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DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms. Nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA. Most DNA is located in the cell nucleus (where it is called nuclear DNA), but a small amount of DNA can also be found in the mitochondria (where it is called mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA).

Rapamycin may delay onset of Parkinson's or AD

Rapamycin, a drug used to prevent rejection in transplants, could delay the onset of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

16 Oct 2012

Therapeutic HPV16 and HPV18 vaccine ‘may eliminate infection’

A candidate vaccine against human papillomavirus serotypes 16 and 18 appears to induce robust immune responses to antigens, potentially leading to the elimination of virus-infected cells and regression of dysplasia, say US investigators.

15 Oct 2012

New findings on Alzheimer's disease presented at Neuroscience 2012

Curtailing the imminent rise in Alzheimer's disease (AD) will require early, accurate diagnostic tests and treatments, and researchers are closer to achieving these two goals. New findings in medical imaging, molecular analysis of neurological diseases, and development of treatments using mouse models were presented at Neuroscience 2012, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world's largest source of emerging news about brain science and health.

15 Oct 2012

Enrollment complete in Idera's IMO-3100 Phase 2 trial for psoriasis

Idera Pharmaceuticals today announced that it had completed patient enrollment in its randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 2 trial of IMO-3100 in patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis. IMO-3100 is an antagonist of specific Toll-like Receptors (TLRs) that the Company is developing for the treatment of psoriasis and other autoimmune diseases.

15 Oct 2012

DNA method leads to more effective treatment of neuroblastoma in children

After leukaemia and brain tumours, neuroblastoma is the most common form of cancer to affect children. A thesis from the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, has studied a DNA method which is now used for all cases of neuroblastoma in Sweden, and which has led to more effective treatment at individual level.

15 Oct 2012

White blood cell variation can help predict non-blood cancers

Postdoctoral Research Fellow Devin Koestler is a biostatistician in the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. He develops and applies statistical methods to large volumes of data, seeking new approaches for understanding disease, cancer in particular. Koestler and his colleagues are investigating the potential use of white blood cell variation as a diagnostic, predictive, and research tool in the study of non-blood cancers.

15 Oct 2012

Variable methylation predictive of age, gender, stress, cancer and early-life socioeconomic status

A Simon Fraser University physicist has helped discover that understanding how a chemical mark on our DNA affects gene expression could be as useful to scientists as fingerprints are to police at a crime scene.

15 Oct 2012

Pioneering research paves way for new treatments for pulmonary arterial hypertension

Pioneering research conducted by the University of Sheffield is paving the way for new treatments which could benefit patients suffering from the fatal lung disease pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).

15 Oct 2012

New insights into how miR-30d can promote healthy insulin production

Work by Michigan Technological University biologist Xiaoqing Tang is yielding new insights into how a tiny snippet of genetic material can promote healthy insulin production in mice.

13 Oct 2012

Brown University, UCI researchers create Drosophila fruit fly model of epilepsy

In a newly reported set of experiments that show the value of a particularly precise but difficult genetic engineering technique, researchers at Brown University and the University of California-Irvine have created a Drosophila fruit fly model of epilepsy to discern the mechanism by which temperature-dependent seizures happen.

12 Oct 2012

Study identifies 21 new gene variants associated with risks of heart disease, metabolic disorders

In the largest-ever genetic study of cholesterol and other blood lipids, an international consortium has identified 21 new gene variants associated with risks of heart disease and metabolic disorders.

12 Oct 2012

AACR conference to focus on scientific and lifestyle strategies for cancer prevention

The American Association for Cancer Research will host the 11th Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research at the Hilton Anaheim from Oct. 16-19, 2012.

12 Oct 2012

Sun protection: an interview with Jane Hanrahan

UV radiation is a form of energy being transmitted. Sunlight is main source of UV radiation, although manmade sources also exist, such as the lamps used in sunbeds. At the earth’s surface sunlight consists of approximately 2 percent UV light, 47 percent visible light and 51 percent IR light.

11 Oct 2012

USC project seeks to answer important questions about cancer

Three groups of University of Southern California (USC) researchers-representing medicine, chemistry and chemical engineering-are recipients of highly competitive grants from the National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute (NCI).

11 Oct 2012

Researchers develop interference therapies to knock down gene that drives MCL

Three thousand new cases of Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL), a form of blood cancer, appear in the United States each year. With a median survival span of only five to seven years, according to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, this disease is devastating, and new therapies are sorely needed.

From Integrated DNA Technologies 11 Oct 2012

New mechanism may alter principle understandings of molecular interactions within a cell's nucleus

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, with collaborators from Harvard University, the University of Madrid, Princeton University, and the University of Zurich, have discovered a new mechanism that may alter principle understandings of molecular interactions within a cell's nucleus.

11 Oct 2012

Scientists discover mechanism used by A20 protein to combat inflammation

Scientists affiliated with VIB and UGent have discovered a mechanism used by the protein A20 to combat inflammation. This could be a very important point of focus in the search for a treatment for autoimmune diseases such as Rheumatoid Arthritis, in which the patient suffers from chronic, uncontrolled inflammation.

10 Oct 2012

PARP-1 plays a major role in controlling AR function in prostate cancer patients

A newly discovered function of PARP-1 could be the key to more effective therapeutics to treat advanced prostate cancer patients, a recent preclinical study published in Cancer Discovery by Jefferson's Kimmel Cancer Center researchers suggests.

10 Oct 2012

Chronic kidney disease changes the composition of intestinal bacterial microbes

Chronic kidney disease changes the composition of intestinal bacterial microbes that normally play a crucial role in staving off disease-causing pathogens and maintaining micronutrient balance, according to UC Irvine researchers.

10 Oct 2012

Study sheds light on fundamental cellular process

Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have mapped the precise frequency by which genes get turned on across the human genome, providing new insight into the most fundamental of cellular processes-and revealing new clues as to what happens when this process goes awry.

9 Oct 2012