Researchers discover how cyclophosphamide chemotherapy drug helps a cancer-killing virus

Researchers here have discovered how a specific chemotherapy drug helps a cancer-killing virus. The virus is being tested in animals for the treatment of incurable human brain tumors.

31 Aug 2006

New cell-based targets for treating autoimmune inflammatory diseases

Patients with systemic autoimmune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) often suffer loss of kidney function.

31 Aug 2006

Variation in 3 genes influences risk of age-related macular degeneration

Researchers in Boston have discovered a new common, noncoding variant in the Complement Factor H (CFH) gene that is associated with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of irreversible visual impairment and blindness among persons aged 60 and older.

30 Aug 2006

Mitochondrial DNA sequencing tool updated

High-tech laboratory tools, like computers, are often updated publicly as their analytical capabilities expand. In the September issue of the Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, NIH grantees report they have developed a second generation "lab on a silicon chip" called the MitoChip v2.0 that for the first time rapidly and reliably sequences all mitochondrial DNA.

30 Aug 2006