Genetic News and Research

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Major study shoots for personalized breast cancer drugs

Mutations in BCRA1 and BCRA2 genes are mainly associated with increased risk of breast cancer in women. Recently many other genetic variants have been found to be associated with breast cancer.

19 Mar 2010

Research group unveils new computational strategy for GWAS

In the ongoing quest to identify the genetic factors involved in disease, scientists have increasingly turned to genome-wide association studies, or GWAS, which enable the scanning of up to a million genetic markers in thousands of individuals.

19 Mar 2010

Researchers use optogenetics technology to troubleshoot neural circuits

Recently, brain researchers have gained a powerful new way to troubleshoot neural circuits associated with depression, Parkinson's disease and other conditions in small animals such as rats. They use an optogenetics technology, invented at Stanford University, that precisely turns select brain cells on or off with flashes of light. Although useful, the optogenetics tool set has been limited.

19 Mar 2010

Rates of breast cancer occurrences in Asian women rising among specific ethnic groups

Research scientists from the Cancer Prevention Institute of California (CPIC) released the results of a study of breast cancer in Asian women which examined their cancer rates by ethnicity, age and immigrant status. The findings challenge the notion that breast cancer rates are uniformly low across the population of Asian women and indicate rising rates of occurrences in specific ethnic groups. CPIC scientists studied Asian populations in California, the state with the largest and most diverse Asian population in the U.S.

19 Mar 2010

Survey unveils impact of gene regulation on human health

Researchers are only beginning to understand how individual variation in gene regulation can have a lasting impact on one's health and susceptibility to certain diseases. Now, an ambitious survey of the human genome has identified differences in the binding of master regulators called transcription factors to DNA that affect how genes are expressed in different people.

19 Mar 2010

Stiff skin syndrome cause found

By studying the genetics of a rare inherited disorder called stiff skin syndrome, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have learned more about scleroderma, a condition affecting about one in 5,000 people that leads to hardening of the skin as well as other debilitating and often life-threatening problems. The findings, which appear this week in Science Translational Medicine, open doors to testing new treatments.

18 Mar 2010

Broad application of bipolar diagnosis in children may do more harm than good

Troubled children diagnosed with bipolar disorder may fare better with a different diagnosis, according to researchers at The Hastings Center.

18 Mar 2010

Gene regulation rather than genes make us unique

Once the human genome was sequenced in 2001, the hunt was on for the genes that make each of us unique. But scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, and Yale and Stanford Universities in the USA, have found that we differ from each other mainly because of differences not in our genes, but in how they're regulated - turned on or off, for instance.

18 Mar 2010

StemCells granted UK patent covering true rat stem cells and genetically engineered rats

StemCells, Inc. announced today that the United Kingdom (UK) Intellectual Property Office has granted patent number GB2451523 with broad claims covering true (germline competent) rat stem cells and genetically engineered rats derived from these cells. The patented technology is expected to have significant utility to academic and pharmaceutical industry researchers by enabling them to create novel rat models for the study of human diseases. Both mice and rats are used by scientists to model various human diseases.

18 Mar 2010

BeaconEquity.com: AVI BioPharma's revenues for fourth-quarter of 2009 are $5.1M

BeaconEquity.com announces an investment report featuring biotech company AVI BioPharma Inc. The report includes financial, comparative and investment analyses, and pertinent industry information you need to know to make an educated investment decision.

18 Mar 2010

Health IT Now! Coalition panel discussion: Develop affordable access to broadband and healthcare

The Health IT Now! Coalition hosted a panel discussion today with the Federal Communications Commission and a panel of experts to discuss the FCC's National Broadband Plan and its proposals to develop affordable access to broadband and healthcare.

18 Mar 2010

ETP releases presentation highlights of 2010 Epilepsy Pipeline Update Conference

The Epilepsy Therapy Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating new therapies for people living with epilepsy, today released presentation highlights following its successful 2010 Epilepsy Pipeline Update Conference held in San Francisco. Sponsored by ETP, this conference brings together leading clinical investigators, emerging CNS companies and academic innovators with investors and business development partners to facilitate professional collaboration, funding and partnerships that will accelerate patient access to new treatments.

18 Mar 2010

Reversal of aging shown in human stem cells

A team of North American collaborators from both industrial research centers (Biotime Inc, Mandala Biosciences LLC and Sierra Sciences LLC) and academic institutes (Ontario Cancer Institute, Burnham Institute for Medical Research and The Scripps Research Institute) have demonstrated successful reversal of the developmental aging of normal human cells.

18 Mar 2010

Genes allowing opium poppy to make codeine and morphine discovered

Researchers at the University of Calgary have discovered the unique genes that allow the opium poppy to make codeine and morphine, thus opening doors to alternate methods of producing these effective painkillers either by manufacturing them in a lab or controlling the production of these compounds in the plant.

18 Mar 2010

Berkeley HeartLab adopts GenTegra DNA to support diagnostic genetic testing for cardiovascular disease

GenVault Corporation today announced that Berkeley HeartLab, a subsidiary of Celera Corporation, has adopted GenTegra DNA to preserve and store diagnostic samples for genetic testing related to the management of cardiovascular disease.

18 Mar 2010

McGill researchers pioneer major breakthrough in DNA nanotechnology

A team of McGill Chemistry Department researchers led by Dr. Hanadi Sleiman has achieved a major breakthrough in the development of nanotubes - tiny "magic bullets" that could one day deliver drugs to specific diseased cells.

18 Mar 2010

Fungi, like bacteria, can cause severe infections

Fungi have significant potential for "horizontal" gene transfer, a new study has shown, similar to the mechanisms that allow bacteria to evolve so quickly, become resistant to antibiotics and cause other serious problems.

18 Mar 2010

Purified form of omega 3 curbs precancerous bowel polyps

A purified form of an omega 3 cuts the number and size of precancerous bowel growths (polyps) in people whose genetic make-up predisposes them to bowel cancer, finds research published ahead of print in the journal Gut.

18 Mar 2010

RainDance Technologies partners with Ambry Genetics to provide sequence enrichment solution for clinical and research studies

Ambry Genetics and RainDance Technologies today jointly announced at the Annual CHI Next Generation Sequencing Conference in San Diego, CA their partnership utilizing the RDT 1000 for sequence enrichment and resequencing validation.

18 Mar 2010

Alzheimer's disease: Gene expression level influences promotion of disorder or protection against development

Using sophisticated techniques that scan the genomes of patients, researchers at the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida have found that a gene appears to either help protect against development of Alzheimer's disease, or promote the disorder depending on the level of gene in the brain.

18 Mar 2010