X chromosome News and Research

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Bald men can blame mum!

Despite an enormous range of treatments, obscure lotions and tinctures there appears to be very few successful counter-measures for hair loss in men. Beginning with receding hairlines, every second man suffers from hair loss to some degree, and it has always been suspected that hereditary factors are important in causing hair loss.

22 May 2005

Deletion on chromosome 11q may guide decision to use chemotherapy for neuroblastoma

When genes are deleted on a particular section of chromosome 11, the result is an aggressive form of the childhood cancer neuroblastoma. A new study suggests that detecting this genetic deletion during the initial evaluation of children with neuroblastoma may indicate to physicians that they should recommend a more aggressive regimen of chemotherapy to fight the cancer.

16 May 2005

Scientists take aim at virulent bacteria by decoding machinery of key control enzyme

By deciphering the ingenious mechanism used by a particular enzyme to modify bacterial chromosome chemistry, scientists have come a step closer to designing a new kind of drug that could stop virulent bacterial infections in their tracks. Their research will be published in the May 6 issue of the journal Cell.

5 May 2005

Mosaic Analysis with Double Markers (MADM) - A powerful new tool to study diseases and genetics

A powerful laboratory technique used by fruit fly geneticists for more than a decade is now available to scientists studying genes and diseases in mice.

5 May 2005

Researchers make new advances in determining the structure of all possible DNA sequences

Oregon State University researchers have made significant new advances in determining the structure of all possible DNA sequences – a discovery that in one sense takes up where Watson and Crick left off, after outlining in 1953 the double-helical structure of this biological blueprint for life.

3 May 2005

Age-related macular degeneration is triggered, possibly by an infection

Age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the elderly, occurs when a common inherited gene variation is triggered, possibly by an infection, according to a new study led by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center and the University of Iowa, with an international research team.

1 May 2005

Pollutants appear to have an affect on sex chromosome

A team of researchers from Lund University in Sweden have found that exposure to a class of environmental pollutants can change the ratio of sperm carrying male and female chromosomes.

1 May 2005

Family history DNA sleuths run risk of uncovering infertility

A simple DNA test that is available commercially to help people establish their ancestry could in fact disclose male infertility claims a new study from the University of Leicester.

28 Apr 2005

Abnormal cell division explained

Why do some cancer cells divide not into two, as cells are supposed to do in mitosis, but into three-four new cells that look thoroughly abnormal? This question was raised as early as the 1890s by the German tumor researcher David Hansemann, who could observe the strange mitosis even using the microscopes of his day. Now another David, Lund University researcher David Gisselsson, has found an answer.

28 Apr 2005

Increasing benefit seen in novel drug AMN107, that treats Gleevec resistance

An investigational drug is producing powerful responses in patients resistant to Gleevec, the targeted therapy that helps most people diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), an international research team headed by investigators at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center is reporting.

23 Apr 2005

Enzyme that helps trigger the development of leukemia

Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have identified an enzyme that helps trigger the development of leukemia, a cancer of blood cells.

21 Apr 2005

New gene linked to familial cancer

Scientists have identified a new gene that appears to be linked to a small but significant percentage of familial cancer cases – as well as seemingly randomly occurring malignancies.

20 Apr 2005

Fifteen-year hunt uncovers gene behind pseudothalidomide syndrome

A team of scientists from Colombia, the United States and elsewhere has successfully completed a 15-year-plus search for the genetic problems behind the very rare Roberts syndrome, whose physical manifestations often include cleft lip and palate and shortened limbs that resemble those of babies whose mothers took thalidomide during pregnancy.

11 Apr 2005

Largest "gene deserts" yet discovered in the human genome sequence

A detailed analysis of chromosomes 2 and 4 has detected the largest "gene deserts" known in the human genome and uncovered more evidence that human chromosome 2 arose from the fusion of two ancestral ape chromosomes, researchers supported by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI).

6 Apr 2005

Method of gene therapy accurately corrects mutations in disease-causing genes

Harnessing the strength of a natural process that repairs damage to the human genome, a researcher from UT Southwestern Medical Center has helped establish a method of gene therapy that can accurately and permanently correct mutations in disease-causing genes.

5 Apr 2005

Method of gene therapy that can accurately and permanently correct mutations in disease-causing genes

4 Apr 2005

Mutations in the HFE gene directly associated with chronic joint disease

Mutations in the HFE gene, which is involved in iron regulation, seem to be directly associated with chronic joint disease (or haemophilic arthropathy) among haemophilic patients, claim a team of Portuguese scientists in the April issue of the journal Blood.

4 Apr 2005

Location on chromosome 2 that may contain one or more genes that contribute to dyslexia

Researchers trying to tease out the genetic basis of dyslexia have discovered a location on chromosome 2 that may contain one or more genes that contribute to the reading disorder and make it difficult for people to rapidly pronounce pseudowords.

3 Apr 2005

Dozens of new genes identified in X chromosome

By intensely and systematically comparing the human X chromosome to genetic information from chimpanzees, rats and mice, a team of scientists from the United States and India has uncovered dozens of new genes, many of which are located in regions of the chromosome already tied to disease.

3 Apr 2005

SERPINE2 identified as novel candidate gene for COPD susceptibility

Using a combination of genetic linkage, microarray gene expression and genetic association studies, a group of Brigham and Women’s Hospital/ Harvard Medical School researchers have identified a serine protease inhibitor clade E, member 2, or SERPINE2, “as a novel candidate susceptibility gene for COPD,” according to Sorachai Srisuma

3 Apr 2005