Genetic Engineering News and Research

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New method may accelerate the way cancer-causing genes are found

Researchers at the University of Minnesota Cancer Center and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) have discovered a new method that could accelerate the way cancer-causing genes are found and could lead to a more accurate identification of the genes, according to two studies in the July 14, 2005, issue of Nature.

13 Jul 2005

Dopamine plays critical role in the modulation of sleep, wake, and arousal states

Methamphetamine, the drug of choice for long-distance truckers and college students pulling all-nighters, appears to do a similar trick for fruit flies, too.

12 Jul 2005

Vaccine against Lassa fever works in monkeys

Scientists say that a genetically engineered virus may possibly offer the first effective vaccine against Lassa fever.

28 Jun 2005

Study causes big shift in how we think about p53 gene

The cellular cascade of molecular signals that instructs cells with fatally damaged DNA to self-destruct pivots on the p53 tumor suppressor gene. If p53 is inactivated, as it is in over half of all human cancers, checks and balances on cell growth fail to operate, and body cells start to accumulate mutations, which ultimately may lead to cancer.

27 Jun 2005

Researchers successfully treat laboratory model of a lysosomal storage disease called GM1

Physicians might one day be able to treat a disease that destroys brain cells in children using genetically modified cells to transport a "drug" to the site of the dying neural cells (cells that transmit impulses).

27 Jun 2005

WHO wants more safety checks on genetically-modified food

In a recent report, the World Health Organization (WHO), has reiterated its view about the general safety of GMO foods. It also says that though genetically-modified organisms (GMO) can raise crop yields and food quality, which ultimately improves health and levels of nutrition as well as profits

26 Jun 2005

Enzyme family plays role in Alzheimer's

The route to a treatment for Alzheimer's disease may have become more straightforward with the discovery that a key enzyme known to have a major role in this disease is in fact part of a family of enzymes. Only some family members play a role in the progression of this brain-wasting illness, new research at the University of Toronto has found.

20 Jun 2005

Scientists have tracked down the biological trigger that gives rise to Van Buchem disease

...a hereditary, disfiguring bone disorder that can cause blindness and deafness. The findings provide insight into long-range gene regulation and could lead to new treatments for osteoporosis and other crippling bone disorders.

16 Jun 2005

Scientists discover new way of bringing "bio-prospecting" out of the rainforest and into the lab

Nature is a seemingly endless storehouse of interesting - and potentially life-saving - biological molecules. But tracking down and harvesting those chemicals in their natural form can be time-consuming, expensive and unreliable.

15 Jun 2005

SARS vaccine produced from plants

According to new research, a vaccine has been produced in genetically engineered tomato and tobacco plants, which triggers anti-SARS antibodies in mice.

15 Jun 2005

Bio-engineered skin provides clues to melanoma development

When it comes to the deadly skin cancer melanoma, studying functional tissue rather than cell lines may better provide insight into the disease's development, according to new research from a Howard Hughes Medical Institute predoctoral fellow at Stanford University School of Medicine.

12 Jun 2005

Link between PKC enzyme and kidney disease in diabetes confirmed

Researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center have investigated PKC-beta - a critical enzyme implicated in the devastating complications of type 1 and type 2 diabetes - for more than two decades.

12 Jun 2005

Link between hyperglycemia (high blood glucose), overexpression of PKC-beta 2 and kidney disease

Scientists at Joslin Diabetes Center have investigated PKC-beta -- a critical enzyme implicated in the devastating complications of type 1 and type 2 diabetes -- for more than two decades.

10 Jun 2005

First clues as to why stem cells ignore stop signs in the cell cycle

Everyone knows that stem cells are controversial. Many people know that stem cells can grow into virtually any cell type found in the body, from a red blood cell to a muscle cell to a brain cell. But no one really knows why stem cells continue to divide and renew themselves long after the point where other cells stop dividing.

10 Jun 2005

Research opens up new directions for studying prion diseases in humans

The mysterious, highly infectious prions, which cause the severe destruction of the brain that characterizes "mad cow disease" and several human brain degenerative disorders, can be rendered harmless in the laboratory by a slight alternation of the three-dimensional conformation or shape of the prion protein's structure.

9 Jun 2005

Gene therapy for arthritis is both feasible and safe

Gene therapy for arthritis and other non-terminal, debilitating conditions and diseases is both feasible and safe, report researchers who conducted the world's first such test on the approach in patients with advanced rheumatoid arthritis.

6 Jun 2005

Genetically engineered virus has shown promise as a treatment for patients with colorectal cancer

A single injection of a genetically engineered virus has shown promise as a treatment for patients with colorectal cancer that has spread to the liver, according to preliminary results reported at the 2nd ESMO Scientific & Educational Conference (ESEC) in Budapest, Hungary.

6 Jun 2005

A protein found naturally in the brain may protect against Parkinson's disease

The findings also may lead to an improved understanding of a disorder called early-onset torsion dystonia.

2 Jun 2005

Targepeutics issued new U.S patent

Targepeutics has announced the issuance of U.S. Patent No. 6,884,603 for its genetically modified, mutated Interleukin 13 (IL-13) technology platform for the treatment of malignant glioma, a brain tumor (17,500 people annually; $200 million annual market).

31 May 2005

'Bad' metabolism cloggs up arteries

Scientists are now saying that a 'bad' metabolism may explain why some people who have never smoked and do not have high cholesterol levels suffer from a potentially lethal build-up of plaque in the arteries.

26 May 2005