DNA News and Research

RSS

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).

Androstenone determines whether male body odor smells pleasant

New research from Rockefeller University, performed in collaboration with scientists at Duke University in North Carolina, reveals for the first time that this extreme variability in peopl's perception of androstenone is due in large part to genetic variations in a single odorant receptor called OR7D4.

17 Sep 2007

Researchers look at role of oxidative stress in human diseases

Oxidative stress is known to underlie many human diseases including atherosclerosis, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.

17 Sep 2007

Screening all babies for high cholesterol could save many lives

Doctors in the UK say in order to reduce the number of people suffering from heart disease children as young as 15 months should be screened for high cholesterol.

17 Sep 2007

Loneliness can damage your health

A team of researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) may have found a genetic reason why lonely people have poorer health.

14 Sep 2007

Delivery of anti-cancer drug paclitaxel on a tiny ball of gold

Rice University chemists have discovered a way to load dozens of molecules of the anti-cancer drug paclitaxel onto tiny gold spheres. The result is a tiny ball, many times smaller than a living cell that literally bristles with the drug.

13 Sep 2007

Potential vaccine target for chlamydia

Scientists at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC have identified a potential target for the development of a vaccine against Chlamydia trachomatis, the most prevalent sexually transmitted bacterial infection in the world.

13 Sep 2007

New Rensselaer tools speed stem cell research

Engineers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed tools to help solve two of the main problems slowing the progress of stem cell research - how to quickly test stem cell response to different drugs or genes, and how to create a large supply of healthy, viable stem cells to study from only a few available cells.

13 Sep 2007

New technique detects how proteins undergo changes inside a cell

In the September issue of Molecular & Cellular Proteomics , scientists describe a new technique that can detect how proteins undergo changes inside a cell.

13 Sep 2007

RecA family recombinases repair DNA damages

A biochemistry research team led by Dr. Andrew H.-J. Wang and Dr. Ting-Fang Wang at the Institute of Biological Chemistry, Academia Sinica(IBCAS), has discovered that the RecA family recombinases function as a new type of rotary motor proteins to repair DNA damages.

13 Sep 2007

Genetic link to loneliness

It's already known that a person's social environment can affect their health, with those who are socially isolated - that is, lonely suffering from higher mortality than people who are not.

13 Sep 2007

GeoVax Labs presents successful human trial results for its HIV/AIDS vaccines

GeoVax Labs, Inc. has announced the presentation of successful human trial results for its HIV/AIDS vaccines at the AIDS Vaccine 2007 Conference held August 20-23, 2007 in Seattle, Washington.

13 Sep 2007

Biodiversity of protozoa may be much higher than previously realised

In contrast to previous findings, it seems that the global distribution of macro- and microorganisms might be similar. A study in the online open access journal, BMC Evolutionary Biology, shows that some protozoa are globally dispersed, while others are geographically restricted - by looking at a new fast-evolving DNA marker.

13 Sep 2007

New insight into breast cancer development in high-risk women

Physicians who treat women with the breast cancer susceptibility gene BRCA1 often remove their patients' ovaries to eliminate the source of estrogen they believe fuels cancer growth.

12 Sep 2007

Endurance athlete's genetic edge has long running history

A gene variation commonly found in endurance athletes most likely evolved as humans moved out of warm, food- rich environments to colder and harsher conditions, new research shows.

11 Sep 2007

Vitamin C inhibits the growth of some tumors

Nearly 30 years after Nobel laureate Linus Pauling famously and controversially suggested that vitamin C supplements can prevent cancer, a team of Johns Hopkins scientists have shown that in mice at least, vitamin C - and potentially other antioxidants - can indeed inhibit the growth of some tumors ¯ just not in the manner suggested by years of investigation.

11 Sep 2007

Genetic causes of rheumatoid arthritis

The human genome has now been thoroughly screened in the hunt for the genetic causes of rheumatoid arthritis. The results, which both confirms previous hypotheses and turn the spotlight on entirely new genes, are presented in two articles in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine.

10 Sep 2007