Gene News and Research

Latest Gene News and Research

Cellectis bioresearch introduces new technology to develop cell-based assays for HTS studies

Cellectis bioresearch, a specialist in genome customization and a subsidiary of Cellectis, today announced the publication of a scientific study describing a novel method, based on meganuclease-driven targeted integration, for the generation of stable cell lines compatible with high throughput screening (HTS).The study demonstrated Cellectis bioresearch's technology to be faster, more reliable and efficient in deriving cell-based assays for HTS studies than classical methods.

20 Jul 2010

Researchers discover new gene regulation, DNA behavior of breast cancer cells

Cancer researchers have discovered a previously unknown type of gene regulation and DNA behavior in breast cancer cells that may lead to better insight about environmental exposure to estrogen-like compounds. A new study, published in the journal Genome Research by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC-James), provides the first evidence that cells can regulate many genes at once by looping their DNA, contributing to cancer when it goes awry. In this study, the gene regulation was discovered in breast cancer cells as a response to the hormone estrogen and resulted in the silencing of 14 genes at one time.

20 Jul 2010

Researchers discover genetic explanation for non-diabetic kidney disease in African-Americans

Kidney disease is a growing public health problem, with approximately half a million individuals in the United States requiring dialysis treatments to replace the function of their failed kidneys. The problem is particularly acute among African-Americans, whose rates of kidney disease are four times higher than those of European Americans.

20 Jul 2010

Researchers identify a mechanism that explains different phases of CML progression

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have identified a mechanism that could explain how patients move into the worst phase of chronic myelogenous leukemia.

20 Jul 2010

Over-expression of CIB1 protein triggers biochemical processes that lead to cardiac hypertrophy: Study

Scientists have identified a key molecular regulator of cardiac hypertrophy (enlargement of the heart) that may provide a therapeutic target for a major risk factor of heart failure and early death.

19 Jul 2010

Tet 1 protein helps stem cells renew themselves and stay pluripotent: Researchers

Take a skin cell from a patient with Type 1 diabetes. Strip out everything that made it a skin cell, then reprogram it to grow into a colony of pancreatic beta cells. Implant these into your patient and voilà! She's producing her own insulin like a pro.

19 Jul 2010

Researchers to receive $1.2M from Susan G. Komen for the Cure for breast cancer research

Four researchers from Detroit, Michigan's Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute and Wayne State University will receive a total of $1.2 million from Susan G. Komen for the Cure to help advance research to better detect, prevent and eliminate breast cancer. The $1.2 million awarded to these outstanding scientists is part of the $59 million portfolio of research grants that Susan G. Komen for the Cure has awarded this year alone to scientists across the globe to help accelerate innovative breast cancer research.

17 Jul 2010

GABA disrupts working memory in neurofibromatosis type 1 patients

Imagine if your brain lost its working memory - the ability to hold and manipulate information in your mind's eye. That's the plight faced by millions of people with neurofibromatosis type 1, or NF1. The genetic condition affects one in 3,500 people and is the most common cause of learning disabilities.Now a UCLA research team has uncovered new clues about how NF1 disrupts working memory. Published in the July 12 online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the findings suggest a potential drug target for correcting NF1-related learning disabilities.

17 Jul 2010

Cetuximab recommended for colorectal cancer tumors without mutation in KRAS gene

In a report published in the July 2010 issue of the American Society for Clinical Oncology Post, new recommendations on the use of the drug cetuximab have been issued after officials halted enrollment in a phase III clinical trial in patients with spread of colon cancer into regional lymph nodes whose tumors had been surgically removed.

17 Jul 2010

AMPK may regulate epigenetic mechanism: Research

AMP-activated protein kinase, or AMPK, is a master regulator protein of metabolism that is conserved from yeast to humans. When a cell is low on fuel, AMPK shuts down processes that use energy and turns on processes that produce energy.Biologists have been studying how AMPK works for several decades and know that once it is activated, AMPK turns on a large number of genes by passing the "make more energy" message through numerous signaling cascades in the cell. What was not known, until now, was that AMPK also works via an epigenetic mechanism to slow down or stop cell growth.

17 Jul 2010

Resveratrol concentration impacts cancer risk mitigation: Study

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) chemist Thomas Wang, who specializes in cancer prevention research, has reported evidence that for some dietary compounds, length of exposure over time may be key to whether or not ingestion leads to a beneficial, or detrimental, effect.Scientists do not know exactly why one person develops cancer and another does not. But they do know that certain nutrients might increase or decrease cancer risk. There are "layers" of factors involved in the development of cancer, and Wang is studying the layers involving peoples' diet complexity and gene expression.

17 Jul 2010

Epizyme publishes two new review papers on epigenetics

Epizyme, Inc., a company leading the discovery and development of first-in-class, targeted cancer therapeutics against epigenetic targets, announced today the publication of two new review papers in the area of epigenetics. Together, the articles provide an overview of the major epigenetic enzyme classes, as well as chemical biology approaches for discovering small molecule inhibitors of these epigenetic enzymes, and demonstrate Epizyme's scientific leadership in the area of epigenetics.

