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New study heightens concerns over detrimental impact of air pollution on gene associated with AD risk

A new study by researchers at the Universities of Montana, Valle de México, Boise State, and North Carolina, the Centro de Ciencias de la Atmósfera, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto Nacional de Pediatría, and Centro Médico Cozumel heightens concerns over the detrimental impact of air pollution on hippocampal metabolites as early markers of neurodegeneration in young urbanites carrying an allele 4 of the apolipoprotein E gene (APOE).

26 Sep 2015

Study uses genome- and epigenome-editing tools to determine disease-causing variants

A paper receiving advance online release in Nature Medicine describes a strategy for meeting one of today's most significant challenges in genomic medicine - determining whether a specific DNA variant in the non-protein-coding genome is the actual disease-causing variant of an associated disease risk.

24 Sep 2015

Healthy diet and exercise can protect against AMD

People with a genetic predisposition for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) significantly increased their odds of developing the blinding eye disorder if they had a history of heavy smoking and consistently did not exercise or eat enough fruits and vegetables, according to an observational study of women funded by the National Eye Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health.

16 Sep 2015

Researchers take new line of approach to combat Alzheimer's disease

Today, more than 5.1 million Americans live with Alzheimer's disease, a devastating type of dementia that plagues memory and thinking. That number is expected to triple in the coming decades. Moreover, according to a 2012 survey, Americans fear Alzheimer's more than any other disease.

10 Sep 2015

UC Santa Barbara neuroscientists uncover mechanism of Alzheimer's progression

Medical research has yet to discover an Alzheimer's treatment that effectively slows the disease's progression, but neuroscientists at UC Santa Barbara may have uncovered a mechanism by which onset can be delayed by as much as 10 years.

2 Sep 2015

NYBC, UC Davis Health System partner to manufacture potential stem cell therapies

New York Blood Center today announced a new collaboration with the University of California, Davis, Health System to manufacture specialized lines of stem cells as potential therapies for repair and regeneration of retina, kidney, lung and liver tissue, as well as for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and Huntington's disease.

20 Aug 2015

LMU researchers reveal role of mutations in development of Ewing's sarcoma

Researchers from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet in Munich have elucidated at the molecular level how an otherwise innocuous inherited mutation that is quite common in European populations interacts with a spontaneous somatic mutation to promote the development of Ewing's sarcoma.

28 Jul 2015

Drug addiction expert uncovers molecular mechanisms that contribute to addiction resistance

Growing up in West Virginia, Jill Turner saw firsthand the kind of havoc that drug addiction can wreak. "I had a lot of friends who had very promising lives and promising careers ahead of them," the assistant professor in the South Carolina College of Pharmacy says, "but they ended up either overdosing or going to jail for drug-related stuff. It's one of the reasons I went into drug addiction research."

22 Jul 2015

Alzheimer's disease may be 'at work' years ahead of actual symptoms, say IU researchers

The best-known genetic variant linked to Alzheimer's disease may be "at work" promoting deposits of plaque in the brain long before any symptoms of the disease can be measured on tests, according to a national research study led by Indiana University School of Medicine investigators.

14 Jul 2015

Electroporation technique brings higher efficiency, higher throughput genome engineering in animal models

Jackson Laboratory researchers have shown that using an electric current to deliver the CRISPR/Cas9 system, in order to engineer genetic changes in laboratory mice, is highly efficient and significantly improves the system's throughput.

9 Jun 2015

PGDx introduces ImmunoSelect-R service to support development of immuno-oncology cancer therapies

Personal Genome Diagnostics, Inc., a provider of advanced cancer genome analysis and testing services, today announced the launch of its ImmunoSelect-R service designed to identify mutant neoantigens and support development of immuno-oncology cancer therapies.

1 Jun 2015

SNPs predict sunitinib outcome in mRCC

Research has confirmed that single nucleotide polymorphisms in genes related to the processing of sunitinib influence the outcome of treatment for metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

29 May 2015

Iron may underlie effect of Alzheimer’s risk allele

Ferritin in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with Alzheimer’s disease is associated with the APOE ε4 risk allele and predicts cognitive outcomes, a study shows.

29 May 2015

Study: Drugs that block NPC1 protein could be used to treat Ebola virus disease

A new study has demonstrated that a protein called Niemann-Pick C1 (NPC1) is critical for the Ebola virus to infect a host. The study, published in the May/June issue of mBio, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, suggests that drugs that block NPC1 could be used to treat this deadly disease.

27 May 2015

Studies refine amyloid imaging role in dementia

Two meta-analyses published in JAMA help to define the role of amyloid imaging in dementia.

21 May 2015

Study: Air pollution, impaired lung function independently affect cognition

Studies have shown that both air pollution and impaired lung function can cause cognitive deficits, but it was unclear whether air pollution diminishes cognition by reducing breathing ability first or whether air pollution represents an independent risk factor for cognitive deficit.

19 May 2015

Alnylam files clinical trial application for alpha-1 liver disease, presents data at DDW

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has announced that it has filed a Clinical Trial Application (CTA) with the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to initiate a Phase 1/2 clinical trial with ALN-AAT, a subcutaneously administered investigational RNAi therapeutic targeting alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) for the treatment of AAT deficiency-associated liver disease (alpha-1 liver disease).

19 May 2015

Allele-specific lncRNA regulates cancer metabolism

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNA) are unusual in that they don't encode proteins like normal RNA. Yet they do play a role in regulating cellular functions and interest cancer researchers.

21 Apr 2015

UC Irvine professor explores the link between autism and ADHD

For the better part of the last decade, a growing body of research has been revealing more and more similarities between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism.

17 Apr 2015

New method for measuring genetic variability may help identify patients with aggressive cancers

A new method for measuring genetic variability within a tumor might one day help doctors identify patients with aggressive cancers that are more likely to resist therapy, according to a study led by researchers now at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute.