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Alcohol and blood pressure

A new study published in PLoS Medicine shows that individuals who drink on a regular basis have a systolic blood pressure around 7 mmHg higher than that of people who do not drink.

6 Mar 2008

Genetic variations increase risk of anxiety disorders

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers - in collaboration with scientists at the University of California at San Diego and Yale University - have discovered perhaps the strongest evidence yet linking variation in a particular gene with anxiety-related traits.

4 Mar 2008

Device allows scientists to control gene activity across generations of cells

Just as cells inherit genes, they also inherit a set of instructions that tell genes when to become active, in which tissues and to what extent.

4 Mar 2008

Hypertension linked to heavy drinking

According to British researchers the relationship between heavy drinking and high blood pressure is more significant than previously thought.

4 Mar 2008

New drug trial to target hereditary cancers

Cancer Research UK scientists at Newcastle University are starting the first UK trial of a new drug which targets the 'Achilles' heel' in hereditary forms of both breast and ovarian cancer.

28 Feb 2008

New drug trial to target hereditary cancers

Cancer Research UK scientists at Newcastle University are starting the first UK trial of a new drug which targets the 'Achilles' heel' in hereditary forms of both breast and ovarian cancer.

28 Feb 2008

Smoking's effects on genes may play a role in lung cancer development and survival

Smoking plays a role in lung cancer development, and now scientists have shown that smoking also affects the way genes are expressed, leading to alterations in cell division and regulation of immune response.

21 Feb 2008

Scientists discover why some breast cancers are drug resistant

Research by British scientists has revealed how cancer cells which have a faulty gene can become resistant to treatment.

13 Feb 2008

Cancer cells adapt using Darwin's 'survival of the fittest' principle to resist treatment

Scientists in London have discovered a new genetic mechanism which helps cancer cells survive by changing the way they respond to treatment.

11 Feb 2008

New knowledge base of gene-disease relationships

The 12 Million Euro 'GEN2PHEN' project, funded by the European Commission, aims to harness the web to capture and unify genetic information that fundamentally impacts on a person's health and disease processes.

22 Jan 2008

Untreated blood disorder leads to liver cancer and arthritis

Australian researchers have discovered that more than one quarter of men with hemochromatosis develop liver cancer, arthritis and other complications.

20 Jan 2008

New clues about BRCA1 role in breast cancer

A breast cancer gene's newly discovered role in repairing damaged DNA may help explain why women who inherit a mutated copy of the gene are at increased risk for developing both breast and ovarian cancer.

17 Jan 2008

Gene markers located for hereditary prostate cancer

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Brady Urological Institute, Wake Forest University and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden have identified an array of gene markers for hereditary prostate cancer that, along with family history for the disease, appear to raise risk to more than nine times that of men without such markers.

17 Jan 2008

Researchers associate six new genetic variants with heart disease risk factor

Using new techniques for rapidly scanning the human genome, researchers have associated levels of cholesterol and triglycerides, two fats in the blood, to 18 genetic variants, six of which represent new DNA regions never before associated with the traits.

15 Jan 2008

Researchers shed light on genetic factors behind UK's biggest killer

Researchers investigating the biochemical characteristics behind several everyday diseases have discovered a new chromosomal region to be strongly associated with the bad cholesterol, low density lipoprotein, (LDL).

11 Jan 2008

Discovery of gene variant that raises autism risk

Scientists have found a variation in a gene that may raise the risk of developing autism, especially when the variant is inherited from mothers rather than fathers.

11 Jan 2008

Pregnant women who are overweight/obese set the stage for offspring's obesity risk

The number of overweight and obese Americans continues to grow rapidly. Today, 50 percent of adults are overweight and up to 20 percent are obese. While the number of overweight/obese children is at an all time high, the steady increase of overweight infants -- individuals under 11 months old -- is alarming.

4 Jan 2008

Hereditary form of colon cancer traced to common ancester in U.S.

A married couple who sailed from England to America around 1630 may be the ancestors of hundreds of people alive today who are at risk for a hereditary form of colon cancer.

3 Jan 2008

Gene variation increases risk of liver tumor in patients with cirrhosis

A particular gene variation appears to significantly increase the risk that individuals with cirrhosis of the liver will go on to develop hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a liver tumor that is the third leading cause of cancer death.

2 Jan 2008

Breast cancer gene mutation more common in Hispanic, young black women

A genetic mutation already known to be more common in Ashkenazi Jewish breast cancer patients is also prevalent in Hispanic and young African-American women with breast cancer, according to one of the largest, multiracial studies of the mutation to date.

28 Dec 2007