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Discovery of 480 genes that control human cell division

A team of U.S., Israeli and German scientists used computational biology techniques to discover 480 genes that play a role in human cell division and to identify more than 100 of those genes that have an abnormal pattern of activation in cancer cells.

8 Jan 2008

Baxter to develop recombinant Factor IX proteins to treat hemophilia B

Baxter International Inc. has announced that it has initiated pre-clinical programs to develop recombinant Factor IX proteins to treat hemophilia B.

From Baxter International Inc. 7 Jan 2008

Hopkins researchers paint picture of cancer-promoting culprit

They say that a picture can be worth a thousand words. This especially is true for describing the structures of molecules that function to promote cancer.

7 Jan 2008

New sugary insights into H5N1 avian flu virus

Scientists have identified a key factor that determines the ability of influenza viruses to infect cells of the human upper respiratory tract - a necessary step for sustaining spread between people.

7 Jan 2008

Bird flu found in children's kindy

Officials in Israel say the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has been found in dead chickens at an animal corner in a kindergarten in Binyamina.

6 Jan 2008

New flu vaccine protects against all strains including bird flu

A new flu vaccine which protects against all strains of influenza has had promising results in trials.

6 Jan 2008

Wisconsin now screens all newborns for severe combined immune deficiency

Wisconsin became the first state in the nation to screen all newborns for Severe Combined Immune Deficiency (SCID).

4 Jan 2008

Scientists discover remarkable editing system for protein production

Even small mistakes made by cells during protein production can have profound disease effects, but the processes cells use to correct mistakes have been challenging to decipher.

4 Jan 2008

New clues for an effective AIDS vaccine

Two simple changes in its outer envelope protein could render the AIDS virus vulnerable to attack by the immune system, according to research from Kenya and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center published in PLoS Medicine.

4 Jan 2008

Gene therapy can reduce long-term drinking among rodents

Just as the risk of developing alcoholism is strongly influenced by genetic factors, mutations in gene coding - such as the aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH2*2) allele - also appear to protect against the risk.

4 Jan 2008

Down syndrome points to a new way of repressing cancer growth

Researchers at Johns Hopkins and Ohio State University have found that the number of copies of a particular gene can affect the severity of colon cancer in a mouse model. Publishing in the Jan. 3 issue of Nature, the research team describes how trisomy 21, or Down syndrome in humans, can repress tumor growth.

4 Jan 2008

New clue found to the cause of Parkinson's disease

A glitch in the mechanism by which cells recycle damaged components may trigger Parkinson's disease, according to a study by scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.

3 Jan 2008

Hereditary form of colon cancer traced to common ancester in U.S.

A married couple who sailed from England to America around 1630 may be the ancestors of hundreds of people alive today who are at risk for a hereditary form of colon cancer.

3 Jan 2008

Ashkenazi ovarian cancer patients with BRCA mutations live longer than those with normal gene

Israeli investigators have found that Ashkenazi Jewish women with ovarian cancer who have mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes lived significantly longer than Ashkenazi Jewish ovarian cancer patients without these mutations.

2 Jan 2008

Four die of bird flu in Egypt in less than a week

The deaths of two women in Egypt from bird flu on Monday has now brought the death toll in the Arab country from the deadly virus to four in less than a week.

2 Jan 2008

Overeating and obesity triggered by lack of brain-derived neurotrophic factor

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, close to one-third of the population in the United States is obese and another third is overweight.

28 Dec 2007

Personalized medicine will alter treatment of genetic disorders

One of the nation's pre-eminent genetic researchers, Eric Hoffman, PhD, of Children's Research Institute at Children's National Medical Center, predicts that in relatively short order, medicine's next innovation--individualized molecular therapies--will have the unprecedented ability to treat muscular dystrophies, and other disorders.

28 Dec 2007

Mutations in a protein called dynein may cause inherited neuropathy

Mutations in a protein called dynein, required for the proper functioning of sensory nerve cells, can cause defects in mice that may provide crucial clues leading to better treatments for a human nerve disorder known as peripheral neuropathy, which affects about three percent of all those over age 60.

28 Dec 2007

Copy number variation may stem from replication misstep

Genome rearrangements, resulting in variations in the numbers of copies of genes, occur when the cellular process that copies DNA during cell division stalls and then switches to a different genetic "template," said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston in a report that appears today in the journal Cell.

28 Dec 2007

Breast cancer gene mutation more common in Hispanic, young black women

A genetic mutation already known to be more common in Ashkenazi Jewish breast cancer patients is also prevalent in Hispanic and young African-American women with breast cancer, according to one of the largest, multiracial studies of the mutation to date.

28 Dec 2007