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Study pinpoints how body clock genes could lead to recurrent miscarriages

Researchers at the University of Warwick and UHCW have discovered how body clock genes could affect women's ability to have children.

2 Apr 2015

Older mothers who exercise during pregnancy can reduce baby's risk of congenital heart defects

In people, a baby's risk of congenital heart defects is associated with the age of the mother. Risk goes up with increasing age. Newborn mice predisposed to heart defects because of genetic mutations show the same age association.

2 Apr 2015

New study opens door to preventative treatments for congenital diaphragmatic hernia

Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) is not as well known as muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis, but like them it is a life-threatening birth defect, and is just as common. Occurring in one in 3,000 births, CDH causes the guts and liver to protrude through a defective diaphragm and into the chest cavity, where they interfere with the lungs.

30 Mar 2015

New approach to improve IVF treatment

Women who have difficulty getting pregnant often turn to in-vitro fertilization (IVF), but it doesn't always work. Now scientists are taking a new approach to improve the technique by studying the proteins that could help ready a uterus for an embryo to implant in its wall.

19 Mar 2015

Scientists use x-ray vision to probe early stages of DNA 'photocopying'

Scientists at Johns Hopkins have created a 3-D model of a complex protein machine, ORC, which helps prepare DNA to be duplicated.

16 Mar 2015

MDC scientists identify new molecular signaling pathway that regulates placental development

During pregnancy, the mother supplies the fetus with nutrients and oxygen via the placenta. If placental development is impaired, this may lead to growth disorders of the embryo or to life-threatening diseases of the mother such as preeclampsia, a serious condition involving high blood pressure and increased urinary protein excretion.

11 Mar 2015

CHOPS syndrome sheds light on key biological processes during human development

Analyzing a puzzling multisystem disorder in three children, genetic experts have identified a new syndrome, shedding light on key biological processes during human development. The research also provides important information to help caregivers manage the disorder, and may offer clues to eventually treating it.

3 Mar 2015

Researchers identify previously unknown effect of vitamin A in embryonic development

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have identified a previously unknown effect of vitamin A in human embryonic development. Their findings show that vitamin A affects the formation of blood cells.

25 Feb 2015

New skin test may help detect abnormal proteins in patients with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases

Scientists have discovered a skin test that may shed new light on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, according to a study released today will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 67th Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., April 18 to 25, 2015.

25 Feb 2015

Epigenome plays significant part in embryonic development

The early stages of embryonic development shape our cells and tissues for life. It is during this time that our newly formed cells are transformed into heart, skin, nerve or other cell types. Scientists are finding that this process is largely controlled not by the genome, but by the epigenome, chemical markers on DNA that tell cells when to turn genes on and off.

24 Feb 2015

Study shows that de novo mutations can be detected in human in vitro fertilized embryos using PGD

Reprogenetics, the largest U.S. genetics laboratory specializing in Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD), announced today the publication of new clinical data in the March issue of Genome Research demonstrating that de novo single base mutations can be detected in embryos after in vitro fertilization (IVF).

16 Feb 2015

Researchers reveal how damage from obesity passes from mother to children

In a breakthrough discovery, researchers at the University of Adelaide have revealed how damage from obesity is passed from a mother to her children, and also how that damage can be reversed.

10 Feb 2015

NR2F1 gene: A 'master regulator' of tumor cell growth

Two existing cancer drugs turn on a gene that tells tumor cells to remain inactive, according to a study led by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published today in Nature Communications.

31 Jan 2015

Scientists identify gene that helps regulate development of central nervous system

Scientists have identified a gene that helps regulate how well nerves of the central nervous system are insulated, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report.

23 Jan 2015

Knocking down a single gene can help stop stress from causing infertility, miscarriage

Scientists from the University of California Berkeley have discovered that by knocking down a single gene, they can stop stress from causing female infertility and miscarriage - in rats.

14 Jan 2015

Scientists find that blocking hormone reduces stress-induced infertility in female rats

University of California, Berkeley, scientists have discovered that chronic stress activates a hormone that reduces fertility long after the stress has ended, and that blocking this hormone returns female reproductive behavior to normal.

13 Jan 2015

UCLA researchers develop method that defines unique stages of reprogramming skin cells

In a groundbreaking study that provides scientists with a critical new understanding of stem cell development and its role in disease, UCLA researchers at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research led by Dr. Kathrin Plath, professor of biological chemistry, have established a first-of-its-kind methodology that defines the unique stages by which specialized cells are reprogrammed into stem cells that resemble those found in the embryo.

7 Jan 2015

New research sheds light on process that controls genes and determines cell fate

For a skin cell to do its job, it must turn on a completely different set of genes than a liver cell — and keep genes it doesn’t need switched off. One way of turning off large groups of genes at once is to send them to “time-out” at the edge of the nucleus, where they are kept quiet. New research from Johns Hopkins sheds light on how DNA gets sent to the nucleus’ far edge, a process critical to controlling genes and determining cell fate.

7 Jan 2015

Scientists image zinc atoms released by fertilized mammalian egg

Sparks literally fly when a sperm and an egg hit it off. The fertilized mammalian egg releases from its surface billions of zinc atoms in "zinc sparks," one wave after another, found a Northwestern University-led interdisciplinary research team that includes experts from the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory.

24 Dec 2014

Pre-clinical studies confirm TRXE-009 as new potential treatment for melanoma

Novogen Limited, Australian/US biotechnology company, today announces that it has confirmed that its lead candidate product, TRXE-009, originally developed for the treatment of brain cancers, has been shown in pre-clinical studies also to be highly active against melanoma.

16 Dec 2014