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Why Mosquitoes prefer some people over others: Genetic discovery

A new study has tried to assess the genetic variants among mosquitoes that make them more susceptible to spreading deadly viral diseases such as dengue, yellow fever, Zika and chikungunya and more resistant to insecticides that are used to kill them.

25 Nov 2018

Sons of fathers who smoke have 51% lower sperm count

Studies have repeatedly linked maternal smoking during pregnancy with reduced sperm counts in male offspring. Now a research team at Lund University in Sweden has discovered that, independently of nicotine exposure from the mother, men whose fathers smoked at the time of pregnancy had half as many sperm as those with non-smoking fathers.

22 Nov 2018

Research uncovers new evidence of the link between air pollution and cancer

University of Stirling experts have discovered new evidence of the link between air pollution and cancer as part of a new occupational health study.

22 Nov 2018

New method enhances efficiency and accuracy of single cell RNA sequencing

In the era of personalized medicine, scientists are using new genetic and genomic insights to help them determine the best treatment for a given patient. In the case of cancer, the first step toward these treatments is an investigation into how tumor cells behave in an effort to figure out the best drugs to use to attack them.

22 Nov 2018

Discovery of new gene could lead to better understanding of human susceptibility to chemicals

The discovery of a new gene in zebrafish could lead to a better understanding of how exposure to chemicals leads to disease in humans, according to a new Oregon State University study.

22 Nov 2018

Novel DNA nanoplatform delivers anticancer agents to multidrug-resistant tumors

One of the most successful techniques to combat multidrug resistance in cancer cells is the downregulation of those genes responsible for drug resistance.

22 Nov 2018

Scientists uncover genomic keys to successful evolution of vertebrates

One of the most important results of this work consists of understanding how the genomic duplications that occurred in the origin of the vertebrates contributed to diversifying gene function.

22 Nov 2018

Breakthrough Alzheimer's discovery

A new study has found that the neurons in the brain can alter their genetic make-up unlike other cells of the body which remain constant.

22 Nov 2018

Researchers elucidate infection process of bacterial pathogen Clostridium difficile

Scientists from the VIB-UGent Center for Inflammation Research identified the mechanisms by which the bacterial pathogen Clostridium difficile kills intestinal epithelial cells, thus destroying the protective mucosal barrier of the intestinal tract.

21 Nov 2018

Pharmacogenetic tests don't provide much information for prescribing antidepressants or antipsychotics

Pharmacogenetic tests are marketed as an aid to psychiatrists in selecting the antidepressant or antipsychotic medication that will work best in individual patients, based on their genetic makeup.

21 Nov 2018

Starved ticks try harder to find hosts

Ticks are hardy little brutes that can go as long as a year without a meal. Now scientists at the University of Cincinnati say the hungrier ticks are, the harder they try to find you or other hosts. The findings could have implications for the spread of tick-borne disease such as Lyme or Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.

21 Nov 2018

Scientists discover toxic bullet involved in bacterial competition

A bacterial toxin that allows an infectious strain of bacteria to defeat its competitors has been discovered by Imperial College London scientists.

20 Nov 2018

Study uncovers new mechanism controlling the master cancer regulator

Of the more than 23,000 genes in the human genome, only a handful assume a very central role in signal transduction and growth regulation. Of these, the three genes encoding RAS proteins are particularly important, as they are found mutated in over 25% of human cancers.

20 Nov 2018

'Unknown' enzyme may be key to new treatment for inflammatory diseases

An enzyme that normally repairs damaged DNA, may be the key to a new treatment for inflammatory diseases.

20 Nov 2018

Scientists identify three genes responsible for recurrent molar pregnancies

A team of scientists at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre and McGill University have identified three genes responsible for recurrent molar pregnancies, a rare complication that occurs when a non-viable pregnancy with no embryo implants in the uterus.

20 Nov 2018

Breakthrough technology offers new hope to people with glaucoma, retinitis and macular degeneration

In January 2009, the life of engineer Michel Meunier, a professor at Polytechnique Montréal, changed dramatically. Like others, he had observed that the extremely short pulse of a femtosecond laser (0.000000000000001 second) could make nanometer-sized holes appear in silicon when it was covered by gold nanoparticles.

20 Nov 2018

Scientists uncover unexpected 'foreign' genes in tiny itch-inducing chigger mite

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have uncovered some unexpected 'foreign' genes in the tiny itch-inducing chigger mite and its more benign but enormous cousin, the giant velvet mite.

20 Nov 2018

Scientists use cryo-EM to capture freeze-frames of molecule’s 'lock-and-load' on DNA

Pushing the limits of cryo-electron microscopy, University of California, Berkeley, scientists have captured freeze-frames of the changing shape of a huge molecule, one of the body's key molecular machines, as it locks onto DNA and loads the machinery for reading the genetic code.

20 Nov 2018

Study warns that potential epigenetic therapy may boost lung cancer stem cells

Epigenetic therapies -- targeting enzymes that alter what genes are turned on or off in a cell -- are of growing interest in the cancer field as a way of making a cancer less aggressive or less malignant.

20 Nov 2018

About 300 million bits of DNA are missing from basic reference genome, report scientists

For the past 17 years, most scientists around the globe have been using the nucleic acid sequence, or genome, an assembly of DNA information, from primarily a single individual as a kind of "baseline" reference and human species representation for comparing genetic variety among groups of people.

20 Nov 2018