Genetic Information News and Research

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Stanford University launches new professional education course

Imagine a world where health care is personalized, diseases are treated or even prevented before they become debilitating, and doctor's visits include regular reviews of individual genetic profiles. These are just some of the possibilities at the intersection of healthcare and genomics.

24 Aug 2015

Landmark 'basket study' shows efficacy of vemurafenib in multiple nonmelanoma BRAFV600-mutated cancers

Researchers from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center have announced results from the first published basket study, a new form of clinical trial design that explores responses to drugs based on the specific mutations in patients' tumors rather than where their cancer originated.

20 Aug 2015

Researchers develop new genomic data set on Lassa virus

An international team of researchers has developed the largest genomic data set in the world on Lassa virus (LASV).

14 Aug 2015

TSRI study reveals ancient roots of Lassa virus and how it has changed over time

Working as part of an international team in North America and West Africa, a researcher at The Scripps Research Institute has published new findings showing the ancient roots of the deadly Lassa virus, a relative of Ebola virus, and how Lassa virus has changed over time.

14 Aug 2015

New technology advances genome engineering

In his mind, Basil Hubbard can already picture a new world of therapeutic treatments for millions of patients just over the horizon. It's a future in which diseases like muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis and many others are treated permanently through the science of genome engineering.

11 Aug 2015

PrediXcan method improves detection of genes linked to complex diseases, biological traits of interest

A new computational method developed by scientists from the University of Chicago improves the detection of genes that are likely to be causal for complex diseases and biological traits. The method, PrediXcan, estimates gene expression levels across the whole genome - a better measure of biological action than single mutations - and integrates it with genome-wide association study (GWAS) data.

11 Aug 2015

Researchers identify genome-organizing mechanism that transmits vital genetic materials during mitosis

Chromosomes are responsible for carrying our genes and essentially protecting the information that helps ensure normal, healthy growth, with vital instructions being passed on from cell to cell by a process known as mitosis. While this copying mechanism has been well understood for decades, scientists have been unable to describe exactly how genetic information is protected and properly segregated as mitosis is happening.

7 Aug 2015

Metformin drug has impact on blood fat levels

Besides affecting the blood sugar levels, the substance Metformin, also has an impact on blood fat levels. This was elucidated by an interdisciplinary team of the German Center for Diabetes Research headed by Dr. Rui Wang-Sattler of the Helmholtz Zentrum München. Especially the harmful LDL cholesterol can be reduced.

6 Aug 2015

University of Liverpool study finds that HIV can continue to grow in patients despite treatment

HIV can continue to grow in patients who are thought to be responding well to treatment, according to research by the University of Liverpool.

5 Aug 2015

Research: Critical aspects of human genome's regulatory program encoded by genomic sequence elements

Since the classical studies of Jacob and Monod in the early 1960s, it has been evident that genome sequences contain not only blueprints for genes and the proteins that they encode, but also the instructions for a coordinated regulatory program that governs when, where and to what extent these genes and proteins are expressed.

4 Aug 2015

California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine selects two demonstration projects

Two demonstration projects that aim to yield quick results for patients have been selected by the new California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine, a public-private effort launched by Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr.

4 Aug 2015

Environmental factors promote genetic mutations, have underappreciated effect on disease, evolution

Washington State University researchers say environmental factors are having an underappreciated effect on the course of disease and evolution by prompting genetic mutations through epigenetics, a process by which genes are turned on and off independent of an organism's DNA sequence.

3 Aug 2015

Detailed molecular analyses reveal new treatment options for aggressive childhood leukemia

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) leukemia is the most common type of cancer in children. It can occur in various forms, differing not only by specific changes in the genetic material of the leukemia cells but also by their response to therapies. Now, an international team of scientists from Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hannover, Heidelberg, Kiel, and Zurich have succeeded in decoding the molecular characteristics of an as yet incurable subtype of leukemia, paving the way for new therapeutic approaches.

30 Jul 2015

Discovery paves way for new therapeutic approaches to treat fatal leukemia in children

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common type of cancer in children. It can occur in various forms, differing not only by specific changes in the genetic material of the leukemia cells but also by their response to therapies.

30 Jul 2015

New type of mycovirus can cause aspergillosis in humans

Researchers, led by Dr Robert Coutts, Leverhulme Research Fellow from the School of Life and Medical Sciences at the University of Hertfordshire, and Dr Ioly Kotta-Loizou, Research Associate at Imperial College, have discovered a completely novel type of mycovirus.

29 Jul 2015

Protein imbalances within cells can cause ovarian cancer

Cancer can be caused solely by protein imbalances within cells, a study of ovarian cancer has found. The discovery is a major breakthrough because, until now, genetic aberrations have been seen as the main cause of almost all cancer.

28 Jul 2015

Researchers show how genetic modification of mouse strains complicate biomedical research interpretation

Investigators affiliated with VIB and UGent recently achieved great success with a study involving biomedical research on mouse models.

25 Jul 2015

U of T researchers discover DNA ambulance

U of T researchers have discovered how severely damaged DNA is transported within a cell and how it is repaired.

24 Jul 2015

Groundbreaking experimental therapy has ability to suppress ulcerative colitis

UCLA scientists have discovered a groundbreaking experimental therapy that has the ability to suppress the development of ulcerative colitis (UC), a disease which causes inflammation in the digestive tract and colon cancer. The treatment utilizes a chemical inhibitor able to block an RNA molecule (microRNA-214) involved in the transmission of genetic information.