Gene News and Research

Latest Gene News and Research

New method helps pinpoint new potential therapeutic targets for lupus

A team of researchers from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) used a new method of pinpointing potential disease-causing changes in the genome to identify two new potential therapeutic targets for lupus, while also paving the way for more accurately identifying disease-causing variations in other autoimmune disorders.

8 Jul 2020

Tracing adaptation to ACE2 use in sarbecoviruses

A detailed study published on the preprint server bioRxiv in July 2020 argues that recombination accounts for the appearance of the ability of both SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 to use the human angiotensin-converting enzyme (hACE) 2 as the binding receptor mediating viral infection of human cells.

8 Jul 2020

Blocking tumor-promoting protein could bolster immunotherapy's effectiveness, study suggests

While immunotherapy -- a form of treatment that uses the body's immune system to recognize, attack and kill tumor cells -- has given hope to people across the globe, it fails in a significant proportion of cancer patients.

8 Jul 2020

Research sheds doubt on the Pangolin link to SARS-CoV-2

A startling new study by researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and the University of British Columbia and published on the preprint server bioRxiv* in July 2020 casts doubt on the hypothesis that the current severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was transmitted from pangolins acting as the intermediate host. Instead, the authors suggest, the pangolins themselves were incidentally infected from other animals in captivity or from humans.

8 Jul 2020

Zebrafish study finds few health impacts of 5G wireless technology

Findings from an Oregon State University study into the effects of radiofrequency radiation generated by the wireless technology that will soon be the standard for cell phones suggest few health impacts.

8 Jul 2020

A biomaterial vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 - quick and scalable

A recent 'tour-de-force' research endeavor, led by scientists from Harvard University, explored the propensity of a biomaterial vaccine based on mesoporous silica rods to spawn highly protective humoral responses against relevant antigens of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

8 Jul 2020

Small molecule drugs binding Mac1 domain of SARS-CoV-2

Now, an intriguing new study out of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee reveals that numerous small molecule drugs like the proton pump inhibitors omeprazole and rabeprazole bind the important Mac1 domain on the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus.

8 Jul 2020

Scientists introduce a new approach for immunological tumor treatment

Our immune system ought to be able to recognize and kill tumor cells. However, many tumors deceive the immune system.

8 Jul 2020

Horizon Discovery introduces Cas9 and dCas9-VPR stable cell lines to simplify and accelerate CRISPR gene editing workflows

Horizon Discovery Group plc, today announced the introduction of its stably expressing Cas9 and dCas9-VPR cell lines to help accelerate gene knockout.

8 Jul 2020

Researchers map non-coding, 'functional' genome in maize during early reproductive development

Growth and development of all organisms depends on coordinated regulation of gene expression in time and space, and this is largely controlled by non-coding sequences in the genome.

8 Jul 2020

Neuronal subtypes that drive locomotion in fruit fly reveal an unexpected diversity

A new study by MIT neuroscientists into how seemingly similar neuronal subtypes drive locomotion in the fruit fly revealed an unexpected diversity as the brain's commands were relayed to muscle fibers.

8 Jul 2020

Untargeted metabolomics can determine genetic variant to improve patient diagnosis

A patient and family walk into a doctor's office. They hope that the latest tests will reveal what is causing the patient's illness and end the diagnostic odyssey they have been going through for years.

8 Jul 2020

RNA plays key role in helping stem cells know what to become

Look deep inside our cells, and you'll find that each has an identical genome -a complete set of genes that provides the instructions for our cells' form and function.

7 Jul 2020

Risk of severe COVID-19 in ~50 kb genomic segment inherited from Neanderthals

Researchers have found that a small fragment of the genetic code that has been inherited by modern humans from Neanderthals could carry the secret of why some people succumb to a severe form of COVID-19 requiring hospitalization, while others recover.

7 Jul 2020

Gene expression networks flag potential therapeutic targets for SARS-CoV-2

An international team of researchers from Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, and the United States has identified dozens of genes that could contribute to the pathology of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and serve as potential therapeutic targets.

7 Jul 2020

New web-based tool could contribute to the development of better cancer treatments

The results are now published in Nature Medicine and at the same time the tool - the Molecular Tumor Board Portal - will be launched on www.mtbp.org. Janne Lehtiö, professor at the Karolinska Institutet Department of Oncology-Pathology led this work, along with researcher David Tamborero.

7 Jul 2020

Researchers use nanoparticles to deliver gene therapy for blinding eye disease

In experiments in rats and mice, two Johns Hopkins scientists - an engineer and an ophthalmologist - report the successful use of nanoparticles to deliver gene therapy for blinding eye disease.

7 Jul 2020

New technique to sort out complex interactions unique to prostate cancer cells

UT Southwestern researchers have identified vast webs of small snippets of the genome that interact with each other and with genes to promote prostate cancer.

7 Jul 2020

Study: Group genomics are responsible for aggression in Africanized honey bees

Researchers often study the genomes of individual organisms to try to tease out the relationship between genes and behavior.

7 Jul 2020

Viral and bacterial co-infections are pervasive in severe COVID-19 patients

A large group of researchers from China recently characterized microbial co-infections in the respiratory tract of hospitalized coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients and demonstrated a high prevalence of both viral and bacterial co-infections – particularly in individuals presenting with severe disease.

6 Jul 2020