Chromosome 2 News and Research

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Chromosome 2 is one of the 23 pairs of chromosomes in humans. People normally have two copies of this chromosome. Chromosome 2 is the second largest human chromosome, spanning more than 237 million base pairs (the building material of DNA) and representing almost 8% of the total DNA in cells.

Genomic factors may play a role in alcohol and tobacco use

Alcohol and smoking can be harmful, if not deadly. While the desire for these substances can be due to environmental cues, genomic factors also play an important role.

13 Aug 2007

New insights into cell division process

Which genes are passed on from mother to child is decided very early on during the maturation of the egg cell in the ovary.

12 Aug 2007

Cause of major subtype of glaucoma discovered

In a paper published in the journal Science, scientists from deCODE genetics and academic colleagues from the National University Hospital in Reykjavik and Uppsala University in Sweden report the discovery of two common single letter variations (SNPs) in the sequence of the human genome that appear to account for virtually all cases of a major subtype of glaucoma.

12 Aug 2007

TRF2 and POT1 proteins found on telomeres control DNA damage response pathways

No sooner had cells evolved linear chromosomes than they had a life-threatening problem to solve.

12 Aug 2007

New research may lead to future gene therapies for patients with sickle cell anemia and beta-thalassemia

Virginia Commonwealth University researchers studying hemoglobin genes, mutations of which play a role in genetic blood disorders like sickle cell anemia and beta-thalassemia, have identified two proteins that are responsible for regulating overlapping groups of genes during the development of red blood cells.

7 Aug 2007

New insight into mechanism of DNA-break repair

A new UC Davis study that explains the actions of a gene mutation that causes early onset cancer provides a fundamental insight into the mechanism of DNA-break repair.

6 Aug 2007

Biologists discover one reason why chromosomes break, often leading to cancer

In the past ten years, researchers in genome stability have observed that many kinds of cancer are associated with areas where human chromosomes break.

6 Aug 2007

Discredited Korean embryonic stem cells' true origins revealed

A report from researchers at Children's Hospital Boston and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute sheds new light on a now-discredited Korean embryonic stem cell line, setting the historical record straight and also establishing a much-needed set of standards for characterizing human embryonic stem cells.

3 Aug 2007

Prototype vaccine against tuberculosis

Using a novel approach, researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have developed a prototype vaccine against tuberculosis (TB) that works better in animal models than the only TB vaccine now available.

2 Aug 2007

Aggressive therapy best for certain acute myeloid leukemia patients

A new study suggests that acute leukemia patients whose cancer cells show a genetic change that usually predicts a swift return of the disease following remission may remain disease-free longer when given aggressive therapy.

2 Aug 2007

Neighbor clustering better identifies functionally related genes on the bacterial chromosome

The moment a bacterial pathogen makes contact with its host, its goal is simple: to infect.

1 Aug 2007

Bipolar disorder phenome database

A novel, free, public online database opening this week should greatly speed efforts to find genes linked to increase risk of bipolar disorder.

1 Aug 2007

Xenomics issued European patent for Transrenal Nucleic Acid Technology for Prenatal Diagnostics

Xenomics, Inc. has announced the issuance of its first European patent "Methods for detection of nucleic acid sequences in urine", EP 1634966 A2 that covers use of its proprietary transrenal nucleic acid technology in the area of prenatal diagnostics and genetic testing.

1 Aug 2007

Discovery of pathway that controls cell size and division

Organisms precisely regulate cell size to ensure that daughter cells have sufficient cellular material to thrive or to create specific cell types: a tiny sperm versus a gargantuan egg for example.

1 Aug 2007

Chromosomes responsible for a critical enzyme's activation during cell division

In a dividing cell, chromosomes interact with cellular scaffolding - called spindle microtubules - in order to move themselves to opposite ends of the cell, ensuring that both daughter cells receive an exact copy of their parent cell's genetic material.

1 Aug 2007