Chromosome News and Research

Latest Chromosome News and Research

Microfluidic chip for cancer diagnosis

For the first time an important diagnostic test for cancer has been miniaturized and automated onto a microfluidic chip by a team of University of Alberta researchers in Edmonton, Canada.

20 Jun 2007

Noninvasive screening in early pregnancy reduces Down's births by 50 percent

Non-invasive screening of pregnant women with ultrasound early in pregnancy, combined with maternal blood analysis, has reduced the number of children born in Denmark with Down Syndrome by 50%, a scientist will tell the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics today.

19 Jun 2007

Faster, less expensive technique for mutating large, non-gene stretches of DNA

Genes account for only 2.5 percent of DNA in the human genetic blueprint, yet diseases can result not only from mutant genes, but from mutations of other DNA that controls genes.

19 Jun 2007

Many of the areas of the human genome previously thought to be deserts are in fact teeming with life

Most known human genes in the genome map are still incompletely annotated, says Professor Alexandre Reymond, from the Centre for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, Switzerland and the Department of Genetic Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.

19 Jun 2007

Common DNA variations underlie susceptibility to fever after smallpox vaccination

Their finding is the first to link individual differences written into the genetic code with a vaccine-related complication, albeit a mild one.

19 Jun 2007

True nature of heterochromatin revealed

Not so long ago, the difficult-to-sequence, highly repetitive, gene-poor DNA found in regions of chromosomes known as heterochromatin was called "junk." Like dark matter in the universe, the true nature of heterochromatin was unknown.

19 Jun 2007

Embryos that are selected out as abnormal can undergo chromosomal modifications

Ms Tsvia Frumkin, from the Racine IVF unit, LIS Maternity Hospital, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Centre, Tel Aviv, Israel, will tell the conference that her team's findings meant that the results of preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) for chromosomal abnormalities were not always reliable and should be interpreted with caution.

19 Jun 2007

New understanding of how the DNA helix replicates

A team of researchers led by University of Virginia Health System geneticists has uncovered a major secret in the mystery of how the DNA helix replicates itself time after time.

18 Jun 2007

Genetic factors linked to adverse events related to smallpox vaccination

The study, published in the July 15th issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online, may have implications for predicting adverse events from other live vaccines. .

17 Jun 2007

Secrets of chromosome movement revealed

Investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have used the lowly yeast to gain insights into how a dividing human cell ensures that an identical set of chromosomes gets passed on to each new daughter cell.

17 Jun 2007

New rheumatoid arthritis genes identified

Researchers at the University of Manchester have identified evidence of several new genes behind the chronic inflammatory disease rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which affects 387,000 people in the UK.

16 Jun 2007

Researchers shed light on shrinking of chromosomes

A human cell contains an enormous 1.8 metres of DNA partitioned into 46 chromosomes.

15 Jun 2007

Explanation for the random selection of X chromosome based on thermodynamics

A University of Warwick physicist has uncovered how female cells are able to choose randomly between their two X chromosomes and why that choice is always lucky.

15 Jun 2007

New genetic risk factor for coeliac disease

An international research consortium investigating the genetic causes of intestinal inflammatory conditions has identified a new genetic risk factor for coeliac disease.

14 Jun 2007

New genes involved in rheumatoid arthritis discovered

Researchers at the University of Manchester have identified evidence of several new genes behind the chronic inflammatory disease rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which affects 387,000 people in the UK.

From The University of Manchester 8 Jun 2007

Researchers reprogram normal tissue cells into embryonic stem cells

Researchers at the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine at UCLA were able to take normal tissue cells and reprogram them into cells with the same unlimited properties as embryonic stem cells, the cells that are able to give rise to every cell type found in the body.

8 Jun 2007