DNA News and Research

RSS

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).

Inovio, GeneOne to advance DNA-based Ebola vaccine into phase I clinical trial

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced it will advance its DNA vaccine for Ebola into a phase I clinical trial in a collaboration with GeneOne Life Science Inc., an international DNA vaccine manufacturer in which Inovio holds a minority interest.

24 Sep 2014

Mfn2 protein: A future therapeutic target for neuronal death reduction in ischemic stroke

A new study published in the prestigious publication The EMBO Journal shows that the mitochondrial protein Mfn2 may be a future therapeutic target for neuronal death reduction in the late phases of an ischemic stroke.

24 Sep 2014

Scientists identify gene mutation that causes aplastic anemia

An international team of scientists has identified a gene mutation that causes aplastic anemia, a serious blood disorder in which the bone marrow fails to produce normal amounts of blood cells.

23 Sep 2014

DNA sequencing may lead to greater care for patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia

A patient survives life-threatening trauma, is intubated in the intensive care unit (ICU) to support his or her affected vital functions, starts to recover, and then develops pneumonia.

23 Sep 2014

Circulating tumour cell clinical research collaboration announced between EKF Diagnostics and Massachusetts General Hospital

EKF, announces that it has entered into a two year research collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital.

From EKF Diagnostics 23 Sep 2014

New approach to diagnose tuberculosis

Researchers working in the UK and The Gambia, have developed a new approach to the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) that relies on direct sequencing of DNA extracted from sputum (a technique called metagenomics) to detect and characterize the bacteria that cause TB without the need for time-consuming culture of bacteria in the laboratory.

23 Sep 2014

Promising new approach for combating colorectal cancer

Scientists at the University of York are working on a promising new approach for tackling colorectal cancer, the second most common cause of cancer-related death.

23 Sep 2014

Clontech Laboratories announces launch of DNA SMART ChIP-Seq Kit

Clontech Laboratories, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Takara Bio Inc., today announced the launch of the DNA SMART ChIP-Seq Kit. This kit adapts Clontech's patented SMART technology in an innovative manner for use with low-input samples, including both dsDNA and ssDNA templates, to generate ChIP-seq libraries for NGS.

23 Sep 2014

MIT engineers find new strategy to combat superbugs

In recent years, new strains of bacteria have emerged that resist even the most powerful antibiotics. Each year, these superbugs, including drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis and staphylococcus, infect more than 2 million people nationwide, and kill at least 23,000. Despite the urgent need for new treatments, scientists have discovered very few new classes of antibiotics in the past decade.

22 Sep 2014

Researchers develop protein therapy that may stop cancer growth

A team of Stanford researchers has developed a protein therapy that disrupts the process that causes cancer cells to break away from original tumor sites, travel through the blood stream and start aggressive new growths elsewhere in the body.

22 Sep 2014

Biosensor opens up possibility of rapid, point-of-care diagnostic tool for cancer patients

An ultrasensitive biosensor made from the wonder material graphene has been used to detect molecules that indicate an increased risk of developing cancer.

22 Sep 2014

Sequencing the Asian liver fluke genome: an interview with Dr Neil Young

Opisthorchis viverrini is a parasitic flatworm (or liver fluke) endemic throughout Thailand, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Vietnam and Cambodia. Humans are infected with this parasite when they eat a fluke encysted in inadequately cooked/preserved freshwater fish.

21 Sep 2014

New finding could accelerate research to regenerate damaged tissue

Scientists at NYU Langone Medical Center have found a way to boost dramatically the efficiency of the process for turning adult cells into so-called pluripotent stem cells by combining three well-known compounds, including vitamin C.

19 Sep 2014

Research could help eventual treatment of degenerative muscle, brain diseases

Our genetic information is stored in DNA, tiny strands of nucleic acid that contain instructions for the functioning of our bodies. To express this genetic data, our DNA is copied into RNA molecules, which then translate the instructions into proteins that perform tasks in our cells.

19 Sep 2014

Longer looks: Lithium in the water; controlling cancer; recovering from brain injury

There are many kinds of cancer, but treatments have typically combatted them in one way only: by attempting to destroy the cancerous cells. Surgery aims to remove the entire growth from the body; chemotherapy drugs are toxic to the cancer cells; radiation generates toxic molecules that break up the cancer cells' DNA and proteins, causing their demise.

19 Sep 2014

New approach to imaging metastatic tumors

Bioluminescence, nanoparticles, gene manipulation - these sound like the ideas of a science fiction writer, but, in fact, they are components of an exciting new approach to imaging local and metastatic tumors.

18 Sep 2014

Scientists find 23 new genetic variants that increase risk for prostate cancer

In an analysis of genetic information among more than 87,000 men, a global team of scientists says it has found 23 new genetic variants - common differences in the genetic code -- that increase a man's risk for prostate cancer. The so-called "meta-analysis," believed to be the largest of its kind, has revealed once hidden mutations among men in a broad array of ethnic groups comprising men of European, African, Japanese and Latino ancestry.

18 Sep 2014