Genetic News and Research

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Erlotinib better for treatment of non-small cell lung cancers

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have shown that DNA changes in a gene that drives the growth of a form of lung cancer can make the cancer's cells resistant to cancer drugs.

11 Jan 2012

Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation names 18 new Fellows

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on supporting innovative early career researchers, named 18 new Damon Runyon Fellows at its fall Fellowship Award Committee review.

11 Jan 2012

Inherited breast and ovarian cancer drug trial re-launched in tablet form

Cancer Research UK's Drug Development Office has re-launched a trial of a promising drug to treat inherited breast and ovarian cancer - but this time taken as a tablet by outpatients.

11 Jan 2012

Disruption of circadian rhythms cause accelerated neurodegeneration and premature death

New research at Oregon State University provides evidence for the first time that disruption of circadian rhythms - the biological "clocks" found in many animals - can clearly cause accelerated neurodegeneration, loss of motor function and premature death.

11 Jan 2012

Foundation Medicine, Sanofi enter strategic collaboration for cancer genome analysis

Foundation Medicine, Inc., a molecular information company that brings comprehensive cancer genome analysis to routine clinical care, today announced the initiation of a strategic collaboration with Sanofi.

11 Jan 2012

UCLA researchers identify chemical changes in brains of patients with early-onset Alzheimer's

With a lack of effective treatments for Alzheimer's, most of us would think long and hard about whether we wanted to know years in advance if we were genetically predisposed to develop the disease. For researchers, however, such knowledge is a window into Alzheimer's disease's evolution.

11 Jan 2012

Personalized medicine could offer a valuable tool to help combat the diabetic epidemic

With the trend in healthcare moving toward an era of personalized medicine, there is much anticipation and hope that customized approaches to prevention and treatment based on a person's genetic make-up will result in better health outcomes. Some advances, most notably with prevention and treatment of breast and colon cancer, have been widely heralded, raising questions about the potential for personalized medicine for other common diseases, such as diabetes.

10 Jan 2012

Aria's non-invasive test more effective in detecting Trisomy 18 & 21

Aria Diagnostics, a molecular diagnostics company, today announced publication of data supporting a directed, non-invasive approach to cell-free DNA (cfDNA) analysis in maternal blood for evaluation of two common fetal trisomies linked to genetic disorders.

10 Jan 2012

Scientists can now observe enhancer activity in real embryo

As an embryo develops, different genes are turned on in different cells, to form muscles, neurons and other bodily parts. Inside each cell's nucleus, genetic sequences known as enhancers act like remote controls, switching genes on and off. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, can now see - and predict - exactly when each remote control is itself activated, in a real embryo.

10 Jan 2012

Life Technologies takes orders for new benchtop Ion Proton Sequencer

Life Technologies Corporation today announced it is taking orders for the new benchtop Ion Proton Sequencer that is designed to sequence the entire human genome in a day for $1,000.

10 Jan 2012

HDC, NeoGenomics sign worldwide licensing agreement to develop LDT

Health Discovery Corporation, a molecular diagnostics leader in the use of patent protected advanced mathematical techniques for personalized medicine, has entered into an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement with NeoGenomics, Inc. for laboratory developed tests in the Field of hematopoietic and solid tumor cancers excluding breast cancer, which was previously licensed to Quest Diagnostics and Smart Personalized Medicine and excluding cancer of the retina which was previously committed to Retinalyze, LLC.

9 Jan 2012

Sangamo BioSciences starts Phase 2 clinical studies to develop functional cure for HIV/AIDS

Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. announced today the initiation of two new Phase 2 clinical studies (SB-728-1101 and SB-728-902, Cohort 5) in its program to develop a "functional cure" for HIV/AIDS.

9 Jan 2012

TRON uses Ingenuity Variant Analysis to identify cancer driver variants

Ingenuity Systems, a leading provider of information and analysis solutions for life science researchers, today announced that TRON has used Ingenuity Variant Analysis to identify cancer driver variants that inform the development of an experimental individualized RNA-based therapeutic.

9 Jan 2012

Many parents share BRCA1/A2 test results with their children

A new study has found that when parents get tested for breast cancer genes, many of them share their results with their children, even with those who are very young. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study also revealed that most parents think that their children are not distressed when they learn about the test results.

9 Jan 2012

MPIIB, QIAGEN partner to develop latent TB diagnostic test

QIAGEN N.V. and the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology (MPIIB), Department of Immunology have announced a new collaboration to develop a molecular diagnostic test to assess the risk of an individual with latent tuberculosis (TB) developing active TB disease during their lifetime.

From QIAGEN Manchester Limited 9 Jan 2012

Governments must rethink policies surrounding biosecurity, not resort to censorship

Author Laurie Garrett, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, writes in this Foreign Policy opinion piece that the announcement researchers from the Netherlands and the U.S. have developed a supercontagious variety of bird flu "has highlighted a dilemma: How do you balance the universal mandate for scientific openness against the fear that terrorists or rogue states might follow the researchers' work -- using it as catastrophic cookbooks for global influenza contagion?"

7 Jan 2012

Studies identify genes and small molecules against protein conformational diseases

Two related studies from Northwestern University offer new strategies for tackling the challenges of preventing and treating diseases of protein folding, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), cancer, cystic fibrosis and type 2 diabetes.

7 Jan 2012

Scientists map neurons that process different kinds of visual information

There's a 3-D world in our brains. It's a landscape that mimics the outside world, where the objects we see exist as collections of neural circuits and electrical impulses.

7 Jan 2012

GSN completes $20M financing round

Gene Security Network Inc. (GSN) today announced the completion of a $20 million financing round, as well as the change of the company's name to Natera, Inc. The financing round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, which is joined in the current round by Claremont Creek Ventures and Sequoia Capital.

7 Jan 2012

APUA applauds FDA for acting to limit antibiotics in food-producing animals

The Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics (APUA) today praised the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for acting to limit certain extra label uses of cephalosporins in major animal species – cattle, swine, chickens and turkeys – where misuse and overuse are cause for great concern. Extra label use occurs when use of a drug does not comply with the approved labeling.

6 Jan 2012