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).

Proteins transform DNA into molecular velcro

Proteins critical for compacting DNA in preparation for cell division actually interact with the double helix to fashion it into a kind of “molecular Velcro,” researchers have discovered.

5 Jun 2004

Breakthrough in gene therapy

Despite a roller-coaster ride of ups and downs during the past 15 years, gene therapy has continued to attract many of the world's brightest scientists. They are tantalized by the enormous potential that replacing missing genes or disabling defective ones offers for curing diseases of many kinds.

3 Jun 2004

Positive benefits of sun exposure

There is no getting around the fact that sunlight is hard on your skin. But what about the positive benefits of sun exposure? The June Harvard Health Letter discusses the good and the bad of the sun.

2 Jun 2004

Study may help oncologists tailor chemotherapy to patients based on their genetic make-up

Genetic variations in an individual’s ability to repair DNA damage may help predict survival in lung cancer patients treated with the common chemotherapy drugs cisplatin or carboplatin, a new study shows.

2 Jun 2004

Genes that allow nerve cells to communicate may have come from bacteria eons ago

Some of the genes that allow nerve cells and some other types of cells to send elaborate chemical messages to each other appear to have been transferred to animals or their immediate ancestors from bacteria eons ago.

2 Jun 2004

Students win awards for research into liver disease, cancer and insomnia

Targeting a range of diseases and disorders, three University of Houston students won awards at a recent symposium for research in liver disease, cancer and insomnia.

2 Jun 2004

How we pass our genes to our children

An Oxford-led team of researchers has found out more about what happens during recombination, the process by which the genetic information you inherited from your mother and father is mixed up to make a sex chromosome to pass on to your offspring.

1 Jun 2004

Novel molecular targeting technologies to deliver gene-silencing therapy

Researchers have combined novel molecular targeting technologies to deliver gene-silencing therapy specifically to tumor cells shielded by a normally impermeable obstacle, the blood brain barrier.

1 Jun 2004

Discovery of a key marker in breast cancer tumors

Cancer researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center have discovered a key marker in breast cancer tumors that may help determine which women with early stage breast cancer have a better chance of survival. The research appears in the June 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

31 May 2004

Four critical components of cells' protein-building machine don't do what scientists had long assumed

In the hunt for these details, scientists have focused on four RNA building blocks, or nucleotides, deep within the machine that are identical in every species, from bacteria to humans. Because they sit where the protein chain is actually built, these "universally conserved" nucleotides in the ribosome were thought to help that process.

28 May 2004

Cellular garbage plays a key role in the process of cytokinesis, or cell division

A cellular structure discovered 125 years ago and dismissed by many biologists as "cellular garbage" has been found to play a key role in the process of cytokinesis, or cell division, one of the most ancient and important of all biological phenomena.

27 May 2004

Randomness in gene expression to lead to differences in people that are genetically identical

Experiments by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers have revealed it might be possible for randomness in gene expression to lead to differences in cells — or people, for that matter — that are genetically identical.

27 May 2004

Cigarette smoking linked to leukemia

Cigarette smoking has been linked to acute myelogenous leukemia, according to The Health Consequences of Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General, released today.

27 May 2004

Finding overturns long held ideas about how cells build proteins

Writing in the May 28 issue of Cell, Johns Hopkins researchers report that four critical components of cells' protein-building machine don't do what scientists had long assumed.

27 May 2004

Discovery may help to define the limits for life on Earth, as well as elsewhere in the universe

The discovery of millions of micro-microbes surviving in a 120,000-year-old ice sample taken from 3,000 meters below the surface of the Greenland glacier was announced by Penn State scientists today (May 26) at the General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in New Orleans, La. The discovery may help to define the limits for life on Earth, as well as elsewhere in the universe, such as on cold planets like Mars.

27 May 2004

Evidence that abnormally short telomeres play a role in the early development of cancer

Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center say they have evidence that abnormally short telomeres - the end-caps on chromosomes that normally preserve genetic integrity -appear to play a role in the early development of many types of cancer.

27 May 2004

Ancient DNA answers questions from the past

What does a 5000-year-old Ice Man, crime-solving mummies and life on other planets have in common?

26 May 2004

Data suggests potential target for Alzheimer's disease treatment

Researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College and Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons have discovered at least one way in which beta-amyloid, the protein that forms stubborn plaques in the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients, can kill nerve cells.

25 May 2004

Computer program to predict where DNA molecules will pop open when twisted

Biologists are used to thinking about DNA sequences as a string of letters (A, C, G, T) that happens to be arranged in an elegant double helix. But DNA also has mechanical properties that affect how genes are turned on or off, say researchers at the UC Davis Genome Center.

24 May 2004

Cultured nanoparticles from filtered homogenates of diseased calcified human cardiovascular tissue

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic found they could isolate and culture nanoparticles from filtered homogenates of diseased calcified human cardiovascular tissue. These cultured nano-sized particles were recognized by a DNA-specific dye, incorporated radiolabeled uridine, and after decalcification, appeared via electron microscopy to contain cell walls.

24 May 2004

DNA News and Research

Further Reading

Proteins transform DNA into molecular velcro

Breakthrough in gene therapy

Positive benefits of sun exposure

Study may help oncologists tailor chemotherapy to patients based on their genetic make-up

Genes that allow nerve cells to communicate may have come from bacteria eons ago

Students win awards for research into liver disease, cancer and insomnia

How we pass our genes to our children

Novel molecular targeting technologies to deliver gene-silencing therapy

Discovery of a key marker in breast cancer tumors

Four critical components of cells' protein-building machine don't do what scientists had long assumed

Cellular garbage plays a key role in the process of cytokinesis, or cell division

Randomness in gene expression to lead to differences in people that are genetically identical

Cigarette smoking linked to leukemia

Finding overturns long held ideas about how cells build proteins

Discovery may help to define the limits for life on Earth, as well as elsewhere in the universe

Evidence that abnormally short telomeres play a role in the early development of cancer

Ancient DNA answers questions from the past

Data suggests potential target for Alzheimer's disease treatment

Computer program to predict where DNA molecules will pop open when twisted

Cultured nanoparticles from filtered homogenates of diseased calcified human cardiovascular tissue

Achieving and maintaining ISO/IEC 27001 and BS 10012 certifications

Expanding research and clinical options for children with cancer

Examining how pain could play a direct protective role in the gut

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