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Horizon Discovery secures exclusive rights to human isogenic cell models

With the goal of developing new, more effective and personalized cancer treatments, Horizon Discovery, based in Cambridge, England, has secured from Case Western Reserve University exclusive rights to a panel of new human isogenic cell models developed by the laboratory of Zhenghe John Wang, assistant professor of genetics at the university's School of Medicine.

10 Dec 2010

Some key molecular events in immune system contribute to inflammatory bowel disease: Scientists

Scientists at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech have discovered some of the key molecular events in the immune system that contribute to inflammatory bowel disease. The results, which help researchers move one step further in their efforts to develop new drugs to treat inflammatory and immune-mediated diseases, are reported in the November 2010 edition of the journal Mucosal Immunology from the Nature Publishing Group.

10 Dec 2010

VCP gene causes some instances of familial ALS: Researchers

Using a new gene sequencing method, a team of researchers led by scientists from Johns Hopkins and the National Institutes of Health has discovered a gene that appears to cause some instances of familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The finding could lead to novel ways to treat the more common form of this fatal neurodegenerative disease, which kills the vast majority of the nearly 6,000 Americans diagnosed with ALS every year.

10 Dec 2010

Dogs help understand primary ciliary dyskinesia

A dog is mankind's best friend : the old saying has once again been borne out through a medical discovery concerning the genetic origins of primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD). In using dogs as a research model in the framework of the European LUPA project, a team from the University of Liège's GIGA-Research Unit has been able to bring to light new mutations in a specific gene responsible for the development of the disease in human beings.

9 Dec 2010

Excreted antibiotics become potential sources of antibiotic resistant genes

When an antibiotic is consumed, researchers have learned that up to 90 percent passes through a body without metabolizing. This means the drugs can leave the body almost intact through normal bodily functions.

9 Dec 2010

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researcher awarded 2011 Gani Medal for Human Genetics

Major advances in our understanding of human evolution have seen Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researcher Dr Alicia Oshlack awarded the 2011 Gani Medal for Human Genetics by the Australian Academy of Science.

9 Dec 2010

ADHD, developmental RD have common genetic influences: Study

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and developmental reading disability are complex childhood disorders that frequently occur together; if a child is experiencing trouble with reading, symptoms of ADHD are often also present.

9 Dec 2010

Estrogen receptor beta inactivates critical genes, arrests cancer cell growth

Bionovo, today announced the publication of a study demonstrating that ERb causes cancer cell growth arrest by inactivating critical genes and enzymes responsible for cell growth. These results provide evidence that drugs that stimulate the production of or activate ERb are potential new therapies to prevent breast cancer.

9 Dec 2010

AltheaDx partners with Compendia Bioscience to launch Breast Cancer Segregation Panel Assay

AltheaDx, Inc. today announced the formation of a strategic partnership with Compendia Bioscience to combine their respective core capabilities in assay development, validation and bioinformatics. The two companies will jointly create novel products and services focused on cancer biomarker discovery and subsequent development of tests that predict patient outcomes in clinical trials.

9 Dec 2010

Genetics in Medicine: Women who carry high-risk BRCA mutations opt for surgery

In women who test positive for BRCA 1/2 mutations associated with a high risk of breast or ovarian cancer, some key psychological factors influence the decision to undergo risk-reducing surgery, reports the December Genetics in Medicine, the official peer-reviewed journal of The American College of Medical Genetics.

8 Dec 2010

Medulloblastoma subtypes are separate diseases with different origins

International effort led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists is expected to fuel development of targeted therapies and aid the search for unique combinations of cells and mutations that lead to other cancers.

8 Dec 2010

ChipDX validates genetic signature for early-stage colon cancer

ChipDX LLC, a New York-based online molecular diagnostics and personalized medicine company, discovered and validated a genetic signature for early-stage colon cancer and is developing an online screening application to enable clinicians to more accurately identify risk of recurrence. In the study, published in the December issue of the British Journal of Cancer, ChipDX demonstrates how the 163-gene signature stratifies colon cancer patients into high- and low-risk groups for recurrence with greater accuracy than current methods.

8 Dec 2010

New technique may help develop novel treatments for brain diseases

Scientists have created a way to isolate neural stem cells - cells that give rise to all the cell types of the brain - from human brain tissue with unprecedented precision, an important step toward developing new treatments for conditions of the nervous system, like Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases and spinal cord injury.

8 Dec 2010

Long-term prognosis still excellent for children with seizures

Mayo Clinic researchers studied more than 200 children with epilepsy and found that even if the cause of focal-onset seizures cannot be identified and they do not fit into a known epilepsy syndrome, long-term prognosis is still excellent. This study was presented at the American Epilepsy Society's annual meeting in San Antonio on Dec. 4.

7 Dec 2010

Medication and blood transfusion reduce risk of recurrent strokes in young patients with sickle cell anemia

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators discuss results of research into managing iron overload associated with stroke prevention in young sickle cell patients and the search for genetic predictors of stroke risk.

7 Dec 2010

New analysis shows that common diseases are not lined to genetic factors

The case for a substantial role of genes in susceptibility to the major human diseases is now scientifically refuted argues a groundbreaking new analysis published by the public interest science organization, The Bioscience Resource Project.

7 Dec 2010

NanoString secures exclusive worldwide license to develop products for breast cancer intrinsic subtyping

NanoString Technologies, Inc., a privately held life sciences company marketing a complete solution for detecting and counting large sets of target molecules in biological samples, today announced it has secured an exclusive worldwide license from Bioclassifier, LLC to develop in vitro diagnostic and research products for breast cancer intrinsic subtyping.

From NanoString Technologies 7 Dec 2010

New drug appears to help patients with chronic myeloid leukemia

A new drug appears to help chronic myeloid leukemia patients who are out of treatment options after first- and second-line drugs have failed them or because their cancer cells have a mutation that makes them resistant from the start, researchers reported at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

7 Dec 2010

MU researcher hopes to protect cardiac muscles for children with DMD

Children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy face a future of rapidly weakening muscles, which usually leads to death by respiratory or cardiac failure before their 30th birthday. While researchers are hopeful that gene therapy could eventually evolve into an effective treatment, few have targeted the heart of the problem as much as Dongsheng Duan, PhD.

7 Dec 2010

HDAC inhibitors may be used to fight against skin cancers

In a study published in the journal Developmental Cell, Sarah Millar PhD, professor of Dermatology and Cell & Developmental Biology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and colleagues demonstrate that a pair of enzymes called HDACs are critical to the proper formation of mammalian skin.

7 Dec 2010