Gene News and Research

Latest Gene News and Research

Oncolytics Biotech reports new findings at ASCO’s 2013 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium

What did Pope John Paul II, Ronald Reagan and Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees have in common? Each was diagnosed with colorectal cancer, the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in the world and the fourth most common cause of cancer death.

29 Jan 2013

Scientists discover four processes by which gastric cancer is formed

Scientists at A*STAR's Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) headed a study that discovered four processes by which gastric cancer is formed. This is extremely important since gastric cancer is the second most common cause of cancer deaths worldwide, claiming almost 750,000 lives annually, 60% of which are Asians.

29 Jan 2013

Mutated Nesprin4 protein prevents hearing

Because half of all instances of hearing loss are linked to genetic mutations, advanced gene research is an invaluable tool for uncovering causes of deafness - and one of the biggest hopes for the development of new therapies. Now Prof. Karen Avraham of the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University has discovered a significant mutation in a LINC family protein - part of the cells of the inner ear - that could lead to new treatments for hearing disorders.

29 Jan 2013

Women with BRCA gene mutations tend to undergo menopause sooner than others

Women with harmful mutations in the BRCA gene, which put them at higher risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer, tend to undergo menopause significantly sooner than other women, allowing them an even briefer reproductive window and possibly a higher risk of infertility, according to a study led by researchers at UC San Francisco.

29 Jan 2013

Reprogramming eye cells that enable night vision may one day treat retinitis pigmentosa

Doctors may one day treat some forms of blindness by altering the genetic program of the light-sensing cells of the eye, according to scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

29 Jan 2013

DRCRF announces recipients of Nov. 2012 Damon Runyon Fellows

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on supporting innovative early career researchers, named 15 new Damon Runyon Fellows at its fall Fellowship Award Committee review.

29 Jan 2013

Five genes hold key to meningioma make up

Research published in Science shows that mutations in five genes characterize most meningiomas.

28 Jan 2013

Temple scientists to solve long-standing mystery in sepsis

Scientists at the Center for Translational Medicine at the Temple University School of Medicine are inching closer to solving a long-standing mystery in sepsis, a complex and often life-threatening condition that affects more than 400,000 people in the U.S. every year.

28 Jan 2013

The LINC complex essential for hearing

In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Karen Avraham and colleagues at Tel Aviv University identified a genetic mutation in two families with hereditary high frequency hearing loss. The mutated gene, which has not previously been linked to hearing loss, encodes NESP4, a protein that is expressed in the outer nuclear membrane (ONM) of the hair cells of the ear.

28 Jan 2013

Alzheimer's Association, SNMMI publish appropriate use criteria for brain amyloid imaging with PET

Only recently has it become possible to create high-quality images of the brain plaques characteristic of Alzheimer's disease in living people through positron emission tomography (PET). Even so, questions remain about what can be learned from these PET images and which people should have this test.

28 Jan 2013

Research reveals the mechanism of epigenetic reprogramming

New research reveals a potential way for how parents' experiences could be passed to their offspring's genes.

28 Jan 2013

Telomerase gene mutation immortalizes deadly skin cancer

About ten percent of all cases of malignant melanoma are familial cases. The genome of affected families tells scientists a lot about how the disease develops. Prof. Dr. Rajiv Kumar of the German Cancer Research Center together with Prof. Dr. Dirk Schadendorf from Essen University Hospital studied a family where 14 family members were affected by malignant melanoma.

28 Jan 2013

Reducing the level of mutant p53 gene increases susceptibility to cancer treatment

Scientists from the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) have discovered the workings of the gene that has been hindering treatment response in cancer patients. This discovery was made after 5 years of studying the mutant form of the p53 gene, the major tumor suppressor in humans, which is generally found mutated in over 50% of all type of human cancers.

27 Jan 2013

Researchers identify cancer-associated mutations

Two new mutations that collectively occur in 71 percent of malignant melanoma tumors have been discovered in what scientists call the "dark matter" of the cancer genome, where cancer-related mutations haven't been previously found.

25 Jan 2013

Genome sequencing data gives important clues on cancer

Genome sequencing data once regarded as junk is now being used to gain important clues to help understand disease.

25 Jan 2013

New study may help treat patients with multiple myeloma

A study led by Robert G. Hawley, Ph.D., professor and chair of the department of anatomy and regenerative biology at the George Washington University (GW) School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS), may help predict which patients with multiple myeloma will respond better to certain treatments.

25 Jan 2013

Researchers find new genetic differences in human hearts

Healthy men and women show little difference in their hearts, except for small electrocardiographic disparities. But new genetic differences found by Washington University in St. Louis researchers in hearts with disease could ultimately lead to personalized treatment of various heart ailments.

25 Jan 2013

Mice exposed to BPA exhibit spontaneous activity, have leaner body mass

Female mice exposed to Bisphenol A through their mother's diet during gestation and lactation were found to be hyperactive, exhibit spontaneous activity and had leaner body mass than those not exposed to the chemical, researchers at the University of Michigan School of Public Health have discovered.

25 Jan 2013

Early-life exposure to TBT chemical can cause obesity

Exposing pregnant mice to low doses of the chemical tributyltin (TBT) - which was used in marine antifouling paints and is used as an antifungal agent in some paints, certain plastics and a variety of consumer products - can lead to obesity for multiple generations without subsequent exposure, a UC Irvine study has found.

25 Jan 2013

Research shows brain cells regulate blood vessel development

Zhen Huang freely admits he was not interested in blood vessels four years ago when he was studying brain development in a fetal mouse. Instead, he wanted to see how changing a particular gene in brain cells called glia would affect the growth of neurons.

25 Jan 2013