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Study looks at rapid-onset dystonia-parkinsonism that has no known treatment

Fewer than 100 people in the world are known to be affected by a movement disorder called rapid-onset dystonia-parkinsonism (RDP), but its symptoms are life-changing. Seemingly normal young people are suddenly and dramatically unable to control movement of their arms or legs and have trouble speaking or swallowing. A normal life is nearly impossible.

27 Sep 2012

NCI-funded sequencing project aims to identify genetic links to colorectal cancer

Uncovering colon cancer's genetic roots is the focus of a new $13 million, four-year, National Cancer Institute-funded project at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Ulrike (Riki) Peters, Ph.D., M.P.H., a member of the Hutchinson Center's Public Health Sciences Division, will lead the effort. She and her colleagues will use next-generation sequencing, a technique that captures entire genome sequences, to identify genetic links to colorectal cancer.

27 Sep 2012

Researchers identify mechanism that appears to underlie non-familial form of Parkinson's

Researchers in the Taub Institute at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) have identified a mechanism that appears to underlie the common sporadic (non-familial) form of Parkinson's disease, the progressive movement disorder.

26 Sep 2012

Young women with BRCA mutations feel differently about options for relationships, careers

A study published in the October issue of the American Journal of Nursing (AJN) found that young women who learn they have BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations felt differently about options for relationships, treatment, childbearing and careers.

26 Sep 2012

Increasing marijuana-like chemicals in the brain can help correct behavioral issues related to fragile X

American and European scientists have found that increasing natural marijuana-like chemicals in the brain can help correct behavioral issues related to fragile X syndrome, the most common known genetic cause of autism.

26 Sep 2012

New insights into filaminopathies

New insights into certain muscle diseases, the filaminopathies, are reported by an international research team led by Dr. Rudolf Andre Kley of the RUB's University Hospital Bergmannsheil in the journal Brain.

26 Sep 2012

Researchers discover genetics secrets of ovarian cancer tumors

A new discovery that sheds light on the genetic make up of ovarian cancer cells could explain why some women survive longer than others with this deadly disease.

25 Sep 2012

University of Iowa, Mayo Clinic to continue SPORE for lymphoma research

The Mayo Clinic Cancer Center and Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Iowa have received a five-year, $11.5 million grant renewal from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to continue the Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) for lymphoma research.

25 Sep 2012

New clinical trial to evaluate DEX-M74 against hereditary inclusion body myopathy

Researchers have launched a clinical trial to evaluate the drug candidate DEX-M74 as a treatment for a rare degenerative muscle disease, hereditary inclusion body myopathy (HIBM). National Institutes of Health scientists from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) will conduct the clinical trial at the NIH Clinical Center.

25 Sep 2012

Lonafarnib proves effective for children with progeria

Results of the first-ever clinical drug trial for children with Progeria, a rare, fatal "rapid-aging" disease, demonstrate the efficacy of a farnesyltransferase inhibitor (FTI), a drug originally developed to treat cancer. The clinical trial results, completed only six years after scientists identified the cause of Progeria, included significant improvements in weight gain, bone structure and, most importantly, the cardiovascular system, according to The Progeria Research Foundation (PRF) and Boston Children's Hospital.

25 Sep 2012

NanoViricides’ oral FluCide dramatically improves survival in animals with H3N2 influenza A

NanoViricides, Inc. reported today that its oral FluCide drug candidates demonstrated dramatically improved survival in animals administered a lethal dose of the H3N2 influenza A virus.

24 Sep 2012

$Encouraging results from CTI’s pacritinib phase 1 study on relapsed/refractory lymphoma$

Encouraging results from CTI’s pacritinib phase 1 study on relapsed/refractory lymphoma

Cell Therapeutics, Inc. announced today that the phase 1 study data of its highly selective oral JAK2 inhibitor pacritinib, or SB1518, showed encouraging anti-tumor activity and good tolerability in 34 patients with relapsed/refractory lymphoma.

24 Sep 2012

Molecular similarity between one sub-type of breast cancer and ovarian cancer

A team of scientists with The Cancer Genome Atlas program reports their genetic characterization of 800 breast tumors, including finding some of the genetic causes of the most common forms of breast cancer, providing clues for new therapeutic targets, and identifying a molecular similarity between one sub-type of breast cancer and ovarian cancer.

24 Sep 2012

Novel genetic tools may shed new light in papillary thyroid carcinoma research

Next-generation sequencing analyses of the follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma may elucidate the biological underpinnings and clinical behavior of an increasingly common disease, according to data presented at the 82nd ATA Annual Meeting in Québec City, Québec, Canada.

24 Sep 2012

Researchers identify subgroups of B cells in MYC-positive germinal centers

Germinal centers are sites in the organs of the lymphatic system, formed during the course of an immune response to infection, where B cells intensely proliferate and modify their DNA in order to produce antibodies specific for the pathogen. However, it is known that the vast majority of lymphomas derive from the B cells at the germinal centers.

24 Sep 2012

Most basal-like breast and ovarian tumors have similar genetic origins

The most comprehensive analysis yet of breast cancer shows that one of the most deadly subtypes is genetically more similar to ovarian tumors than to other breast cancers.

24 Sep 2012

New mouse models can help scientists study SECISBP2 syndrome

New mouse models can help scientists study a rare disease, called SECISBP2 syndrome, that causes abnormal thyroid hormone metabolism, delayed bone maturation, as well as other abnormal characteristics that vary by individual, according to new data presented at the 82nd Annual Meeting of the American Thyroid Association (ATA) in Québec City, Québec, Canada.

24 Sep 2012

Genomic analysis of E. coli shows multiple steps to evolve new trait

Several years ago researchers at Michigan State University (MSU) reported discovering a novel, evolutionary trait in a long-studied population of Escherichia coli, a rod-shaped bacterium commonly found in the lower intestine of mammals. The E. coli added a helping of citrate to its traditional diet of glucose, even though other E. coli can't consume citrate in the presence of oxygen.

24 Sep 2012

New mouse models can help scientists study MCT8 deficiency

New mouse models can help scientists study MCT8 deficiency, an inherited genetic disorder affecting children, according to new data presented at the 82nd Annual Meeting of the American Thyroid Association (ATA) in Québec City, Québec, Canada.

21 Sep 2012

MD Anderson introduces Moon Shots Program to reduce cancer deaths

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center announces the launch of the Moon Shots Program, an unprecedented effort to dramatically accelerate the pace of converting scientific discoveries into clinical advances that reduce cancer deaths.

21 Sep 2012