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Scientists find eight different types of schizophrenia

Scientists from the universities of Granada (Spain) and Washington in St Louis (US) have found that there is not a single type of schizophrenia, but that it consists of a group made up of eight genetically different types of diseases, each of which presents its own set of symptoms.

4 Feb 2015

Study may offer insight into pathology of autism, Alzheimer's disease

For parents of children struggling with autism, the dearth of information is heartbreaking. Medical professionals are hard put to answer the primary questions: Who is autistic? What causes autism? What treatments are available? The situation is similar for Alzheimer's patients and relatives, who are helpless before the aggressive disease devouring a sufferer's identity.

4 Feb 2015

New study identifies three genes that enable glioblastoma to recur, progress after radiation therapy

A new study identifies three genes that together enable a lethal form of brain cancer to recur and progress after radiation therapy.

4 Feb 2015

Clusters of gene-blocking microRNAs can limit spread of cancer

Cancers that have spread throughout the body, a process known as metastasis, are difficult, often impossible, to control. They are the leading cause of cancer-related deaths.

4 Feb 2015

Whole exome sequencing helps Mayo Clinic neurologist solve a medical mystery

Precision medicine is getting a jump-start from a new national initiative announced in President Obama's State of the Union message. One Georgia family has already experienced its benefits: genomic testing called whole exome sequencing helped Mayo Clinic neurologist Zbigniew Wszolek, M.D., solve a medical mystery that had left a boy with painful, jerking spasms that at times prevented him from walking or talking.

4 Feb 2015

Researchers successfully monitor expression of genes in neurons

Gene expression within neurons is critical for the formation of memories, but it's difficult to identify genes whose expression is altered by learning. Now researchers have successfully monitored the expression of genes in neurons after rats were exposed to auditory fear conditioning, in which a neutral auditory tone is paired with electric shock.

3 Feb 2015

New study helps explain how booster shots trigger immune 'memory' to improve

The last time you were in the doctor's office for a vaccine booster shot, did you wonder why you needed one? Exactly how booster shots offer long-term protection from viruses has long been a mystery to scientists.

3 Feb 2015

Vanderbilt researchers discover new reset button for the brain's master biological clock

The discovery of a new reset button for the brain's master biological clock could eventually lead to new treatments for conditions like seasonal affective disorder, reduce the adverse health effects of working the night shift and possibly even cure jet lag.

3 Feb 2015

International researchers discover gene that causes familial scoliosis

The discovery of the first gene causing familial scoliosis was announced by an international France-Canada research team today. "Mystery surrounds the cause of scoliosis, which is a three dimensional deformation of the vertebral column. Many researchers have been attempting to uncover the origins of this disease, particularly from a genetic point of view," explained leading co-author Dr Florina Moldovan of the University of Montreal and the CHU Sainte Justine research hospital.

3 Feb 2015

Geneticists discover that present-day human life colonized Eurasia 70,000 years ago

While it is widely accepted that the origins of modern humans date back some 200,000 years to Africa, there has been furious debate as to which model of early Homo sapiens migration most plausibly led to the population of the planet -- and the eventual extinction of Neanderthals.

2 Feb 2015

Mathematical models of cancer behavior offer new insights on tumor growth

Hassan Fathallah-Shaykh, M.D., Ph.D., believes that math can transform medicine, and he has the numbers to prove it.

2 Feb 2015

Study identifies genetic basis of drug toxicity in leukemia patients of East Asian ancestry

January 26, 2015) About 10 percent of young leukemia patients of East Asian ancestry inherit a gene variation that is associated with reduced tolerance of a drug that is indispensable for curing acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common childhood cancer.

2 Feb 2015

Scientists create largest ever catalogue of biological chimeras

Scientists from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre's Structural Computational Biology Group, led by Alfonso Valencia, are making the largest ever catalogue of biological chimeras available to the public domain.

2 Feb 2015

NR2F1 gene: A 'master regulator' of tumor cell growth

Two existing cancer drugs turn on a gene that tells tumor cells to remain inactive, according to a study led by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published today in Nature Communications.

31 Jan 2015

Researchers reveal why many African-American women are diagnosed with deadly forms of breast cancer

Researchers have uncovered new information that may begin to explain why many African-American women are more likely to be diagnosed with aggressive, often deadly forms of breast cancer, which strengthens the evidence that increased dietary folate intake may prove to be an effective strategy for reducing risk for the disease in African-American women.

31 Jan 2015

Emory researchers complete detailed maps of 184 duplications found in genomes

Copy number variations (deletions or duplications of large chunks of the genome) are a major cause of birth defects, intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disorders. Still, geneticists can definitively say how a CNV, once discovered in someone's DNA, leads to one of these conditions in just a fraction of cases.

31 Jan 2015

Scientists identify biological clock that can help predict individual's age

Scientists have identified a biological clock that provides vital clues about how long a person is likely to live.

31 Jan 2015

Two researchers receive Charles Rodolphe Brupbacher Prize for Cancer Research

Researchers Irving L. Weissman and Joan Massagué have won this year's Charles Rodolphe Brupbacher Prize for Cancer Research: Weissman, from Stanford University, for his work on healthy and sick stem cells; Massagué, from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, for his research on metastatic spread.

31 Jan 2015

TCGA researchers uncover differences between tumors with and without HPV infection

The study by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) researchers analyzed the genomes of 279 head and neck cancer tumors. They identified subtypes of head and neck cancer based on their genomic characteristics, changes in smoking-related tumors, as well as genomic differences in head and neck cancer tumors linked to HPV, the most commonly sexually transmitted disease in the United States.

31 Jan 2015

TAU researchers identify novel proteins capable of stymieing growth in antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Antibiotic-resistant infections are on the rise, foiling efforts to reduce death rates in developing countries where uncontrolled use of antibiotics and poor sanitation run amok. The epidemic of "superbugs," bacteria resistant to antibiotics, knows no borders -- presenting a clear and present danger around the globe.

31 Jan 2015