Genome News and Research

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Genomic factors may play a role in alcohol and tobacco use

Alcohol and smoking can be harmful, if not deadly. While the desire for these substances can be due to environmental cues, genomic factors also play an important role.

13 Aug 2007

Cause of major subtype of glaucoma discovered

In a paper published in the journal Science, scientists from deCODE genetics and academic colleagues from the National University Hospital in Reykjavik and Uppsala University in Sweden report the discovery of two common single letter variations (SNPs) in the sequence of the human genome that appear to account for virtually all cases of a major subtype of glaucoma.

12 Aug 2007

Chromatin remodeling complex connected to DNA damage control

When molecular disaster strikes, causing structural damage to DNA, players in two important pathways talk to each other to help contain the wreckage, scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the August edition of Cell.

12 Aug 2007

Ten ALS genes found

Blood samples from more than 220 ALS patients at the Methodist Neurological Institute were used in research that revealed significant changes in or around 10 specific genes in sporadic ALS, the most common form of ALS.

6 Aug 2007

Biologists discover one reason why chromosomes break, often leading to cancer

In the past ten years, researchers in genome stability have observed that many kinds of cancer are associated with areas where human chromosomes break.

6 Aug 2007

New understanding of male fertility from enzyme discovery

Scientists have discovered a new enzyme involved in the degradation of proteins inside cells, a process that helps eliminate or recycle proteins that are no longer needed.

3 Aug 2007

Gene variation makes people with depression more likely to respond to the medication citalopram

A variation in a gene called GRIK4 appears to make people with depression more likely to respond to the medication citalopram (Celexa) than are people without the variation, a study by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health, has found.

3 Aug 2007

Detection of gene fusions in prostate cancer

Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have discovered how genes turn on the switch that leads to prostate cancer.

3 Aug 2007

Bipolar disorder phenome database

A novel, free, public online database opening this week should greatly speed efforts to find genes linked to increase risk of bipolar disorder.

1 Aug 2007

Discovery of pathway that controls cell size and division

Organisms precisely regulate cell size to ensure that daughter cells have sufficient cellular material to thrive or to create specific cell types: a tiny sperm versus a gargantuan egg for example.

1 Aug 2007

New risk genes for multiple sclerosis

Two new large-scale genomic studies have honed in on the main genetic pathway associated with multiple sclerosis (MS), while also uncovering new genetic variations in the disease and suggesting a possible link between MS and other autoimmune diseases.

1 Aug 2007

Genomics study provides insight into the evolution of unique human traits

Researchers from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, along with colleagues from Stanford University, report the results of a large-scale, genome-wide study to investigate gene copy number differences among ten primate species, including humans.

1 Aug 2007