Gene News and Research

Latest Gene News and Research

Researchers discover class of proteins that detect 'painful touch'

In two landmark papers in the journal Nature this week, scientists at The Scripps Research Institute report that they have identified a class of proteins that detect "painful touch."

19 Feb 2012

RAD51 gene behind the cause of congenital mirror movements

Further work carried out on mice suggests that this gene plays a part in motor network cross-over. Cross-over is a key factor in the transmission of brain signals, because it allows the right side of the brain to control the left side of the body and vice versa. This research has been published in The American Journal of Human Genetics.

18 Feb 2012

Evolutionary biologist receives LRI grant for lupus research

Evolutionary biologist Harmit Singh Malik, Ph.D., of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, has received a $300,000 grant from the Lupus Research Institute to study the potential role of "genetic conflicts" in the development of lupus, an autoimmune disease.

18 Feb 2012

Asuragen introduces miRInform test for diagnosis of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Asuragen, Inc. announced today the immediate availability of the miRInform® Pancreas Test in its CAP-accredited CLIA Laboratory. miRInform® Pancreas was developed to aid physicians in the diagnosis and management of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) when cytology is inconclusive. The test evaluates expression levels of seven miRNAs in Fine Needle Aspirate (FNA) specimens of pancreatic masses.

17 Feb 2012

Scientists discover molecular pathway by which maternally inherited deafness appears to occur

Yale scientists have discovered the molecular pathway by which maternally inherited deafness appears to occur: Mitochondrial DNA mutations trigger a signaling cascade, resulting in programmed cell death.

17 Feb 2012

Study reveals new guiding principles for cancer genomics

That our chromosomes can break and reshuffle pieces of themselves is nothing new; scientists have recognized this for decades, especially in cancer cells. The rules for where chromosomes are likely to break and how the broken pieces come together are only just now starting to come into view.

17 Feb 2012

New potential strategy for KRAS-mutant colon cancers

Researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center have identified a new potential strategy for treating colon tumors driven by mutations in the KRAS gene, which usually resist both conventional and targeted treatments.

17 Feb 2012

Study describes how multiple RNA binding proteins cooperatively control genetic splicing code

Understanding how RNA binding proteins control the genetic splicing code is fundamental to human biology and disease - much like editing film can change a movie scene. Abnormal variations in splicing are often implicated in cancer and genetic neurodegenerative disorders.

17 Feb 2012

Study details how breast tumors may flip TGF-beta signalling switch

Signals can tell cells to act cancerous, surviving, growing and reproducing out of control. And signals can also tell cells with cancerous characteristics to stop growing or to die. In breast cancer, one tricky signal called TGF-beta does both - sometimes promoting tumors and sometimes suppressing them.

17 Feb 2012

Researchers sequence genome of Tasmanian devil contagious cancer

Researchers have sequenced the genome of a contagious cancer that is threatening the Tasmanian devil, the world's largest carnivorous marsupial, with extinction. Cataloguing the mutations present in the cancer has led to clues about where the cancer came from and how it became contagious.

17 Feb 2012

New preclinical data from Regulus' miR-21 study on kidney fibrosis

Regulus Therapeutics Inc., a biopharmaceutical company leading the discovery and development of innovative medicines targeting microRNAs, today announced that new preclinical data investigating the role of microRNA-21 (miR-21) in the treatment of kidney fibrosis has been published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

17 Feb 2012

New genetic resource to accelerate development of novel treatments for diseases

A new genetic resource from an international research consortium is expected to accelerate the development of new cures and treatments for a wide range of human diseases. This project, called the mouse "Collaborative Cross" (CC) resource, will increase the likelihood that experiments conducted in mice will advance our understanding of human biology.

17 Feb 2012

IKK2 enzyme plays a key role in proliferation of lung cancer cells

Drugs targeting an enzyme involved in inflammation might offer a new avenue for treating certain lung cancers, according to a new study by scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

17 Feb 2012

Researchers obtain sequence of 168 complete genomes of fruit fly

Discovering the relation between genetic variation and observable characteristics of individuals belonging to a species, such as a person's height or the manifestation of a hereditary disease is one of today's challenges in biology. Until now only a small part of the variation of these traits - which biologists name phenotypes - were attributed to genetic variations.

17 Feb 2012

New way to improve vaccines against cancer and infectious diseases

Research groups from Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the University of Geneva have discovered a new way of improving vaccines against infectious diseases and for use in cancer therapies. Scientists have shown a basic new mechanism that stimulates the body's own alarm signals in case of viral infection to animate the immune system to maximum performance.

17 Feb 2012

Synthetic Oct4 protein more effective at turning genes into pluripotent stem cells

Scientists have found a way to generate and maintain stem cells much more efficiently by amplifying the effect of an essential protein.

17 Feb 2012

Exposure to common flame retardant may affect fertility and long-term memory

Mice genetically engineered to be susceptible to autism-like behaviors that were exposed to a common flame retardant were less fertile and their offspring were smaller, less sociable and demonstrated marked deficits in learning and long-term memory when compared with the offspring of normal unexposed mice, a study by researchers at UC Davis has found.

16 Feb 2012

MDC researcher receives ERC grant for transposon study

Dr. Zsuzsanna Izsv-k, research group leader at the Max Delbr-ck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, has been named recipient of a European Research Council (ERC Advanced) grant worth EUR 1.94 million for her research on "jumping genes."

16 Feb 2012

Helping cancer patients tackle geographic challenges to access clinical trials

As oncologists already know and newly diagnosed lung cancer patients learn, the kind of treatment given to patients is increasingly becoming dependent on the specific gene mutation present in the cancer.

16 Feb 2012

Illumina introduces Cancer Analysis Service from IGN

Illumina, Inc. today announced the launch of a Cancer Analysis Service from the Illumina Genome Network (IGN) that leverages the high accuracy of Illumina technologies to provide cancer researchers with easily interpretable tumor/normal sequencing data to quickly move their research forward.

From Illumina, Inc. 16 Feb 2012