Cytoplasm News and Research

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Acromegaly and antisense therapy: an interview with Mark Diamond, CEO Antisense Therapeutics

Acromegaly is a chronic, life-threatening disease triggered by a benign tumour of the pituitary gland causing excessive growth hormone release. Oversupply of growth hormone stimulates liver, fat and kidney cells to produce excess levels of Insulin-Like Growth Factor I (IGFI), which causes abnormal growth of the bones of the hands, face and feet and bodily organs.

26 Aug 2014

Finding suggests that retina acts as type of window to the brain

Researchers at the Gladstone Institutes and University of California, San Francisco have shown that a loss of cells in the retina is one of the earliest signs of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in people with a genetic risk for the disorder-even before any changes appear in their behavior.

25 Aug 2014

Study shows new role for protein APC in suppressing colorectal cancer

A study recently published in the journal Carcinogenesis by researchers at the University of Kansas shows a new role for the protein adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) in suppressing colorectal cancer - the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S.

22 Aug 2014

A personalized approach for patients with ccRCC-related mutations

In an analysis of small molecules called metabolites used by the body to make fuel in normal and cancerous cells in human kidney tissue, a research team from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania identified an enzyme key to applying the brakes on tumor growth.

21 Jul 2014

Current sequencing protocols overlook DNA crucial to bacterial virulence

Genomic sequencing is supposed to reveal the entire genetic makeup of an organism. For infectious disease specialists, the technology can be used to analyze a disease-causing bacterium to determine how much harm it is capable of causing and whether or not it will be resistant to antibiotics.

26 Jun 2014

Researchers discover crucial process that regulates development of blood vessels

Biologists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have discovered a crucial process that regulates the development of blood vessels.

19 Jun 2014

Celsion signs definitive asset purchase agreement to acquire EGEN

Celsion Corporation (Celsion) (NASDAQ: CLSN), an oncology drug development company, and EGEN, Inc. (EGEN), a privately-held biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of nucleic acid-based therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and other difficult to treat diseases, today announced the signing of a definitive asset purchase agreement in which Celsion will acquire substantially all of the assets of EGEN, including its Phase Ib DNA-based immunotherapy product candidate EGEN-001 and its therapeutic platform technologies, TheraPlas™ for delivery of DNA and mRNA, TheraSilence™ for delivery of RNA, and RAST™ for Cell Enabled Expression and Secretion of RNA.

10 Jun 2014

Research finding could lead to new strategies for malaria control

Researchers have found the first evidence of an intercellular bacterial infection in natural populations of two species of Anopheles mosquitoes, the major vectors of malaria in Africa. The infection, called Wolbachia, has been shown in labs to reduce the incidence of pathogen infections in mosquitoes and has the potential to be used in controlling malaria-transmitting mosquito populations.

6 Jun 2014

Protein complex structure that plays an important role in regulating circadian rhythm identified

Structural biologists have made important progress towards better understanding the functioning of the circadian clock. The circadian or inner clock coordinates the sleep-wake rhythm and many other body processes that regulate, for example, metabolism, blood pressure, and the immune system.

31 May 2014

New research shows how misfolded proteins are precisely selected for degradation

It's almost axiomatic that misfolded proteins compromise how cells normally function and cause debilitating human disease, but how these proteins are detected and degraded within the body is not well understood.

30 May 2014

TUSM scientists receive $11.5M grant to develop innovative treatments for heart failure

Innovative treatments for heart failure are lacking, leaving the nearly six million Americans who suffer from the condition with little hope for a cure.

23 May 2014

DNA-directed RNA interference and hepatitis C: an interview with Carl Stubbings, Chief Business Officer, Benitec Biopharma

RNA interference (RNAi) is a naturally occurring process, which cells can use to silence, or ‘turn off’ unwanted genes.

From Quest Diagnostics 19 May 2014

Researchers create tiny, biodegradable nanoparticles that carry DNA to brain cancer cells

Working together, Johns Hopkins biomedical engineers and neurosurgeons report that they have created tiny, biodegradable “nanoparticles” able to carry DNA to brain cancer cells in mice.

30 Apr 2014

Study reveals how human genome is protected from inadvertent import of viral RNA into cell

Scientists of the Max F. Perutz Laboratories of the University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna, together with colleagues of the ETH Zurich, have now shown how double stranded RNA, such as viral genetic information, is prevented from entering the nucleus of a cell.

23 Apr 2014

Researchers identify mechanism that explains reason for persistence of hepatitis C virus

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified a mechanism that explains why people with the hepatitis C virus get liver disease and why the virus is able to persist in the body for so long.

16 Apr 2014

Rice University research targets Parkinson's, Huntington's and other proteasomal diseases

Synthetic genetic circuitry created by researchers at Rice University is helping them see, for the first time, how to regulate cell mechanisms that degrade the misfolded proteins implicated in Parkinson's, Huntington's and other diseases.

9 Apr 2014

NRAS gene that plays fundamental role in cancer development produces five gene variants, says study

A new study shows that a gene discovered 30 years ago and now known to play a fundamental role in cancer development produces five different gene variants (called isoforms), rather than just the one original form, as thought.

8 Apr 2014

UCLA scientist wins $3M gift for research on structural properties of key proteins in kidney

UCLA Scientist Dr. Ira Kurtz has received a $3 million gift from the Donald T. Sterling Foundation to fund research on the structural properties of key proteins in the kidney that affect its function in health and disease.

2 Apr 2014

Sodium pump plays vital role in nerve impulses, heartbeats and muscular contraction

A study in The Journal of General Physiology provides new evidence that the ubiquitous sodium pump is more complex-and more versatile-than we thought.

1 Apr 2014

Misplaced protein provides promising drug target for kidney cancer

The shortage of oxygen, or hypoxia, created when rapidly multiplying kidney cancer cells outgrow their local blood supply can accelerate tumor growth by causing a nuclear protein called SPOP-which normally suppresses tumor growth-to move out of the nucleus to the cytoplasm, where it has the opposite effect, promoting rapid proliferation.

21 Mar 2014