Genes News and Research

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Chink in cancer's armor

Much as the famed starship Enterprise would deploy a deflector shield to evade enemy attack, tumor cells are capable of switching on a molecular force field of their own to fend off treatments aimed at killing them. Now University of Florida researchers have found a chink in their armor.

13 Feb 2006

Duke University biologists evolve complex trait in the laboratory

Duke University biologists have evolved a complex trait in the laboratory -- using the pressure of selection to induce tobacco hornworms to evolve the dual trait of turning black or green depending on the temperature during their development.

12 Feb 2006

Gut protein protects against infection and intestinal breakdown

A protein that binds to bile in the small intestine may hold the key to preventing infection and intestinal breakdown in people with conditions such as obstructive jaundice or irritable bowel syndrome, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered.

12 Feb 2006

Alzheimer's disease appears to be highly heritable

In a large study of twins, Alzheimer's disease appears to be highly heritable and genetic factors may also influence timing of the disease, according to an article in the February Archives of General Psychiatry.

9 Feb 2006

Cancer researchers find evolutionary change that occurred in a key developmental signalling pathway

Cancer researchers at the University of Helsinki, in trying to find a novel tumor suppressor gene, instead found an important evolutionary change that occurred in a key developmental signalling pathway. The finding suggests a potential mechanism for evolution of complex intercellular signalling pathways.

9 Feb 2006

Researchers find new mechanism potentially explaining evolution of signalling pathways

7 Feb 2006

Viruses can be forced to evolve in ways to benefit humans

Viruses and humans have evolved together over millions of years in a game of one-upmanship that, often as not, left humans sick or worse.

7 Feb 2006

Alzheimer disease has a genetic cause in up to 80 percent of cases

"Our finding confirms the higher estimates that have been suggested previously. The important thing is that no one has had this large a sample before," Gatz said, adding the size was 10 times that of any previous study.

7 Feb 2006

Common cardiac sodium channel variant associated with sudden infant death in African Americans

Steve A.N. Goldstein and colleagues from the Pritzker School of Medicine in Chicago have found that a specific mutation, called S1103Y, in a heart protein known as SCN5A is associated with a dramatic, 24-fold increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in African American infants.

7 Feb 2006

Eosinophilic esophagitis gene discovery

Researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center have discovered the first gene associated with eosinophilic esophagitis, one of a number of eosinophil-related diseases in which the body produces abnormally large amounts of white blood cells that can lead to allergy related illnesses.

7 Feb 2006

miRNA emerge as a class of gene regulators

Scientists have discovered that a wide variety of different cancers actually share something in common - a molecular "signature" made up of tiny bits of genetic material called microRNA (miRNA) that target key cancer genes and promote malignant growth.

7 Feb 2006

New insight into one of the fundamental features of evolution

By experimentally promoting rapid, small-scale evolution within a lab population of yeast, researchers have shed light on the kinds of genetic changes that may underlie the emergence of new species.

7 Feb 2006

Research sheds light on origins of "junk" DNA

In experiments with transgenic mice, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers discovered the remaining steps in the complicated process of how the largest class of jumping genes replicates and inserts themselves within the human genome.

7 Feb 2006