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).

Discovery of chromosomal abnormality that appears to increase susceptibility to autism

A multi-institutional study involving Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers has identified a chromosomal abnormality that appears to increase susceptibility to autism.

10 Jan 2008

Evolution of the sexes: What a fungus can tell us

Fungi don't exactly come in boy and girl varieties, but they do have sex differences.

10 Jan 2008

Real concerns over the ethics of a DNA database

The inventor of DNA fingerprinting, Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys, of the University of Leicester, has voiced his concerns over the ethics of a DNA database.

10 Jan 2008

New understanding on the mechanics of gene transcription

The molecular machinery behind gene transcription -- the intricate transfer of information from a segment of DNA to a corresponding strand of messenger RNA -- isn't stationed in special "transcription factories" within a cell nucleus, according to Cornell researchers.

9 Jan 2008

Loss of a small portion of chromosome 16 linked to autism

Loss of a small portion of chromosome 16, known as 16p11.2, is significantly associated with autism report researchers from the University of Chicago Medical Center, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in an article, published Dec. 21, 2007, online by the journal Human Molecular Genetics.

9 Jan 2008

Researchers trigger insulin production in diabetic mice

If the human body were a stage, then proteins would rank among the lead actors in the play we call "Life."

9 Jan 2008

Nastech receives U.S. patent for methods for identifying cell-specific targeting peptides

Nastech Pharmaceutical Company Inc. has announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued a Notice of Allowance for U.S. patent application No. 10/976,942, entitled "Phage Displayed Trp Cage Ligands".

9 Jan 2008

Freeze-dried tendon grafts loaded with gene therapy may provide repair injured tendons

According to study data published today in the journal Molecular Therapy, a new graft technique may provide the first effective framework around which flexor tendon tissue can reorganize as it heals.

9 Jan 2008

Rockefeller University funds clinical, translational pilot studies

The Rockefeller University Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) has announced the recipients of its 2008 Pilot Project grants.

8 Jan 2008

New magnetic method of delivering cells and genes to repair injured or diseased organs

Scientists have used magnetic fields and tiny iron-bearing particles to drive healthy cells to targeted sites in blood vessels.

8 Jan 2008

Discovery of 480 genes that control human cell division

A team of U.S., Israeli and German scientists used computational biology techniques to discover 480 genes that play a role in human cell division and to identify more than 100 of those genes that have an abnormal pattern of activation in cancer cells.

8 Jan 2008

New understanding of cell's inner workings

A group of scientists in Princeton's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology has uncovered a new biological mechanism that could provide a clearer window into a cell's inner workings.

7 Jan 2008

Down's syndrome gene protects against cancer

Researchers in the United States say the chromosomal abnormality that affects people with Down's syndrome also protects them against cancer.

3 Jan 2008

Scientists find missing evolutionary link using tiny fungus crystal

The crystal structure of a molecule from a primitive fungus has served as a time machine to show researchers more about the evolution of life from the simple to the complex.

3 Jan 2008

New understanding of hydrogen peroxide's role in cell health

Hydrogen peroxide, the same mild acid that many people use to disinfectant their kitchens or treat cuts and abrasions, is also produced by the body to keep cells healthy.

3 Jan 2008

Preventing transfusion-transmitted infections through improved blood screening methods

The blood transfusion community should consider pathogen inactivation methods as an alternative way to assure the safety and availability of the nation's blood supply, a pathologist wrote in the December issue of the American Journal of Clinical Pathology (AJCP).

2 Jan 2008

Gene variation increases risk of liver tumor in patients with cirrhosis

A particular gene variation appears to significantly increase the risk that individuals with cirrhosis of the liver will go on to develop hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a liver tumor that is the third leading cause of cancer death.

2 Jan 2008

Personalized medicine will alter treatment of genetic disorders

One of the nation's pre-eminent genetic researchers, Eric Hoffman, PhD, of Children's Research Institute at Children's National Medical Center, predicts that in relatively short order, medicine's next innovation--individualized molecular therapies--will have the unprecedented ability to treat muscular dystrophies, and other disorders.

28 Dec 2007

Copy number variation may stem from replication misstep

Genome rearrangements, resulting in variations in the numbers of copies of genes, occur when the cellular process that copies DNA during cell division stalls and then switches to a different genetic "template," said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston in a report that appears today in the journal Cell.

28 Dec 2007

Breast cancer gene mutation more common in Hispanic, young black women

A genetic mutation already known to be more common in Ashkenazi Jewish breast cancer patients is also prevalent in Hispanic and young African-American women with breast cancer, according to one of the largest, multiracial studies of the mutation to date.

28 Dec 2007