RNA News and Research

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Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a biologically important type of molecule that consists of a long chain of nucleotide units. Each nucleotide consists of a nitrogenous base, a ribose sugar, and a phosphate.

Calculating protein and gene connections in a Parkinson's model

Researchers have created an algorithm that meshes existing data to produce a clearer step-by-step flow chart of how cells respond to stimuli.

22 Feb 2009

Genetic ID of marker in lymph nodes may be linked to colorectal cancer recurrence risk

A preliminary report suggests that genetic testing may help identify a marker in lymph nodes that is associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer recurrence among patients in whom conventional testing indicates that those lymph nodes show no evidence of cancer spread, according to a study in the February 18 issue of JAMA.

18 Feb 2009

Newly discovered mutation can hold the key to treat a large number of different cancers

Scientists have discovered a mutation responsible for cancer progression, a finding with potential implications for the development of treatment against not one, but a series of cancer types since this mutation can be linked to an abnormality recently discovered to exist in all malignancies.

18 Feb 2009

New understanding on how Myc gene promotes cancer

Cancer cells need a lot of nutrients to multiply and survive. While much is understood about how cancer cells use blood sugar to make energy, not much is known about how they get other nutrients.

16 Feb 2009

Radioimmunotherapy shows promise for HIV infection and viral cancers

Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have piggybacked antibodies onto radioactive payloads to deliver doses of radiation that selectively target and destroy microbial and HIV-infected cells.

16 Feb 2009

Jumping genes play significant role in gene regulatory networks

Research performed in the Center for Biomolecular Science & Engineering (CBSE) at the University of California, Santa Cruz, suggests that mobile repetitive elements--also known as transposons or "jumping genes"--do indeed affect the evolution of gene regulatory networks.

16 Feb 2009

New device decreases wait times for patients needing immunotherapy

Researchers from the Children's Cancer Hospital at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have created a device that significantly decreases the time needed to produce genetically manipulated T cells in preclinical tests for leukemia.

16 Feb 2009

Novel gene silencing platform

A team of researchers led by Rutgers' Samuel Gunderson has developed a novel gene silencing platform with very significant improvements over existing RNAi approaches.

16 Feb 2009

Molecular machine turns packaged messenger RNA into a linear transcript

For RNA, the gateway to a productive life outside the nucleus is the nuclear pore complex, an amalgamation of 30 kinds of proteins that regulates all traffic passing through the nuclear membrane.

11 Feb 2009

Micro RNA plays a key role in melanoma metastasis

Scientists have long wondered how melanoma cells travel from primary tumors on the surface of the skin to the brain, liver and lungs, where they become more aggressive, resistant to therapy, and deadly.

9 Feb 2009

Novel gene silencing platform

A team of researchers led by Rutgers' Samuel Gunderson has developed a novel gene silencing platform with very significant improvements over existing RNAi approaches.

8 Feb 2009

Sangamo BioSciences starts trial of CCR5-ZFP therapeutic to treat HIV/AIDS

Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. has announced that its collaborators at the University of Pennsylvania have opened a Phase 1 clinical trial to evaluate SB-728-T for the treatment of HIV/AIDS.

5 Feb 2009

Discovery of important drug target for influenza

Influenza is and remains a disease to reckon with. Seasonal epidemics around the world kill several hundred thousand people every year.

5 Feb 2009

Bacteria are models of efficiency

The bacterium Escherichia coli, one of the best-studied single-celled organisms around, is a master of industrial efficiency.

5 Feb 2009

Gene-targeting approach for herpes treatment

A new therapy being developed at the University of Florida could, in time, produce another weapon for the fight against herpes.

3 Feb 2009

New clues to pancreatic cells' destruction in diabetes

Researchers have found what appears to be a major culprit behind the loss of insulin-producing beta cells from the pancreases of people with diabetes, a critical event in the progression of the disease.

3 Feb 2009

New inhibitors could be new class of cancer drugs

A team of Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators has developed a group of chemical compounds that could represent a new class of drugs for treating cancer.

3 Feb 2009

Discovery of new class of non-protein coding genes in mammals with key functions

A research team at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has uncovered a vast new class of previously unrecognized mammalian genes that do not encode proteins, but instead function as long RNA molecules.

2 Feb 2009

New method captures microRNAs before they disappear

One of the tiniest entities in the human genome - are great escape artists.

27 Jan 2009

Scientists discover new class of small RNAs

Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) announced today the discovery of a new class of small RNAs. At the same time, they reported that their discovery suggests the presence of a strikingly novel biochemical pathway for RNA processing in which these and possibly other small RNAs are produced.

27 Jan 2009