Gene News and Research

Latest Gene News and Research

New findings on cholesterol metabolism

A team of researchers investigating cholesterol and lipid transport has performed experiments that cast serious doubt on the dominant hypothesis of how the body rids its cells of "bad" cholesterol (LDL) and increases "good" cholesterol (HDL).

17 Aug 2007

New insight into fragile X tremor/ataxia syndrome

Researchers have reported new insight into the pathology underlying a recently identified neurological disorder that strikes middle-aged adults that is caused by alterations in the same gene that causes fragile X syndrome.

17 Aug 2007

Metformin kills some cancer cells

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that a commonly prescribed diabetes drug kills tumor cells that lack a key regulatory gene called p53.

16 Aug 2007

Caution urged on use of drugs to raise "good" cholesterol

With 40 percent of all heart attacks and related cardiovascular problems occurring in people who have low levels of so-called "good" cholesterol, researchers have long sought medications to increase the amount of this type of cholesterol in the body's circulation.

16 Aug 2007

Methamphetamine use has long-term behavioral consequences

Young adults who use methamphetamine may be more vulnerable to age-related brain degeneration when they grow older, new animal research suggests.

16 Aug 2007

Breast cancer prevention practices vary across Canada

Breast cancer preventive practices for Canadian women carrying the cancer gene vary across the country, says University of Toronto research, and many women are not taking advantage of the options available.

16 Aug 2007

Cancer blocking gene discovered

Canadian scientists have discovered a gene that suppresses the growth of many cancerous tumours.

14 Aug 2007

Discovery of new mechanism of resistance to endocrine or anti-hormonal therapies

When a woman receives a breast cancer diagnosis her entire life may change in the blink of an eye.

13 Aug 2007

Green tea for cancer prevention

Concentrated chemicals derived from green tea dramatically boosted production of a group of key detoxification enzymes in people with low levels of these beneficial proteins, according to researchers at Arizona Cancer Center.

13 Aug 2007

Gene use sets humans and chimps apart

The striking differences between humans and chimps aren't so much in the genes we have, which are 99 percent the same, but in the way those genes are used, according to new research from a Duke University team.

13 Aug 2007

Genomic factors may play a role in alcohol and tobacco use

Alcohol and smoking can be harmful, if not deadly. While the desire for these substances can be due to environmental cues, genomic factors also play an important role.

13 Aug 2007

Genetic engineering offers promising new approaches to improve dietary iron intake

Using selective plant breeding and genetic engineering could be used to reduce the incidence of iron deficiency worldwide by improving the quality of dietary iron, conclude authors of a Seminar in this week’s edition of The Lancet.

13 Aug 2007

New drug targets for multiple myeloma

Research investigators have identified molecular changes in multiple myeloma cells that activate an important biological pathway associated with cell growth and survival, thereby revealing potential new targets for drugs to treat this cancer.

13 Aug 2007

Alarm over death in clinical trial for arthritis therapy

The death of a woman taking part in a clinical trial for an arthritis therapy has set alarm bells ringing in the United States.

12 Aug 2007

Cause of major subtype of glaucoma discovered

In a paper published in the journal Science, scientists from deCODE genetics and academic colleagues from the National University Hospital in Reykjavik and Uppsala University in Sweden report the discovery of two common single letter variations (SNPs) in the sequence of the human genome that appear to account for virtually all cases of a major subtype of glaucoma.

12 Aug 2007

Neuregulin 1 gene linked to schizophrenia

Scientists have provided new insight into how a gene is related to schizophrenia.

12 Aug 2007

Researchers discover how Bcl-3 protein stops inflammation

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine recently identified how a regulatory protein called Bcl-3 helps to control the body's inflammation response to infection by interfering a critical biochemical process called ubiquitination.

12 Aug 2007

New insights into cell division process

Which genes are passed on from mother to child is decided very early on during the maturation of the egg cell in the ovary.

12 Aug 2007

Connection between reduced glutathione and heart failure

Antioxidants are widely considered an important defense against heart disease, but University of Utah researchers have found excessive levels of one antioxidant - reduced glutathione - actually may contribute to the disease.

12 Aug 2007

FGFR4 gene plays a complex role in obesity, fatty liver and diabetes

Researchers at the Texas A&M Health Science Center Institute of Biosciences and Technology at Houston have found that a gene in the liver and elsewhere in the body, when inhibited or increased, affects fatty liver and diabetes but does not alleviate both diseases at once.

11 Aug 2007