DNA News and Research

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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).

World's fastest program to examine interactions between molecules

Creating new, improved pharmaceuticals is sometimes very similar to cracking the code of a combination lock. If you have the wrong numbers, the lock won't open. Even worse, you don't know if your numbers are close to the actual code or way off the mark. The only solution is to simply guess a new combination and try again.

18 Nov 2011

Researchers use baker's yeast to gain insight into chromosome separation process

Researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research used, ironically enough, the single-celled organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae -- commonly known as baker's yeast -- to gain new insight into the process by which chromosomes are physically segregated during cell division.

18 Nov 2011

Modified spider silk proteins for cancer gene therapy

A new episode in the American Chemical Society's (ACS) award-winning "Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions" podcast series spins a real-life tale in which spider silk shows promise for overcoming a major barrier to the use of gene therapy in everyday medicine.

17 Nov 2011

New blood spot analysis method can diagnose range of clinical conditions

Scientists have developed a rapid method that can be used to simultaneously screen patients for a range of genetic and acquired clinical conditions from a single dried blood spot.

17 Nov 2011

Link between NRXN3 gene and impulsivity

Being impulsive can lead us to say things we regret, buy things we really don't need, engage in behaviors that are risky and even develop troublesome addictions. But are different kinds of hastiness and rashness embedded in our DNA? A new study suggests the answer is yes -- especially if you're a man.

17 Nov 2011

Budding yeast helps make useful predictions about the biology of individuals

It now only costs a few thousand Euros to sequence the genome of an individual human. However, for most of us, knowing our genome sequence would not be useful. Each human has more than 20 000 genes, and in each of us several thousand of these genes carry mutations.

16 Nov 2011

Leading alcohol researchers to discuss latest genetic findings at Loyola meeting

Leading alcohol researchers from the United States and Canada will discuss their latest findings at an all-day meeting Nov. 18 at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

16 Nov 2011

Just 20 seconds to know whether a stranger is trustworthy, kind or compassionate

There's definitely something to be said for first impressions. New research from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests it can take just 20 seconds to detect whether a stranger is genetically inclined to being trustworthy, kind or compassionate.

16 Nov 2011

Study detects contrasting patterns of malaria drug resistance in humans, mosquitoes

A study conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute and their Zambian colleagues detected contrasting patterns of drug resistance in malaria-causing parasites taken from both humans and mosquitoes in rural Zambia.

16 Nov 2011

Researchers discover human genes that might contribute to ALS

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a universally fatal neurodegenerative disease. Mutations in two related proteins, TDP-43 and FUS, cause some forms of ALS. Specifically, these two proteins are RNA-binding proteins that connect to RNA to regulate the translation of proteins and other cellular functions such as RNA splicing and editing. In a new study, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania discovered additional human genes with properties similar to TDP-43 and FUS that might also contribute to ALS.

16 Nov 2011

ZIOPHARM announces new preclinical data from two darinaparsin studies on solid tumors

ZIOPHARM Oncology, Inc., a drug development company employing small molecule and synthetic biology approaches to cancer therapy, announced today new preclinical data from two separate studies of darinaparsin, a novel organic arsenic, in various solid tumor models at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics, taking place November 12-16 in San Francisco.

16 Nov 2011

New method to stack synthetic DNA and carbon nanotubes onto biosensor electrode

Purdue University scientists have developed a method for stacking synthetic DNA and carbon nanotubes onto a biosensor electrode, a development that may lead to more accurate measurements for research related to diabetes and other diseases.

16 Nov 2011

Silibinin stops spread of lung cancer in mice

Tissue with wound-like conditions allows tumors to grow and spread. In mouse lung cancer cells, treatment with silibinin, a major component of milk thistle, removed the molecular billboards that signal these wound-like conditions and so stopped the spread of these lung cancers, according to a recent study published in the journal Molecular Carcinogenesis.

16 Nov 2011

Positive data from MDxHealth's prostate cancer test study

MDxHealth SA, a leading molecular diagnostics company in the field of personalized cancer treatment, today announced data showing that a prototype of its Prostate ConfirmMDx test can help urologists distinguish patients who have a true negative biopsy from those who may have occult cancer undetected by prostate biopsy and histopathological review.

15 Nov 2011

Lentigen, UH Case Medical Center initiate LG631 Phase I trial in glioblastoma

University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and Lentigen Corporation announced today the initiation of a novel Phase I clinical trial of LG631 gene therapy for the protection of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) from the dose limiting toxicity of chemotherapy with Temodar.

15 Nov 2011

Women with inflammatory breast cancer now have a chance of treatment

Women with the deadliest and rarest form of breast cancer now have a chance of treatment where once their options were severely limited, thanks to a new discovery by George Mason University researchers.

15 Nov 2011

Scientists discover molecular basis for tamoxifen resistance and potential way to defeat it

In the last three decades, thousands of women with breast cancer have taken the drug tamoxifen, only to discover that the therapy doesn't work, either because their tumors do not respond to the treatment at all, or because they develop resistance to it over time. Now researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have discovered the molecular basis for tamoxifen resistance and found a potential way to defeat it.

14 Nov 2011

ZIOPHARM announces darinaparsin preclinical data on prostate cancer

ZIOPHARM Oncology, Inc., a drug development company employing small molecule and synthetic biology approaches to cancer therapy, announced today that results from preclinical studies of darinaparsin (Zinapar or ZIO-101), a novel organic arsenic, in prostate cancer were presented at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics, taking place November 12-16 in San Francisco.

14 Nov 2011

Researchers show how ER-positive breast cancer tumors become resistant to tamoxifen

Researchers have shown how estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer tumors become resistant to tamoxifen, the only approved hormonal therapy for premenopausal patients with this type of breast cancer.

14 Nov 2011

Researchers retrace evolution of unusual bacterial infection

Researchers at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston have retraced the evolution of an unusual bacterial infection as it spread among cystic fibrosis patients by sequencing scores of samples collected during the outbreak, since contained.

14 Nov 2011