Gene News and Research

Latest Gene News and Research

Scientists find driver for more deadly prostate cancer

A transcription factor that aids neuron function also appears to enable a cell conversion in the prostate gland that can make an already recurrent cancer even more deadly, scientists say.

13 Nov 2019

Fresh light on why aggressive breast tumors form and how they can be treated

New research presented at the Society for Endocrinology annual conference in Brighton appears to identify novel methods of therapy for an aggressive type of breast cancer as well as uncovering potential causative factors. The focus of the study is to show how common chemicals present in our surroundings are possibly putting women at risk of a type of breast cancer called triple negative breast cancer (TNBC).

12 Nov 2019

Medical steroid use could push up diabetes risk

Glucocorticoids (GCs), or steroids, as they are popularly called, are often prescribed for their anti-inflammatory effects in a host of conditions including acute asthmatic attacks, allergies, and arthritis. However, are they doing good or harm?

12 Nov 2019

White blood cells control final moments of their death

La Trobe University researchers have revealed for the first time how white blood cells control the final moments of their death, helping their own removal from the human body.

12 Nov 2019

New approach may help kill Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Current treatment regimens for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the causative agent of tuberculosis, are long, complex, and hard for people to sustain. Moreover, the bacteria often develop drug resistance, and many people harbor multi-drug-resistant strains. In 2018 alone, nearly 1.5 million people died from tuberculosis worldwide.

12 Nov 2019

Collaborative study shows sex-specific processes in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

Recent studies have found a high genetic similarity of the psychiatric diseases schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, whose disease-specific changes in brain cells show an overlap of more than 70 percent.

12 Nov 2019

Protein that drives pancreatic cancer growth could be new treatment target

A protein that drives growth of pancreatic cancer, and which could be a target for new treatments, has been identified by researchers at the Crick.

12 Nov 2019

Fluorescent carbon dots can effectively detect calcium levels in cells

In hospitals, doctors often advise patients to take calcium supplements. But does the calcium get into the cells that need it? Until recently, it's been hard to tell.

12 Nov 2019

Rutgers researcher receives $600,000 grant to study chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey researcher Hossein Khiabanian, PhD, has received a $600,000 Translational Award from the V Foundation for Cancer Research to study chronic lymphocytic leukemia with the aim of developing research models that may help investigators better understand how CLL cells are influenced by new therapies.

11 Nov 2019

Age of psoriasis onset decides if the skin or joints act up first

People with psoriatic arthritis may initially present with either psoriasis or arthritis as the first symptom/sign of this illness. Now, a new study presented at the 2019 ACR/ARP Annual Meeting shows that the age at which psoriasis develops is a key predictor of which shows up first. Early-onset psoriasis is not strongly associated with arthritis while late-onset psoriasis is.

11 Nov 2019

Future drugs aimed at halting cell-inactivation process may help prevent Parkinson's disease

In neurodegenerative conditions like Parkinson's disease, a specific group of neurons start to die one by one, causing movement problems and other symptoms. Scientists have long focused on finding out why these neurons die. Now it turns out, they might not even be dead.

11 Nov 2019

Adult SMA patients treated with Nusinersen show improvement in motor function

A study published in the Journal of Neuromuscular Diseases presents the first evidence of mild improvement or stabilization of motor and respiratory function in adults with spinal muscular atrophy type 3 (SMA3) treated with Nusinersen, which was the case even in patients who have had the disease for 20 years or more.

11 Nov 2019

Findings could lead to potential new therapies for tumor-causing disorder

University of Cincinnati researchers have found additional ways to target the molecular processes involved in activating a certain protein complex to potentially develop new therapies for a tumor-causing disorder.

11 Nov 2019

CRIPSR could be used to detect disease

CRISPR could be used to establish new diagnostic blood tests by identifying viral nucleic acids, such as Parvo or HPV.

11 Nov 2019

New point-of-care medical device rapidly and accurately detects viruses

The gene-editing tool CRISPR has been heralded as a scientific miracle destined to eradicate diseases from sickle-cell anemia to cancer, or decried as "the genetic scissors that tailor the human gene pool," an ethically risky technology driving us toward a designer babies.

11 Nov 2019

Horizon Discovery announces divestment of animal models business to Envigo

Horizon Discovery Group plc, a global leader in the application of gene editing and gene modulation technologies, today announces an agreement to divest the Group’s animal research models business unit to Envigo RMS LLC.

From Revvity 11 Nov 2019

New light on the essential reproductive role of the clitoris

A new study focuses on the role of the clitoris in females, showing that when it is stimulated, it triggers a wave of changes within the rest of the reproductive tract. The outcome of these changes confers on the clitoris not only recreative but also reproductive importance, according to the studies.

10 Nov 2019

New method for identifying 'biomarkers' of drug response in triple-negative breast cancer cell lines

Triple-negative breast cancer is an aggressive cancer, one that's likely to recur and to metastasize.

10 Nov 2019

Study shows how glucocorticoid hormones control sugar and fat levels over the course of 24 hours

For the first time, a study led by researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München and the German Center for Diabetes Research shows how glucocorticoid hormones, such as cortisol, control sugar and fat levels differently during day and night, feeding and fasting, rest and activity, over the course of 24 hours.

10 Nov 2019

Glutamine-blocking compound slows cancer growth, unleashes anti-tumor immune response

A compound developed by Johns Hopkins researchers that blocks glutamine metabolism can slow tumor growth, alter the tumor microenvironment and promote the production of durable and highly active anti-tumor T cells.

10 Nov 2019