Gene News and Research

Latest Gene News and Research

Study provides insight into developing new treatment strategies for triple-negative breast cancer

A new study by University of Kentucky researchers provides insight into developing new treatment strategies for basal-like breast cancer, commonly known as triple-negative breast cancer. This cancer is associated with early metastasis and resistance to chemotherapy and occurs at women at a younger age.

15 Mar 2012

Researchers identify epigenetic signatures within reprogrammed skin cells

A research team has identified epigenetic signatures, markers on DNA that control transient changes in gene expression, within reprogrammed skin cells.

15 Mar 2012

New experimental technique can produce cells with specific functions

Researchers at the RIKEN Omics Science Center (OSC) have successfully developed and demonstrated a new experimental technique for producing cells with specific functions through the artificial reconstruction of transcriptional regulatory networks. As an alternative to induced pluripotent stem cells, the technique promises to enable faster and more efficient production of functional cells for use in cancer therapy and a variety of other areas.

15 Mar 2012

Scientists identify new compound that quickly kills HCC cells

Scientists have identified a new compound that rapidly kills hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells, the most common form of liver cancer and fifth most common cancer worldwide, while sparing healthy tissue.

15 Mar 2012

Mutated ATRX gene associated with advanced-stage neuroblastoma

Certain mutations of the gene ATRX were associated with age at diagnosis in children and young adults with advanced-stage neuroblastoma, a cancer that grows in parts of the nervous system, according to a study in the March 14 issue of JAMA.

14 Mar 2012

New national effort to accelerate development of therapies for neurological diseases

The National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) has selected Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and Weill Cornell Medical College to participate in a new national effort to accelerate the development of therapies for people with neurological diseases.

14 Mar 2012

Potential new way to treat rare inherited metabolic disorders

A University of Michigan cell biologist and his colleagues have identified a potential drug that speeds up trash removal from the cell's recycling center, the lysosome.

14 Mar 2012

Closer to solving how 100 billion cells are created, each with specific duties

How are 100 billion cells created, each with specific duties? The human brain is evidence that nature can achieve this. Researchers at Link-ping University in Sweden have now taken a step closer to solving this mystery.

14 Mar 2012

Researchers identify first gene mutation associated with chronic, often fatal form of neuroblastoma

Researchers have identified the first gene mutation associated with a chronic and often fatal form of neuroblastoma that typically strikes adolescents and young adults. The finding provides the first clue about the genetic basis of the long-recognized but poorly understood link between treatment outcome and age at diagnosis.

14 Mar 2012

Nuvilex discusses Cell-in-a-Box technology used for pancreatic cancer clinical trial

Nuvilex, Inc., an emerging biotechnology provider of cell and gene therapy solutions, discussed today the proprietary Cell-in-a-Box technology, being acquired from SG Austria, that was used for the pancreatic cancer clinical trial and may have an effect on downstream micro metastatic disease.

14 Mar 2012

Gene simultaneously protects against and also promotes cancer growth

Can a gene simultaneously protect against cancer and favor its growth? Researchers at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre have discovered a gene with this double-edged property and suspect there may be many more that share it. In the words of Oscar Fernandez Capetillo, head of the group responsible for the study, this gene "can be both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, in that it can either protect us against the appearance of tumors or promote tumor growth".

14 Mar 2012

Life-extending pill for advanced melanoma now available in UK

A life-extending pill for advanced melanoma that The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and The Royal Marsden Hospital helped develop is now available in the UK.

14 Mar 2012

New research could make it easier to grow health-promoting blood oranges

For the red pigmentation to develop, blood oranges normally require a period of cold as they ripen. The only place to reliably grow them on a commercial scale is in the Sicilian area of Italy around Mount Etna. Here, the combination of sun and cold/sunny days and warm nights provides ideal growing conditions.

14 Mar 2012

Another role for protein Mer in novel, targeted cancer treatments

Since the mid-1990s, doctors have had the protein Mer in their sights - it coats the outside of cancer cells, transmitting signals inside the cells that aid their uncontrolled growth.

14 Mar 2012

Scientists track genetic pathway of prostate cancer in new approach to drug discovery

Tracking the genetic pathway of a disease offers a powerful, new approach to drug discovery, according to scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine who used the approach to uncover a potential treatment for prostate cancer, using a drug currently marketed for congestive heart failure. Their findings are published in the current online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

14 Mar 2012

Researchers crack problem of predicting gene targets for PcG proteins

Cancer is usually attributed to faulty genes, but growing evidence from the field of cancer epigenetics indicates a key role for the gene "silencing" proteins that stably turn genes off inside the cell nucleus. A new study from Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine promises to speed research in the field by rapidly identifying the genes that epigenetic proteins can target for silencing.

14 Mar 2012

Antidepressant could help the workings of anticancer drug used in leukemia

The study by scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research found that tranylcypromine (TCP) – which can be used to treat psychotic depressive states - can make cancer cells vulnerable to the effects of a vitamin A-derivative drug called ATRA.

13 Mar 2012

Inovio achieves strong T cell immune responses in PENNVAX-B Phase I HIV study

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that it has achieved strong T cell immune responses in a Phase I clinical study of PENNVAX-B, its product for the treatment of the HIV subtype prevalent in North America and Europe, in HIV-positive subjects.

13 Mar 2012

Researchers discover over 500 genes that may contribute to pancreatic cancer

A global team led by scientists from The Methodist Hospital Research Institute has identified more than 500 genes that may cause or contribute to the development of pancreatic cancer.

13 Mar 2012

JAK-STAT inhibitors reverse MS-like disease in mice

A new class of drugs completing clinical trials soon for rheumatoid arthritis should be examined as a treatment for multiple sclerosis, according to the authors of a University of Alabama at Birmingham study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

13 Mar 2012