Inherit News and Research

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X-chromosome related microRNA may impact immunity and cancer

As anyone familiar with the phrase 'man-flu' will know women consider themselves to be the more robust side of the species when it comes to health and illness. Now new research, published in BioEssays, seems to support the idea. The research focuses on the role of MicroRNAs encoded on the X chromosome to explain why women have stronger immune systems to men and are less likely to develop cancer.

28 Sep 2011

Duplication of RPS6KA3 gene produces limited family intellectual disability

The financial contributions made some years ago by individuals and public administration bodies in the telemarathon solidarity events on the Basque Public Broadcasting Corporation (EiTB) and subsequently channelled through the Basque Foundation for Health Innovation and Research (BIOEF), has resulted in undertaking successful innovative research at the Cruces Hospital near Bilbao in the Basque province of Bizkaia, describing a new syndrome of limited family intellectual disability.

26 Sep 2011

Common genetic variants linked to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

Knowledge about the biological origin of diseases like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other psychiatric conditions is critical to improving diagnosis and treatment.

22 Sep 2011

Researchers show how the body rids itself of damage when needed to reproduce and create new life

Although the body is constantly replacing cells and cell constituents, damage and imperfections accumulate over time. Cleanup efforts are saved for when it really matters. Researchers from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, are able to show how the body rids itself of damage when it is time to reproduce and create new life.

21 Sep 2011

Common DNA variations contribute to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder

A team of over 250 researchers from more than 20 countries have discovered that common genetic variations contribute to a person's risk of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

20 Sep 2011

Landmark international study confirms common genetic contribution to mental illness

An international research consortium has confirmed that common genetic variants contribute to a person’s risk of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The largest study of its kind provides new molecular evidence that 11 regions have strong association with these diseases, including six regions not previously observed. The researchers also found that many of these DNA variations contribute to both diseases. The findings, reported by the Psychiatric Genome-Wide Association Study Consortium (PGC) and published online in two papers in the journal Nature Genetics, represent significant advances in the understanding the causes of these severe and often debilitating disorders.

18 Sep 2011

Sickle cell trait does not increase risk of severe kidney disease in African-Americans

Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center report that sickle cell trait is not a risk factor for the development of severe kidney disease in African-Americans.

15 Sep 2011

Women with BRCA gene mutations at risk of developing cancers at earlier ages

A new analysis has found that women who develop certain hereditary cancers develop them at earlier ages than women in the previous generation. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the results point to the importance of tracking younger ages of cancer diagnosis to determine when to provide counseling, screening, and treatment services.

12 Sep 2011

Dad's stress can affect unborn children

Does Dad's stress affect his unborn children? According to the results of a new study in Elsevier's Biological Psychiatry, it seems the answer may be "yes, but it's complicated".

31 Aug 2011

New Pressurized Olfactory Device shows direct CNS effect of morphine

A simple new approach to nasal drug administration may allow morphine and other strong pain medications to be targeted directly to the central nervous system (CNS), reports an experimental study in the September issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society.

24 Aug 2011

Young stressed females can impair future offspring, also improve resilience

The study found that stress experienced by young female rats can impair their future offspring, but can also improve resilience. The study also showed that providing the young stressed females with an enriched environment, can indeed ameliorate some of the effects.

17 Aug 2011

Dermatologist discusses common skin conditions that affect people of color at AAD 2011 meeting

The U.S. Census Bureau predicts that by the year 2050, more than half the U.S. population will have skin of color. Recognizing this trend, dermatologists are educating the public about the different ways that common skin conditions appear in various skin tones.

5 Aug 2011

World's best genetic map now built in African-Americans

A group of researchers from the University of Oxford, Harvard Medical School and the University of Mississippi Medical Center has constructed the world's most detailed genetic map, a tool scientists can use to better understand the roots of disease and how DNA is passed generationally to create diversity in the human species.

21 Jul 2011

Fruit flies with poor posture help scientists understand human intellectual disability

Clumsy fruit flies with poor posture are helping an international team of scientists understand inherited intellectual disability in humans - and vice versa.

5 Jul 2011

New insight into oocyte chromosome abnormalities

Ovarian stimulation undertaken by women of advanced maternal age receiving fertility treatment may be disrupting the normal pattern of meiosis - a critical process of chromosome duplication followed by two specialised cell divisions in the production of oocytes and sperm - and leading to abnormalities of chromosome copy numbers that result in IVF failure, pregnancy loss or, more rarely, the birth of affected children with conditions such as Down's syndrome, which is caused by the inheritance of three copies of chromosome 21.

4 Jul 2011

New guide indicates when and how genetic testing is useful for inherited cardiac conditions

While genetic inheritance is known to play a role in the multifactorial development of most diseases of the heart, there are also a number of clearly diagnosed cardiac conditions which owe their development to quite specific genetic abnormalities. When these genetic disorders affect the integrity of the heart's muscle they are known as a "cardiomyopathy"; when the disorder affects the heart's "excitability", it is known as a "channelopathy".

27 Jun 2011

RIKEN researchers reveal mechanism for stress-induced epigenetic change

Researchers at RIKEN have uncovered a mechanism by which the effects of stress in the fly species Drosophila are inherited epigenetically over many generations through changes to the structure of chromatin, the material that makes up the cell nucleus.

24 Jun 2011