Gene News and Research

Latest Gene News and Research

New view of human brainstem

A team of scientists from Princeton University has devised a new experimental technique that produces some of the best functional images ever taken of the human brainstem, the most primitive area of the brain.

28 Feb 2008

FDA approves Arcalyst for treatment of rare inflammatory syndromes

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a drug to help ease the suffering faced by those with certain chronic inflammatory diseases.

28 Feb 2008

Decline in cystic fibrosis since introduction of prenatal carrier screening

A brief report in the February 28, 2008, New England Journal of Medicine, led by researchers at the New England Newborn Screening Program (NENSP) of the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS), indicates a declining incidence of a genetic disease, providing what may be the first demonstration of a link between two independent population-based screening programs.

28 Feb 2008

Hormones produced by the heart eliminate pancreatic cancer in mice

Hormones produced by the heart eliminated human pancreatic cancer in more than three-quarters of the mice treated with the hormones and eliminated human breast cancer in two-thirds of the mice, according to researcher David Vesely, a doctor at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa and a professor at the University of South Florida (USF).

27 Feb 2008

Protein that stimulates blood vessel growth worsens ovarian cancer

A protein that stimulates blood vessel growth worsens ovarian cancer, but its production can be stifled by a tiny bit of RNA wrapped in a fatty nanoparticle, a research team led by scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reports in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

27 Feb 2008

New insight into the fundamentals of Parkinson's disease

A single change in a protein may play a role in whether someone develops Parkinson's disease, say University of Florida Genetics Institute researchers writing in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

27 Feb 2008

Soil-dwelling bacteria provide potential new antibiotics

MIT biologists have provoked soil-dwelling bacteria into producing a new type of antibiotic by pitting them against another strain of bacteria in a battle for survival.

27 Feb 2008

Adult-onset obesity seen in mice when gene ubiquitin disrupted

Texas and California scientists who disrupted one type of the gene ubiquitin (Ubb) in mice observed neuronal death in the hypothalamus, impaired control of energy balance and adult-onset obesity in the rodents.

27 Feb 2008

High zinc status in lung cells slows growth and induces DNA

Researchers at the University of Maryland at College Park have discovered that Normal Human Bronchial Epithelial (NHBE) cells cultured in medium with elevated zinc level, at the high end of plasma zinc attainable by oral supplementation, demonstrated inhibition of cell growth, up-regulation of growth arrest and DNA damage-induced gene (Gadd45) mRNA and protein expression, and blockage of G2/M cell cycle progression.

26 Feb 2008

Genomatix integrates genome-wide open chromatin from next generation sequencing

Genomatix Software GmbH, a Systems Biology company focussed on high quality annotation and the understanding of gene regulation, has begun showcasing its abilities in the analysis of data generated by Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology.

26 Feb 2008

New gene discovered that determines hair texture and density in humans

A Columbia University Medical Center research team has discovered a new gene involved in determining hair texture in humans.

26 Feb 2008

New large-scale method reveals drug targets

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute scientists have developed a new large-scale method to identify the interactions between proteins that are a major target for therapeutic intervention.

26 Feb 2008

New chemical tool kit manipulates mitochondria, reveals insights into drug toxicity

Why do nearly 1 million people taking cholesterol-lowering statins often experience muscle cramps? Why is it that in the rare case when a diabetic takes medication for intestinal worms, his glucose levels improve? Is there any scientific basis for the purported health effects of green tea?

26 Feb 2008

Hair loss breakthrough

A healthy individual loses around a hundred hairs a day. Nothing to worry about as long as they are constantly replaced and the losses occur evenly around the whole scalp.

26 Feb 2008

New discovery on how gene-regulatory networks govern metabolism

Metabolism is a central feature of life - a myriad of biochemical processes that, together, enable organisms to nourish and sustain themselves.

26 Feb 2008

Brain tumour gene link found

Cancer Research UK funded scientists have discovered a mutation in a DNA repair gene which may increase the risk of developing meningioma , a rare type of brain tumour , according to new research published in the latest edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute .

26 Feb 2008