Gene News and Research

Latest Gene News and Research

Retinal organoids provide a powerful tool to diagnose and study Leber congenital amaurosis

Leber Congenital Amaurosis (LCA) is an inherited retinal disease leading to severe vision impairment from early infancy, affecting 2-3 out of every 100,000 newborns. LCA is caused by variants in certain genes from which proteins essential for retinal cell function and survival are made.

3 Dec 2025

Experimental RNA drug shows promise for repairing DNA and healing tissue damage

Cedars-Sinai scientists have developed an experimental drug that repairs DNA and serves as a prototype for a new class of medications that fix tissue damage caused by heart attack, inflammatory disease or other conditions.

3 Dec 2025

Human gene maps show widespread gaps in non-European representation

Human gene maps contain major blind spots because they were built largely from the DNA sequences of people with European ancestry, according to a study published today in Nature Communications.

3 Dec 2025

A personalized approach to treating pancreatic cancer

It's not surprising that pancreatic cancer is often referred to as a silent killer. With few early symptoms and an aggressive nature, it has one of the lowest survival rates of all cancers.

3 Dec 2025

Hidden cellular layers in the hippocampus' CA1 region revealed

Researchers at the Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute (Stevens INI) at the Keck School of Medicine of USC have identified a previously unknown pattern of organization in one of the brain's most important areas for learning and memory.

3 Dec 2025

AI model ranks genetic variants from severe to mild disease mutations

popEVE combines evolutionary insights with human population data to identify damaging genetic mutations, improving variant scoring for rare diseases.

3 Dec 2025

New method reveals how human cells initiate DNA replication

When cells proliferate, genomic DNA is precisely duplicated once per cell cycle. Abnormalities in this DNA replication process can cause alterations in genomic DNA, promoting cellular ageing, cancer, and genetic disorders. Therefore, understanding how cells replicate their DNA is crucial for elucidating fundamental biological processes, diseases, and even evolution.

3 Dec 2025

DNA language model performance hinges on pre-training data choices

Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have performed a comprehensive evaluation of five artificial intelligence (AI) models trained on genomic sequences, known as DNA foundation language models.

3 Dec 2025

Gene variant linked to higher risk of chronic rejection after lung transplant

About one third of lung transplant recipients have a genetic variant that makes them more likely to develop chronic lung allograft dysfunction (CLAD), the primary cause of mortality after lung transplantation.

2 Dec 2025

Rice researchers develop resettable serum markers for clearer brain activity signals

Tracking how genes switch on and off in the brain is essential for understanding many neurological diseases, yet the tools to monitor this activity are often invasive or unable to capture subtler changes over time.

2 Dec 2025

Common water pill may be a useful add‑on to the standard HIV treatment

An FDA‑approved medication called spironolactone, often prescribed as a diuretic, or water pill, for heart and blood pressure conditions, may be a useful add‑on to the standard HIV treatment, according to new research from the Valente lab at The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology.

2 Dec 2025

AI-assisted liquid biopsies show promise for early cancer detection

The prospect of diagnosing cancer through painless methods—such as a simple AI-assisted blood or urine test that detects tiny particles known as exosomes—is becoming increasingly realistic.

2 Dec 2025

Cocktail of three supplements improves social behaviors in autistic mice

Researchers led by Tzyy-Nan Huang and Ming-Hui Lin from Academia Sinica in Taiwan report that a low-dose mixture of zinc, serine, and branch-chain amino acids can alleviate behavioral deficits in three different mouse models of autism.

2 Dec 2025

Cell nucleus shape plays a key role in cancer therapy outcomes

Cancer cells with a cell nucleus that is easily deformed are more sensitive to drugs that damage DNA. These are the findings of a new study by researchers at Linköping University in Sweden.

2 Dec 2025

They need a ventilator to stay alive. Getting one can be a nightmare.

On vacation in Mexico last year, Michael DiPlacido passed out twice while scuba diving and again in his hotel. Back in St. Louis, doctors diagnosed him with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, an incurable disease that often requires mechanical ventilation.

2 Dec 2025

Study links endocrine-disrupting chemicals to hidradenitis suppurativa

A Johns Hopkins Medicine study involving a dozen people with the inflammatory skin disease hidradenitis suppurativa (HS), which mostly affects skin folds, is believed to be the first to provide evidence that hormone-disrupting chemicals commonly found in ultra-processed food and single-use water bottles may contribute to the development of or worsen the condition in some people.

1 Dec 2025