Gene News and Research

Latest Gene News and Research

Aflac announces $1.06 million scholarship awards for cancer research

Aflac, the company that helps employers enhance benefits offerings to employees, today announced it will donate a total of $1,060,000 to the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) to help defray the costs facing cancer researchers. The three-year scholarship awards focus on career development, scholar-in-training; a special program for high school students, and a task force on pediatric oncology.

4 Apr 2011

OncoSec acquires certain assets of Inovio

OncoSec Medical Incorporated, a developer of innovative medical approaches to treat solid tumor cancers with unmet medical needs, announced today that on March 24, 2011 it completed its acquisition of certain assets of Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and entered into a license agreement with Inovio, pursuant to the terms of an asset purchase agreement with Inovio entered into on March 14, 2011.

4 Apr 2011

Researchers pinpoint effects of enhanced adult neurogenesis in hippocampus

Adult mice engineered to have more newborn neurons in their brain memory hub excelled at accurately discriminating between similar experiences - an ability that declines with normal aging and in some anxiety disorders.

4 Apr 2011

Scientists identify five new genes that increase risk of developing Alzheimer's

A leading UK scientist's search for factors that increase the risk of developing Alzheimer's has uncovered five new genes to help pinpoint what's going wrong in the brain.

4 Apr 2011

Scientists identify new treatment target for squamous cell lung cancer

Scientists at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute have identified a mutation in the DDR2 gene that may indicate which patients with squamous cell lung cancer will respond to dasatinib.

4 Apr 2011

Scientists sequence tumor genomes from 50 breast cancer patients

In one of the largest cancer genomics investigations reported to date, scientists have sequenced the whole genomes of tumors from 50 breast cancer patients and compared them to the matched DNA of the same patients' healthy cells.

4 Apr 2011

Positive results from GDC-0449 Phase II data against basal cell nevus syndrome

A new hedgehog pathway inhibitor demonstrated efficacy in preventing and treating basal cell cancer among patients with basal cell nevus syndrome, a rare inheritable disease, according to Phase II data presented at the AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011, held April 2-6.

4 Apr 2011

Scientists identify novel gene markers for EGFR inhibition in patients

Scientists are continuing their work on the Biomarker-integrated Approaches of Targeted Therapy for Lung Cancer Elimination trial — known more commonly as the BATTLE trial — and presented updated results at the AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011, held here April 2-6.

4 Apr 2011

Researchers identify four new genes linked to Alzheimer's disease

In the largest study of its kind, researchers from a consortium of 44 universities and research institutions in the United States, including Rush University Medical Center, identified four new genes linked to Alzheimer's disease. Each gene individually adds to the risk of having this common form of dementia later in life.

4 Apr 2011

Research offers first structural insights into 'client' protein shape in chaperone presence

In the constantly morphing field of protein structure, scientists at The Scripps Research Institute offer yet another surprise: a common "chaperone" protein in cells thought to help other proteins fold has been shown instead to loosen them.

4 Apr 2011

Scientists uncover genetic characteristic of metastatic prostate cancer

Scientists have uncovered a genetic characteristic of metastatic prostate cancer that defines a rare sub-type of this disease. These findings are published in Cancer Discovery, the newest journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, which will debut at the AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011, held April 2-6.

4 Apr 2011

Common genetic variation linked to bladder cancer risk and telomere length

A common genetic variation links to both bladder cancer risk and to the length of protective caps found on the ends of chromosomes, scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reported today at the AACR 102nd Annual Meeting.

4 Apr 2011

Breast cancer genome reveals potential therapeutic targets

Scientists have sequenced the entire genomes of tumors from 50 breast cancer patients and found more than 1,700 gene mutations, most of which were unique to individual patients. The researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and the Siteman Cancer Center suggest that this variability and uniqueness made it difficult to predict outcomes of the cases.

3 Apr 2011

New ‘nanotech’ weapon against drug-resistant superbugs

Scientists at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) and IBM Research – Almaden have developed the first biodegradable polymer nanoparticles to combat drug-resistant superbugs, such as Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). These nanoparticles can selectively kill the bacteria without destroying healthy red blood cells, and being biodegradable, have great potential to treat infectious diseases in the body. This was reported today in the leading scientific journal, Nature Chemistry [(2011) DOI: 10.1038/nchem.1012].

3 Apr 2011

Discovery of 4 new genes associated with Alzheimer's

In the largest study of its kind, researchers from a consortium led by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine and the University of Miami identified four new genes linked to Alzheimer's disease. Each gene individually adds to the risk of having this common form of dementia later in life. These new genes offer a portal into what causes Alzheimer's disease and is a major advance in the field.

3 Apr 2011

MSD's Victrelis Phase III trial final results against HCV presented at EASL meeting

MSD reported that final results from a Phase III study of 'Victrelis', its investigational oral hepatitis C protease inhibitor, added to peginterferon alfa-2a marketed by Roche Products Limited, and ribavirin therapy were presented for the first time today as part of a late-breaker poster session at The International Liver Congress / 46th European Association for the Study of the Liver annual meeting.

2 Apr 2011

Transgenomic to present study results of high-sensitivity cancer mutation assays at AACR

Transgenomic, Inc. announced today that its scientists have completed studies employing the company's high-sensitivity cancer mutation assays using two proprietary technologies, Ice COLD-PCR and BLOCker-Sequencing. Results from these studies will be presented at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Orlando, Florida, April 2-6, 2011.

2 Apr 2011

Series of new clinical trials confirm range of viable treatment options for HCV patients

Highly anticipated data from a number of clinical trials presented for the first time at the International Liver CongressTM confirmed that a range of new proteases inhibitors will help treat patients who have previously failed therapy for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C.

2 Apr 2011

Rsearchers define new step that controls programmed cell death in cancer cells

When cells find themselves in a tight spot, the cell cycle regulator p21 halts the cell cycle, buying cells time to repair the damage, or if all else fails, to initiate programmed cell death.

2 Apr 2011

Loss of SKIP sensitizes cancer cells to apoptotic effects of DNA damage-inducing anticancer drugs

When cells find themselves in a tight spot, the cell cycle regulator p21 halts the cell cycle, buying cells time to repair the damage, or if all else fails, to initiate programmed cell death. In contrast to other stress-induced genes, which dispense with the regular transcriptional entourage, p21Cip1 still requires SKIP, a transcription elongation factor that also helps with the editing of transcripts, to be expressed, found researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

2 Apr 2011