Genetic News and Research

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Researchers pinpoint when a cell is ready to reproduce

For more than 100 years, scientists have tried to figure out the cell size problem: How does a cell know when it is big enough to divide, In research conducted in budding yeast ( Saccharomyces cerevisiae ), scientists at Rockefeller University have now identified the cellular event that marks the moment when a cell knows it is big enough to commit to cell division and spawn genetic replicas of itself.

24 Sep 2007

Is there really a 'mommy' gene in women?

Basic principles of biology rather than women's newfound economic independence can explain why fewer of them are getting married and having children, and why the trend may only be temporary, says a Queen's researcher.

24 Sep 2007

Why some people find it so difficult to stop smoking

Mark Twain boasted that it was easy to quit smoking because he did it every day.

24 Sep 2007

Genetic cause discovered for systemic lupus erythematosus

Mutations in a gene researchers call TREX1 is one cause for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a severe and incurable autoimmune disease.

24 Sep 2007

FAU receives patent for invention that induces and restores cardiac muscle function

Florida Atlantic University received U.S. patent no. 10/822,496, "Promoting Cardiac Cell Differentiation," based on an invention which induces and restores cardiac muscle function.

24 Sep 2007

Framingham Heart Study 100K result published

BioMed Central has announced that 17 research articles carried out using genetic data from the Framingham Heart Study (FHS), are being published as a supplement to BMC Medical Genetics.

23 Sep 2007

New patented invention induces and restores cardiac muscle function

Florida Atlantic University received U.S. patent no. 10/822,496, "Promoting Cardiac Cell Differentiation," based on an invention which induces and restores cardiac muscle function.

21 Sep 2007

Brugia malayi's secrets revealed

An international team of researchers has revealed the genetic secrets of one of the world's most debilitating human parasites, Brugia malayi (B. malayi), which the World Health Organization estimates has seriously incapacitated and disfigured more than 40 million people around the globe.

21 Sep 2007

Process of necrosis redefined in landmark study

A new study led by investigators from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine demonstrates that the process of necrosis, long thought to be a chaotic, irreversible pathway to cell death, may actually be triggered as part of a regulated response to stress by a powerful protein, SRP-6, that can potentially halt necrosis in its path.

21 Sep 2007

Scientists solve genetic code of parasitic worm that causes elephantiasis

More than 150 million people worldwide are infected with filarial parasites -- long, thread-like worms that can live for years inside the human body and cause severe, debilitating diseases such as elephantiasis.

21 Sep 2007

Noninvasive prenatal testing by analyzing mother's blood

Currently, prenatal diagnosis of genetic diseases and genetic monitoring of fetal development require invasive procedures.

21 Sep 2007

Genes for osteoporosis

Researchers at Hebrew SeniorLife's Institute for Aging Research (IFAR) have examined close to 100,000 genetic markers for low bone mass and aging to help determine which genes are responsible for the development of osteoporosis and longevity.

21 Sep 2007

Heat shock proteins are co-opted for cancer

A Jekyll-Hyde mechanism that both protects healthy cells and enables cancer cells could be the basis for new cancer-fighting drugs.

21 Sep 2007

Genetic variation affects smoking cessation treatment

Mark Twain boasted that it was easy to quit smoking because he did it every day.

21 Sep 2007

Flu virus migrates globally all year round

The influenza A virus does not lie dormant during summer but migrates globally and mixes with other viral strains before returning to the Northern Hemisphere as a genetically different virus, according to biologists who say the finding settles a key debate on what the virus does during the summer off season when it is not infecting people.

21 Sep 2007