Genes News and Research

RSS

Generex, Antigen Express and RXi report positive research data from active immunotherapy collaboration

Generex Biotechnology Corporation, together with its wholly-owned immunotherapeutic vaccines subsidiary, Antigen Express, Inc., and RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation, a recognized leader in RNAi-based therapeutics, today announced that they have obtained positive early research data from their collaboration to explore the use of RXi's RNAi technology to develop proprietary vaccine formulations for active immunotherapy.

7 Jan 2011

New research: NFKBIA gene loss induces glioblastoma development

New research shows that loss of a gene called NFKBIA promotes the growth of glioblastoma multiforme, the most common and deadly form of brain cancer, and suggests that therapies that stabilize this gene may improve survival for certain glioblastoma patients.

7 Jan 2011

Researchers discover specific genetic abnormalities in hESC, iPSC lines

A multinational team of researchers led by stem cell scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Scripps Research Institute has documented specific genetic abnormalities that occur in human embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cell lines.

7 Jan 2011

Presence of PML molecules could serve to diagnose condition of tumor: Researchers

Cancer cells reproduce by dividing in two, but a molecule known as PML limits how many times this can happen, according to researchers lead by Dr. Gerardo Ferbeyre of the University of Montreal's Department of Biochemistry.

6 Jan 2011

JMD publishes results of Tissue of Origin Test validation, reproducibility study

Pathwork Diagnostics, Inc., a privately held molecular diagnostics company focused on oncology, announced today that The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics has published the results of a significant Tissue of Origin Test validation and reproducibility study.

6 Jan 2011

Novel AAV gene therapy offers various advantages

A new, simplified method for producing large amounts of viral vector cassettes capable of shuttling genes into host cells will help advance the promising field of gene therapy as applications move into large animal studies and human clinical trials.

6 Jan 2011

Signal Genetics, Caris Life Sciences announce new agreement to commercialize MyPRS tool

Signal Genetics, the parent company of Myeloma Health LLC, a privately held predictive genetic testing company focused on oncology, and Caris Life Sciences, Inc., a leading biosciences company focused on enabling precise and personalized healthcare through the highest quality anatomic pathology, molecular profiling and blood-based diagnostic services, today announced a new agreement under which Caris Life Sciences will offer Signal Genetics' new gene expression profile test for Multiple Myeloma to community-based hematologists/medical oncologists nationwide.

6 Jan 2011

Mutated TDP-43 can cause neurons to die: Study

Lou Gehrig's disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and frontotemporal lobar degeneration are characterized by protein clumps in brain and spinal-cord cells that include an RNA-binding protein called TDP-43. This protein is the major building block of the lesions formed by these clumps.

6 Jan 2011

Researchers say women with multiple sclerosis have more HLA genes than men

Women who have multiple sclerosis (MS) are more likely to have a gene associated with multiple sclerosis than men with the disease and it is this gene region where environment interacts with the genetics, according to a study published in the January 5, 2011, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

6 Jan 2011

Odyssey Thera granted U.S. Patent for high-throughput screening of proteins

Odyssey Thera, Inc. announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted U.S. Patent No. 7,855,167. The invention describes technologies and high-throughput methods for identifying bimolecular interactions in vivo based on protein-fragment complementation assays.

6 Jan 2011

ImmunGene, Cephalon Australia collaborate to advance new class of protein therapeutics

ImmunGene, Inc., a privately held drug development company focused on targeted antibody therapeutics, announced today it has entered into a collaboration in which Cephalon Australia (a wholly owned subsidiary of Cephalon, Inc.) will apply ImmunGene's interferon payload technology to up to six of its new drug targets for cancers.

5 Jan 2011

Betulin in birch bark appears to provide metabolic benefits

An ingredient found in abundance in birch bark appears to have an array of metabolic benefits, according to new studies in animals that are reported in the January issue of Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication.

5 Jan 2011

Critical tuning dial for controlling whole body energy

Researchers have found what appears to be a critical tuning dial for controlling whole body energy, according to a new report in the January issue of Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication. When energy levels within cells drop, it sets off a series of events designed to increase the amount of calorie-rich dietary fat that the body will absorb.

5 Jan 2011

Researchers create model that predicts drug effects on fetal development

When pregnant women need medications, there is often concern about possible effects on the fetus. Although some drugs are clearly recognized to cause birth defects, and others are generally recognized as safe, surprisingly little is known about most drugs' level of risk. Researchers in the Children's Hospital Boston Informatics Program have created a preclinical model for predicting a drug's teratogenicity based on characterizing the genes that it targets.

5 Jan 2011

Removal of ZIP proteins from hippocampus cell protects them from injury

Researchers in the Blue Bird Circle Developmental Neurogenetics Laboratory in the department of neurology at Baylor College of Medicine have discovered that zinc enters cells through specialized protein gates known as ZIP transporters, and removing these ZIP proteins from cells in the hippocampus significantly protects them from injury.

5 Jan 2011

Study: Stem cells play an unexpected role in male pattern balding

Given the amount of angst over male pattern balding, surprisingly little is known about its cause at the cellular level. In a new study, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, a team led by George Cotsarelis, MD, chair of the Department of Dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has found that stem cells play an unexpected role in explaining what happens in bald scalp.

5 Jan 2011

Increased amounts of MMP-1 enzyme may explain preeclampsia symptoms in pregnant women

Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine researchers have found that a significant increase of an enzyme in the blood vessels of pregnant women with preeclampsia may explain some of the symptoms associated with the condition, including hypertension, swelling and protein in the urine.

5 Jan 2011

Encouraging results from exon skipping gene-based therapy study for DMD

Scientists at Royal Holloway, University of London have reported encouraging results in a new gene-based therapy for Duchenne Muscular dystrophy (DMD) which at present has no known cure and affects one in 3,000 young boys.

4 Jan 2011

CDK1 protein deactivates EZH2 enzyme that causes cancer spread

By sticking a chemical group to it at a specific site, a protein arrests an enzyme that may worsen and spread cancer, an international research team led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reports in the January issue of Nature Cell Biology.

4 Jan 2011