Genetic News and Research

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How does the opioid system work?

The opioid system controls pain, reward and addictive behaviors. Opioids exert their pharmacological actions through three opioid receptors, mu, delta and kappa whose genes have been cloned (Oprm, Oprd1 and Oprk1, respectively).

15 Oct 2007

People with lower dopamine levels eat more

Science has found one likely contributor to the way that some folks eat to live and others live to eat.

15 Oct 2007

Benefits of exercise on the aging brain

Bradley Hatfield, professor in the University of Maryland, College Park, School of Public Health, uses high tech brain imaging to study the benefits of exercise on the aging brain.

15 Oct 2007

Dopamine levels and appetite

Science has found one likely contributor to the way that some folks eat to live and others live to eat.

15 Oct 2007

Couples attending cancer counseling together better prepared to ease children's concerns

When women with children attend a counseling session before undergoing genetic testing for breast cancer, they are far more likely than their partners to be up front with their kids about the tests and the potential for cancers being inherited, according to a study released today here at the annual meeting of the National Society of Genetic Counselors.

15 Oct 2007

Improving working memory by computerized strategy in ADHD

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a state of serious impairments in both learning ability and social functioning, is one of many labels for one of the most prevalent conditions in child psychiatry, and, undoubtedly, the most controversial, which partly persists into adulthood.

15 Oct 2007

Cigarette smoking may accelerate disability in multiple sclerosis

Persons with multiple sclerosis who smoke risk increasing the amount of brain tissue shrinkage, a consequence of MS, and the subsequent severity of their disease, new research conducted at the Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center (BNAC) at the University at Buffalo has shown.

15 Oct 2007

Chlamydia makes men infertile

One of the most common sexually transmitted diseases may be damaging the fertility of British males.

15 Oct 2007

RNA-binding protein key to understanding myotonic dystrophy type 1

Increased levels of a protein called CUGBP1 play an important role in the adult-onset form of muscular dystrophy called myotonic dystrophy type 1, said Baylor College of Medicine researchers in a report that appears in the journal Molecular Cell.

12 Oct 2007

Researchers focus on neuregulin gene and schizophrenia

Queen's scientists have started research on a human gene that will lead to a better understanding of schizophrenia.

12 Oct 2007

Discovery of protein that plays a key role in the recycling of iron from blood

Scientists working in the only lab at MIT doing hematology research have uncovered a protein that plays a key role in the recycling of iron from blood. Their work, described in the October 11 Journal of Clinical Investigation, could lead to new therapies for certain inherited blood disorders such as beta-thalassemia, a condition that causes chronic anemia.

12 Oct 2007

Genome update defines landscape of breast and colon cancers

One year after completing the first large-scale report sequencing breast and colon cancer genes, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center scientists have studied the vast majority of protein-coding genes which now suggest a landscape dominated by genes that each are mutated in relatively few cancers.

12 Oct 2007

Breast cancer awareness calls for cardiovascular awareness

Women who overcome breast cancer have every reason to celebrate. But a heart filled with joy may also be a heart damaged by life-saving cancer therapies, a growing body of research shows.

12 Oct 2007

Analysis of breast and colon cancer genes finds 5,000 previously unmapped genes

Researchers from University Hospitals (UH) Ireland Cancer Center and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine are part of a new national study that has analyzed more than 18,000 genes, including 5,000 previously unmapped genes, from breast and colorectal tumors.

12 Oct 2007

Aida granted new anti-cancer patent

One of mainland China's leading pharmaceutical companies, has announced that it was granted an additional patent related to its Rh-Apo2L anti-cancer drug, the second of three patents that had been applied for which Aida believes places it at the vanguard of China's pharmaceutical industry.

12 Oct 2007

A fresh perspective to the study of cell activity

In process that is shrouded in mystery, rod-shaped bacteria reproduce by splitting themselves in two. By applying advanced mathematics to laboratory data, a team led by Johns Hopkins researchers has solved a small but important part of this reproductive puzzle.

12 Oct 2007

Research shows how stem cells decide to become either skeletal or smooth muscle

Researchers have discovered a key protein that controls how stem cells "choose" to become either skeletal muscle cells that move limbs, or smooth muscle cells that support blood vessels, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

11 Oct 2007

Hypoplastic left heart syndrome likely caused by genetic factors

Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS), a severe cardiovascular malformation that is difficult to treat and often lethal, is caused primarily by genetic factors, according to a new study by researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

11 Oct 2007

New genetic understanding of multiple sclerosis patients response to Copaxone

A group of Israeli scientists from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, the Weizmann Institute of Science, and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries have recently identified genes responsible for the positive response of many multiple sclerosis (MS) patients to the drug Copaxone.

11 Oct 2007

Natural selection at the genetic level

In a molecular tour de force, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have provided an exquisitely detailed picture of natural selection as it occurs at the genetic level.

10 Oct 2007