Mutation News and Research

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Swine flu different from ordinary flu in a number of ways

Scientists say new research has shown that the new H1N1 influenza strain (swine flu) is somewhat less contagious than seasonal flu, but appears to be more able to cause stomach upsets.

5 Jul 2009

Concern over case of drug resistant swine flu

The influenza A H1N1 (swine flu) outbreak has now spread to almost all corners of the world - the last update, # 56, from the World Health Organisation (WHO) says there are now a grand total of 77,201 confirmed cases including 311 deaths.

2 Jul 2009

New test detects genetic and chromosomal abnormalities in embryos - ready for clinical trials

One-step screening for both genetic and chromosomal abnormalities has come a stage closer as scientists announced that an embryo test they have been developing has successfully screened cells taken from spare embryos that were known to have cystic fibrosis.

30 Jun 2009

Women with cystic fibrosis can have safe and successful fertility treatment

Women with cystic fibrosis can have fertility treatment to help them have babies without any long-term adverse effects on either themselves or their children, according to new research presented at the 25th annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Amsterdam today (Tuesday).

30 Jun 2009

New pieces in the autism inheritance puzzle

Pieces in the complex autism inheritance puzzle are emerging in the latest study from a research team including geneticists from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). The study identified 27 different genetic regions where rare copy number variations - missing or extra copies of DNA segments - were found in the genes of children with autism spectrum disorders, but not in the healthy controls. The findings are published June 26 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics.

30 Jun 2009

Discovery of second gene linked to familial testicular cancer

Specific variations or mutations in a particular can gene raise a man's risk of familial, or inherited, testicular germ-cell cancer, the most common form of this disease, according to new research by scientists at the National Institutes of Health.

29 Jun 2009

Enzyme fights mutated protein in inherited Parkinson's disease

An enzyme that naturally occurs in the brain helps destroy the mutated protein that is the most common cause of inherited Parkinson's disease, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.

28 Jun 2009

Lancet Infectious Diseases examines spread of XDR-TB

The journal Lancet Infectious Diseases examines the worldwide spread of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB). Currently, about 500,000 of the 9 million new cases of TB that are identified each year are strains of XDR-TB. "Drug resistance is largely man-made - it is vitally important to review antibiotic treatment strategies and to ensure the Stop TB Strategy is fully applied to prevent further selection of drug-resistant mutants," Leonard Amaral of Universidade Nova de Lisboa said.

24 Jun 2009

Smoking provokes migraine attacks

Tobacco acts as a precipitating factor for headaches, specifically migraines. This is indicated in a study which shows that smokers have more migraine attacks and that smoking more than five cigarettes a day triggers this headache. The work has appeared in The Journal of Headache and Pain.

24 Jun 2009

Americans come up with first swine flu vaccine

The company based in Connecticut, Protein Sciences Corporation, won a $35-million government contract to develop an influenza vaccine using insect cell technology and Protein Sciences's director Dan Adams says the first batch of about 100,000 doses were produced last week and the manufacture of the vaccine continues.

24 Jun 2009

Measuring fragile X mental retardation

Researchers from the University of California, Davis have developed a specific and quantitative means of measuring levels of the fragile X mental retardation 1 (FMR1) protein (FMRP), which is mutated in fragile X syndrome. The related report by Iwahashi et al, "A quantitative ELISA assay for the fragile X mental retardation 1 protein," appears in the July 2009 issue of the Journal of Molecular Diagnostics.

24 Jun 2009

Research shows how obesity sets the stage for diabetes

Obesity is probably the most important factor in the development of insulin resistance, but science's understanding of the chain of events is still spotty. Now, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have filled in the gap and identified the missing link between the two.

22 Jun 2009

DNA template could explain evolutionary shifts

Rearrangements of all sizes in genomes, genes and exons can result from a glitch in DNA copying that occurs when the process stalls at a critical point and then shifts to a different genetic template, duplicating and even triplicating genes or just shuffling or deleting part of the code within them, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in a recent report in the journal Nature Genetics.

22 Jun 2009

Scientists edit genes in human stem cells

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have successfully edited the genome of human- induced pluripotent stem cells, making possible the future development of patient-specific stem cell therapies. Reporting this week in Cell Stem Cell, the team altered a gene responsible for causing the rare blood disease paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, or PNH, establishing for the first time a useful system to learn more about the disease.

18 Jun 2009

Gout gene discovered

Having partnered last year with an international team that surveyed the genomes of 12,000 individuals to find a genetic cause for gout, Johns Hopkins scientists now have shown that the malfunctioning gene they helped uncover can lead to high concentrations of blood urate that forms crystals in joint tissue, causing inflammation and pain - the hallmark of this disease.

18 Jun 2009

New discovery on Huntington's disease

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine have discovered how the mutated huntingtin gene acts on the nervous system to create the devastation of Huntington's disease. The report of their findings is available in Nature Neuroscience online.

15 Jun 2009

Don't stress when the going gets tough - you'll go gray!

A study by Japanese researchers has revealed that a certain kind of stress damages the hair - they say "genotoxic stress" damages DNA by depleting the melanocyte stem cells (MSCs) within hair follicles that are responsible for making the pigment-producing cells.

14 Jun 2009

Discovery of DNA mutation that occurs at beginning point of T-cell lymphoma

Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) have identified a key mechanism that causes chromosomes within blood cells to break - an occurrence that marks the first step in the development of human lymphoma.

13 Jun 2009

Genotoxic stress makes your hair go gray

Those pesky graying hairs that tend to crop up with age really are signs of stress, reveals a new report in the June 12 issue of Cell, a Cell Press publication.

12 Jun 2009

Don't panic because there's a pandemic!

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has officially raised the level of the swine flu alert to 6 - the highest level - and declared the outbreak a pandemic following an emergency meeting.

12 Jun 2009