Genetic News and Research

RSS

Study identifies new genetic pathways driving cardiometabolic disease risk

A study published today in PLOS Medicine has identified two new genetic pathways that contribute to cardiometabolic disease, which includes heart disease, obesity and diabetes.

23 Apr 2026

Cell squeezing technology offers new breast cancer risk assessment

Researchers at City of Hope, a cancer research and treatment organization, and the University of California, Berkeley, have created a novel microfluidic platform that can assess women's breast cancer risk at the cellular level.

23 Apr 2026

MSK scientists shed new light on a tumor's earliest moments

Scientists at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and their colleagues are shedding new light on a tumor's earliest moments - revealing how lung cells with cancer-causing mutations recruit accomplices from healthy surrounding tissue to pave the way for a tumor to develop.

23 Apr 2026

Vitamin D may prevent diabetes in people with certain genes

More than two in five U.S. adults has prediabetes, a condition marked by higher-than-normal blood sugar levels that often leads to type 2 diabetes.

23 Apr 2026

New human cell model replicates key mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases

Researchers at LMU have developed a human cell model that replicates key mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases - with potential for novel therapies.

23 Apr 2026

USC and Tempus AI partner to advance precision medicine

The Keck School of Medicine of USC and Keck Medicine of USC have launched collaborations with Tempus AI, Inc., a technology company at the forefront of applying AI to precision medicine, to integrate clinical care, clinical trials and research through a unified framework.

23 Apr 2026

Study maps the evolution of myeloid leukemia in children with Down syndrome

It may be possible to identify which pre-cancerous cells will develop into a rare type of blood cancer, due to new research showing that a single genetic change drives myeloid leukemia in children with Down syndrome.

23 Apr 2026

Exercise may be safer for children with heart conditions

Physical activity in children and teenagers with cardiomyopathy (conditions that affect the heart muscle's structure and function, impairing its ability to pump or fill effectively), as well as children with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) may be safer than previous research suggested, according to a new scientific statement from the American Heart Association, published today in the Association's flagship peer-reviewed journal Circulation.

23 Apr 2026

New gene therapy improves hearing in patients with rare genetic deafness

A new international study co-led by investigators from Mass General Brigham and the Eye & ENT Hospital of Fudan University shows that a gene therapy for a rare form of genetic deafness successfully restored hearing in most participants, with results lasting up to 2.5 years.

23 Apr 2026

Antisense oligonucleotides reverse rare neurodevelopmental disorder in preclinical models

Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have found they can reverse the effects of HNRNPH2-related neurodevelopmental disorder using antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) in preclinical models. ASOs are short synthetic nucleic acid strands that target specific messenger RNA.

22 Apr 2026

Study reveals genetic factors influencing SYNGAP1 encephalopathy disease severity

SYNGAP1 encephalopathy is a rare genetic disorder for which there is no treatment, causing epilepsy, intellectual disability, psychomotor delay and, frequently, autism.

22 Apr 2026

McMaster researchers identify new DNA region linked to frailty

Researchers at McMaster University have identified, for the first time, a novel region of DNA and two associated genes connected to frailty, offering neurological and immune-related insights that might help explain why some older adults are more likely to be frail than others.

22 Apr 2026

Autism risk rises with multiple medications taken during pregnancy

A study links maternal use of cholesterol-inhibiting medications during pregnancy to increased autism risk in children, urging caution in prescribing practices.

22 Apr 2026

New "plug-and-play" AI outperforms pathologists in lymph node metastasis detection

A research team led by The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has developed a pioneering artificial intelligence (AI) pathology analysis system that can accurately recognize multiple types of cancer using only a minimal number of samples-without requiring any additional training. This breakthrough significantly enhances the flexibility and efficiency of AI-assisted medical care, marking a major step forward toward the widespread adoption of intelligent pathology.

22 Apr 2026

Tumor immune cell patterns predict melanoma immunotherapy response

A new UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center study suggests that the way immune cells are organized inside melanoma tumors may help researchers better understand which patients will benefit from combination immunotherapy after standard anti-PD-1 treatment stops working - and which may not.

22 Apr 2026

Calcium signals in microglia drive anxiety and compulsive behaviors

Researchers had previously discovered a population of immune cells within the brain that can act as accelerators and brakes for anxiety in mice. N

21 Apr 2026

New method predicts cancer patient survival using advanced molecular data

Oregon Health & Science University researchers have developed a first-of-its-kind method to predict cancer patient survival using advanced molecular data from individual cells.

21 Apr 2026

Cancer-linked mutations in the brain cells may drive Alzheimer’s disease

As the body ages, cells naturally accumulate dozens of genetic mutations each year. New research from Boston Children's Hospital, published in Cell, finds that the brain's resident immune cells, microglia, amass mutations in specific cancer-driving genes yet they don't manifest as cancer.

21 Apr 2026

Stem cell model recreates early human embryo with yolk sac

For the first time, a stem cell model has produced a structure resembling an early human embryo with a yolk-sac-like structure, from a single starting stem cell population and without direct genetic manipulation.

21 Apr 2026

Gut microbiome clues may help spot Parkinson’s disease in its earliest phase

Researchers found that a Parkinson’s disease-related gut microbiome pattern appears not only in people with diagnosed Parkinson’s, but also in some non-manifesting GBA1 variant carriers and a subset of healthy individuals. The findings suggest that gut microbiome changes may help flag people who are closer to Parkinson’s disease development, although longitudinal studies are still needed to confirm predictive value.

21 Apr 2026