Genetics News and Research

Latest Genetics News and Research

Potential new therapies for cancer and bleeding disorders

Lexicon Genetics announced today that it has advanced two of its drug discovery programs into preclinical development in preparation for investigational new drug (IND) applications.

10 Jan 2005

Scientists identify a protein that regulates alcohol-withdrawal seizures

Seizures are the most life-threatening, as well as disconcerting, symptoms of withdrawal in people who are alcoholics and who abruptly stop drinking. Heavy consumption of alcohol, or ethanol, the substance in beer, wine and liquor that is addictive, leads to changes in the brain.

10 Jan 2005

Key genetic factor determines HIV/AIDS risk

People with more copies of a gene that helps to fight HIV are less likely to become infected with the virus or to develop AIDS than those of the same geographical ancestry, such as European Americans, who have fewer copies of the gene, according to a study funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

10 Jan 2005

Why the Mediterranean diet appers to protect against breast cancer

U.S. researchers have uncovered reasons why the Mediterranean diet, with its high intake of oleic acid-rich olive oil, seems to protect against breast cancer. They have also found evidence that oleic acid may have a future role in treatment. The findings are reported (Monday 10 January) in Annals of Oncology.

9 Jan 2005

Novel Structure Proteins (NSP) could help predict the possibility of tumor growth in a patient

A new family of genes called Novel Structure Proteins (NSP) discovered by researchers in the Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine in Temple University’s College of Science and Technology could have the potential for predicting the possibility of tumor growth in a patient.

9 Jan 2005

Zinc treatment may help prevent esophageal and oral cancers

Cancer researchers at Jefferson Medical College and the Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia have found that zinc treatment may help prevent esophageal and oral cancers in those individuals at high risk.

9 Jan 2005

Core promoter mutants of Hepatitis B Virus e Antigen associated with development of fulminant hepatitis and liver cancer

Scientists in Brown Medical School, Providence, USA, have found that core promoter mutants of Hepatitis B Virus e Antigen replicate at up to 10-fold higher levels in transfected human hepatoma cells than the wild-type virus.

9 Jan 2005

Now significantly easier to search long stretches of DNA for genetic changes associated with disease

The researchers developed a method called direct genomic selection that accelerates the transition between family or population-based studies of disease inheritance patterns and identification of genetic variations that may contribute to disease.

6 Jan 2005

Protein discovery with medical implications

It was a transforming moment. Researchers could barely believe their eyes. A molecular blob of a protein reshaped itself into a molecular Pacman in order to free new viruses from the inside of a bacterial cell.

6 Jan 2005

Discovery could lead to a screening test that identifies people who have a higher or lower susceptibility to HIV/AIDS

6 Jan 2005

Single abnormal cell can duplicate to form cancerous tumors

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have identified how a single aberrant cell can duplicate to form cancerous tumors, suggesting a specific protein mechanism as a target for the treatment of cancer, they report in a paper titled "Spindle Multipolarity Is Prevented by Centrosomal Clustering," published in the Jan. 7 issue of Science.

6 Jan 2005

Mutated gene may provide better idea of how cancer develops and progresses

Scientists are taking the first steps to find out how a gene that is mutated in many cancer cells functions in healthy cells.

6 Jan 2005

Processes shed light on how DNA recombination mechanisms are related

Peter W. Atkinson, a University of California, Riverside professor of entomology and member of the university’s Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, is part of a team that has linked the movement of small pieces of DNA, known as transposable elements, to a process called V(D)J recombination that produces the genetic diversity responsible for the production of antibodies.

6 Jan 2005

Glia cells may be essential for the normal development of nerve cells responsible for hearing and balance

Traditionally viewed as supporting actors, cells known as glia may be essential for the normal development of nerve cells responsible for hearing and balance, according to new University of Utah research. The study is reported in the January 6, 2005 issue of Neuron and is co-authored by scientists at the University of Washington.

6 Jan 2005

Antibiotics protect nerves in mice by turning on genes

A family of antibiotics that includes penicillin may help prevent nerve damage and death in a wide variety of neurological diseases, including Lou Gehrig's disease, dementia, stroke, and epilepsy, Johns Hopkins researchers have found.

6 Jan 2005

Discovery of gene related to p53 called Bnip3L that can also cause cell death

Researchers have known for a decade that the p53 tumor suppressor gene is important for killing cells as they proliferate under low-oxygen conditions inside tumors.

5 Jan 2005

Stem cells could reveal secrets of illness in later life

Mums to be have known for some time that what they eat when pregnant affects their unborn child but now scientists believe that the diet of our mothers during pregnancy may even affect our predisposition to illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure in late life.

5 Jan 2005

New genetic clues provide better understanding of epilepsy

Two specific areas in chromosome 7 and chromosome 16 have been associated with photosensitivity, an epilepsy-related trait, by a team of European scientists in the January issue of Human Molecular Genetics.

5 Jan 2005

New protein discovered holds promise for use in medicine and nanoscience

Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have succeeded in discovering and isolating a new protein from the poplar tree with special structural and qualitative characteristics that could have consequences for development of future nanocapsules for drug delivery to cancer cells.

5 Jan 2005

Direct modulation of progesterone signaling appears to influence ovarian cancer risk

A woman's risk of ovarian cancer rises significantly if she carries either of two previously unexamined variations in the gene that codes for the progesterone receptor, according to a team of researchers led by scientists from the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.

5 Jan 2005