Gene News and Research

Latest Gene News and Research

SeraCare Life Sciences launches new products to aid discovery and development of drugs and diagnostics

SeraCare Life Sciences, Inc. announced today that the Company has added five new, differentiated products to its portfolio to meet the needs of SeraCare’s growing customer base in the life sciences industry.

9 Jan 2010

Genentech's ACTEMRA approved to treat RA

Genentech, Inc., a wholly owned member of the Roche Group, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ACTEMRA® (tocilizumab) for the treatment of adult patients with moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who have had an inadequate response to one or more tumor necrosis factor (TNF) antagonist therapies.

8 Jan 2010

ESF-UB Conference to concentrate on potentially clinically relevant polymorphisms

Pharmacogenetics started in the fifties with the discovery of primaquine-related haemolysis among glucose-6-phosphate deshydrogenase deficient patients. At the end of the century, it progressively evolved into Pharmacogenomics, investigating simultaneously multiple gene targets till covering the whole genome in relation with altered drug response.

8 Jan 2010

Scientists and clinicians address diagnosis and treatment for autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases

Autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases are a major health issue. The National Institutes of Health reports that up to 23.5 million Americans are afflicted. The American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association reports the number is closer to 50 million. Scientists and clinicians at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston can address the diagnosis and treatment of these conditions, as well as the latest advances in research.

8 Jan 2010

Chinese researchers become the world's fifth most prolific contributors to regenerative medicine

Chinese researchers have become the world's fifth most prolific contributors to peer-reviewed scientific literature on clock-reversing regenerative medicine even as a skeptical international research community condemns the practice of Chinese clinics administering unproven stem cell therapies to domestic and foreign patients.

8 Jan 2010

Researchers identify key epigenetic mechanism that helps explain cocaine's addictiveness

Researchers have identified a key epigenetic mechanism in the brain that helps explain cocaine's addictiveness, according to research funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health.

8 Jan 2010

Scientists identify gene underlying a disease that causes temporary paralysis of skeletal muscle

Scientists have identified a gene underlying a disease that causes temporary paralysis of skeletal muscle. The finding, they say, illustrates how investigations of rare genetic diseases can drive insights into more common ones.

8 Jan 2010

Zebrafish publishes special issue on cancer biology

The zebrafish, a translucent fish often used as a model of human development and disease, offers unique advantages for studying the cause, growth, and spread of tumors using strategies and methods presented in the current "Cancer Biology" special issue of Zebrafish, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (www.liebertpub.com). The entire issue is available free online at www.liebertpub.com/zeb

8 Jan 2010

Researchers devise method to pinpoint key genetic variations under positive natural selection that may impact human health

Fossils may provide tantalizing clues to human history but they also lack some vital information, such as revealing which pieces of human DNA have been favored by evolution because they confer beneficial traits - resistance to infection or the ability to digest milk, for example. These signs can only be revealed through genetic studies of modern humans and other related species, though the task has proven difficult.

8 Jan 2010

Cell Medica signs R&D agreement with the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy

Cell Medica, a clinical cellular therapeutics company developing proven cell therapies which address important unmet clinical needs in oncology and infectious diseases, announced today the signing of an R&D agreement with the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, a joint program of Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children’s Hospital and The Methodist Hospital, Houston, Texas.

8 Jan 2010

Variants in CRP gene not associated with increased risk of cancer

Gene variants associated with increased circulating levels of C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation, are not associated with an increased risk of cancer, according to a new brief communication published online January 7 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

8 Jan 2010

University Hospitals Case Medical Center conducts Phase 2 clinical trial of gene therapy for AD

University Hospitals Case Medical Center is one of 12 sites conducting the first Phase 2 clinical trial of a gene therapy for Alzheimer's disease (AD). The study uses a viral-based gene transfer system called CERE-110, which is designed to deliver nerve growth factor (NGF) into the brain.

8 Jan 2010

Gene modification of human embryonic stem cells may yield potential treatments for genetic diseases

Biologists have developed an efficient way to genetically modify human embryonic stem cells. Their approach, which uses bacterial artificial chromosomes to swap in defective copies of genes, will make possible the rapid development of stem cell lines that can both serve as models for human genetic diseases and as testbeds on which to screen potential treatments, they say.