17 Jul 2010

Largest effort to find gene-environment interactions underlying schizophrenia risk

At the 23rd ECNP Congress 2010 in Amsterdam, Professor Dr. Jim van Os, Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology at Maastricht University Medical Centre, The Netherlands, will present the EU-GEI project, involving more than 7,500 patients and their families, which brings together a multidisciplinary research team from 15 countries in the largest effort to date to find gene-environment interactions underlying schizophrenia risk.

16 Jul 2010

Bioethics through the lens of literature

What if I were grown only so that my organs could be harvested, and I had to care for others whose organs are being taken, too, while I wait for my own death? What if doctors cut off a piece of the tumor that killed me and grew it in a lab for the next sixty years? What if scientists discovered a gene that would ensure my happiness no matter what life throws at me?

16 Jul 2010

Study on how cellular defence systems keep themselves in check from damaging cells themselves

When cells are attacked by bacteria they use all means at their disposal to defend themselves. But cellular defence systems can damage the cells themselves and so need to be kept tightly in check. Recent results help us to understand how this is done and give pointers to new ways of combating disease. Matthias Farlik in the group of Thomas Decker at the Centre for Molecular Biology of the University of Vienna (Max F. Perutz Laboratories) and Mathias Müller of the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna have published these findings in the current issue of the journal "Immunity".

16 Jul 2010

Study compares denture stomatitis genes with whole transcriptome for salivary biomarker analysis

The goal of the study was to compare whole-transcriptome, mucosal gene expression in Candida albicans (a parasitic fungus that can infect the mouth) associated chronic denture stomatitis to that of healthy oral mucosa and perform proteomic analyses of potential salivary biomarkers. Denture stomatitis is a condition in which the mucosa underneath a denture becomes inflamed and sometimes painful.

16 Jul 2010

Researchers develop new strategy for treating multiple myeloma

Multiple myeloma is one of the most common blood cancers, and at present considered to be incurable. In a new study from Uppsala University, researchers now present a conceptually new model for the development and progression of multiple myeloma. The study was done in collaboration with Vrije Universitet Brussels and is published in the July edition of the on-line journal PLoS ONE.

16 Jul 2010

Penn researchers reverse cognitive decline in fruit flies with Alzheimer's gene mutation

Investigators have found that fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) males -- in which the activity of an Alzheimer's disease protein is reduced by 50 percent -- show impairments in learning and memory as they age. What's more, the researchers were able to prevent the age-related deficits by treating the flies with drugs such as lithium, or by genetic manipulations that reduced nerve-cell signaling.

16 Jul 2010

Study reveals improved process to obtain, store RNA from lung tumor biopsies

Analyzing the genes expressed by cancer cells allows for a better understanding of that patient's specific disease and in turn, a more personalized approach to treatment. But obtaining the RNA from a tumor in the lungs in order to conduct the genetic analysis is a challenging prospect. Currently, lung cancer researchers are limited to using RNA extracted from early-stage tumors removed during surgery. The small quantities of tissue extracted during routine diagnostic biopsies have not been useful to researchers, due to their small size and the variety of ways they have been processed.

16 Jul 2010

Study results to help researchers better understand cancer genetics, improve treatment regimens

The largest study to correlate genetics with response to cancer drugs releases its first results today. The researchers behind the study, based at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, describe in this initial dataset the responses of 350 cancer samples to 18 anticancer therapeutics.

16 Jul 2010

Gene News and Research

Latest Gene News and Research

Cellectis bioresearch introduces new technology to develop cell-based assays for HTS studies

Researchers discover new gene regulation, DNA behavior of breast cancer cells

Researchers discover genetic explanation for non-diabetic kidney disease in African-Americans

Researchers identify a mechanism that explains different phases of CML progression

Over-expression of CIB1 protein triggers biochemical processes that lead to cardiac hypertrophy: Study

Tet 1 protein helps stem cells renew themselves and stay pluripotent: Researchers

Researchers to receive $1.2M from Susan G. Komen for the Cure for breast cancer research

GABA disrupts working memory in neurofibromatosis type 1 patients

Cetuximab recommended for colorectal cancer tumors without mutation in KRAS gene

AMPK may regulate epigenetic mechanism: Research

Resveratrol concentration impacts cancer risk mitigation: Study

Epizyme publishes two new review papers on epigenetics

Largest effort to find gene-environment interactions underlying schizophrenia risk

Bioethics through the lens of literature

Study on how cellular defence systems keep themselves in check from damaging cells themselves

Study compares denture stomatitis genes with whole transcriptome for salivary biomarker analysis

Researchers develop new strategy for treating multiple myeloma

Penn researchers reverse cognitive decline in fruit flies with Alzheimer's gene mutation

Study reveals improved process to obtain, store RNA from lung tumor biopsies

Study results to help researchers better understand cancer genetics, improve treatment regimens

Industry Focus: Cell & Gene Therapy eBook

Evolving spectrophotometry for modern biopharma workflows

Scaling B-cell cloning workflows for antibody development

Fluidics in Modern Healthcare & Medical Device Innovation