Mutation News and Research

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Breakthrough in understanding of noroviruses

A breakthrough announced this week by scientists at the University of Southampton's School of Medicine will lead to greater understanding of noroviruses, the most common cause of non-bacterial gastroenteritis around the world.

27 Jun 2007

Scoliosis gene found

Physicians have recognized scoliosis, the abnormal curvature of the spine, since the time of Hippocrates, but its causes have remained a mystery -- until now. For the first time, researchers have discovered a gene that underlies the condition, which affects about 3 percent of all children.

26 Jun 2007

Bird flu and summer come together in Bavaria

Health officials in Germany say the deadly H5N1 virus has reappeared in the country.

25 Jun 2007

Cilia research may help find cure for inherited eye diseases

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have identified proteins in the rod and cones of the eye that could lead to the discovery of the genetic causes of a host of inherited eye diseases.

23 Jun 2007

Current status of neuroblastoma treatment and trends for the near future

Childhood cancers are fortunately rare, but among them, neuroblastoma is a special case, accounting for 7 percent of all childhood cancers, but 15 percent of childhood cancer deaths.

23 Jun 2007

Insight into how cancerous tumors thrive

Using mathematical theory, UC Irvine scientists have shed light on one of cancer's most troubling puzzles -- how cancer cells can alter their own genetic makeup to accelerate tumor growth.

23 Jun 2007

Scientists identify gene responsible for one type of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disorder

Scientists have identified the gene responsible for one type of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disorder, a common inherited neurological disease, thanks to the chance appearance of a strain of impaired 'pale tremor' mice in a University of Michigan research laboratory.

23 Jun 2007

DNA repair by Brca2 prevents medulloblastoma

St. Jude investigators have gained some of the first major insights into how certain genes known to prevent cancer also guide the nervous system's normal development before birth and during infancy by repairing DNA damage.

23 Jun 2007

DNA repair proteins monitored at double-strand break

St. Jude investigators recently had a molecule's eye view of the human cell's DNA repair kit as it assembled on a double-strand break to link together the broken ends.

23 Jun 2007

New understanding of modern pandemic infection

Human resistance to a retrovirus that infected chimpanzees and other nonhuman primates 4 million years ago ironically may be at least partially responsible for the susceptibility of humans to HIV infection today.

23 Jun 2007

Scientists show protein accelerates breast cancer progression in animal models

The study is being published in an advanced online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

23 Jun 2007

Goltz syndrome gene found

Researchers funded in part by the National Institutes of Health have identified the gene that accounts for most cases of Goltz syndrome, a rare skin disorder that can also affect bone and eye development.

23 Jun 2007

Entecavir can compromise HIV treatment

Treating hepatitis B patients with the drug entecavir can cause those who are also infected with HIV to become resistant to two of the most important drugs in the anti-HIV arsenal, according to a new report in the New England Journal of Medicine.

23 Jun 2007

Drug warning prompts treatment changes for those infected with hepatitis B and HIV

Cross-resistance alarms raised earlier this year by Johns Hopkins researchers about a widely used antiviral therapy for hepatitis B liver infections have prompted swift treatment revisions by the drug's maker and governmental agencies.

23 Jun 2007

Autism-related proteins control nerve excitability

Two proteins that are implicated in autism have been found to control the strength and balance of nerve-cell connections, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.

23 Jun 2007

Sea-squirt derived drug trabectedin shows promise as cancer treatment

The sea-squirt derived drug trabectedin (ecteinascidinin-743) shows anti-tumour activity in more than half of patients with a specific type of cancer, conclude authors of an article published early Online and in the July edition of The Lancet Oncology.

22 Jun 2007

Size of family appears to affect breast cancer risk

Researchers have found that the probability of the breast cancer gene mutation BRCA among women with a history of breast cancer is greater when the number of older, female relatives in the family is smaller, according to a study in the June 20 issue of JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association.

20 Jun 2007

New molecular mechanism discovered that may 'spontaneously' cause liver cancer

Adding more good news to last week's announcement that Nexavar (sorafenib) may be the first effective treatment for advanced liver cancer, researchers at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University have uncovered a new molecular mechanism that may 'spontaneously' cause liver cancer.

20 Jun 2007

Microfluidic chip for cancer diagnosis

For the first time an important diagnostic test for cancer has been miniaturized and automated onto a microfluidic chip by a team of University of Alberta researchers in Edmonton, Canada.

20 Jun 2007