8 Jan 2010

Breakthrough findings could lead to new treatments for prostate, brain and skin cancers

Researchers at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research of the Jewish General Hospital and McGill University in Montreal have discovered a previously unsuspected link between two different genetic pathways which suppress the growth of cancer tumours.

8 Jan 2010

Kyowa Hakko Kirin receives exclusive rights to develop and commercialize bardoxolone methyl

Reata Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Reata) and Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd. (Kyowa Hakko Kirin) announced today that they have entered into a licensing agreement that provides Kyowa Hakko Kirin with the exclusive rights to develop and commercialize Reata’s lead compound, bardoxolone methyl (bardoxolone), in Japan and other selected Asian markets.

8 Jan 2010

Epigenetic diagnosis and therapies, a new strategy for treating cancer

A tumor's genetic profile is often useful when diagnosing and deciding on treatment for certain cancers, but inexplicably, genetically similar leukemias in different patients do not always respond well to the same therapy.

7 Jan 2010

CRF awards $1.75 million in 11 new grants to researchers to find a cure for cystinosis

The Cystinosis Research Foundation of Irvine, Calif., announced it awarded $1.75 million in 11 new grants to researchers in the United States, Canada, Belgium and Italy who are working to find a cure for cystinosis, a rare, deadly metabolic and genetic disease that afflicts about 500 children and young adults in the U.S. and 2,000 worldwide.

7 Jan 2010

New genetic findings may lead to better interventional therapies for obsessive compulsive disorders

A collaboration between the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and the Broad Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has identified a genetic locus on canine chromosome 7 which coincides with an increased risk of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) susceptibility.

7 Jan 2010

Mutations in genome regulation machinery identified in clear cell renal cell carcinoma

In a new study, scientists have searched for mutations in the gene regions of more than 100 kidney cancer samples, the largest number of samples from a single tumour type to be sequenced to date.

7 Jan 2010

Conference highlights new biological advances in diagnosis and prognosis of lung cancer

Promising results from Phase II clinical trials and important biological advances in diagnosis and prognosis will be presented here, at the conference on Molecular Origins of Lung Cancer from Jan. 11-14, 2010. This conference is jointly sponsored by the AACR and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer.

7 Jan 2010

Gene News and Research

Latest Gene News and Research

SeraCare Life Sciences launches new products to aid discovery and development of drugs and diagnostics

Genentech's ACTEMRA approved to treat RA

ESF-UB Conference to concentrate on potentially clinically relevant polymorphisms

Scientists and clinicians address diagnosis and treatment for autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases

Chinese researchers become the world's fifth most prolific contributors to regenerative medicine

Researchers identify key epigenetic mechanism that helps explain cocaine's addictiveness

Scientists identify gene underlying a disease that causes temporary paralysis of skeletal muscle

Zebrafish publishes special issue on cancer biology

Researchers devise method to pinpoint key genetic variations under positive natural selection that may impact human health

Cell Medica signs R&D agreement with the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy

Variants in CRP gene not associated with increased risk of cancer

University Hospitals Case Medical Center conducts Phase 2 clinical trial of gene therapy for AD

Gene modification of human embryonic stem cells may yield potential treatments for genetic diseases

Breakthrough findings could lead to new treatments for prostate, brain and skin cancers

Kyowa Hakko Kirin receives exclusive rights to develop and commercialize bardoxolone methyl

Epigenetic diagnosis and therapies, a new strategy for treating cancer

CRF awards $1.75 million in 11 new grants to researchers to find a cure for cystinosis

New genetic findings may lead to better interventional therapies for obsessive compulsive disorders

Mutations in genome regulation machinery identified in clear cell renal cell carcinoma

Conference highlights new biological advances in diagnosis and prognosis of lung cancer

Sensing a Healthier Future

Achieving and maintaining ISO/IEC 27001 and BS 10012 certifications

Expanding research and clinical options for children with cancer