Genetics News and Research

Latest Genetics News and Research

Sensitive computational method could help reveal effect of the immune system on cancer

A study by researchers at Norris Cotton Cancer Center has shown that a very sensitive computational method can be used to reveal the human immune system's effect on cancer. The Dartmouth study was the first to perform an in-depth computational examination of how immune activity translates to prognosis in breast cancer.

22 Jan 2016

Amgen announces approval of cholesterol-lowering medication Repatha (evolocumab) Injection in Japan

Amgen today announced that the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has approved the cholesterol-lowering medication Repatha (evolocumab) Injection, the first proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) inhibitor to be approved in Japan.

22 Jan 2016

Study explores role of genetic and environmental factors in development of social anxiety

Genes play a crucial role over time although environmental factors matter most in the short term, according to a major study into social anxiety and avoidant personality disorders from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.

21 Jan 2016

Northwestern researchers use fruit fly genetics to understand how things may go wrong in cancer

Cancer cells are normal cells that go awry by making bad developmental decisions during their lives. In a study involving the fruit fly equivalent of an oncogene implicated in many human leukemias, Northwestern University researchers have gained insight into how developing cells normally switch to a restricted, or specialized, state and how that process might go wrong in cancer.

21 Jan 2016

Study provides better understanding of familial risk for depression

Building on a 30-year, three-generation study of depressed individuals, their children and offspring, a study published in the journal Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging provides a better understanding of the familial risk for depression and the role neuroplasticity might have in increasing the risk of developing depression.

21 Jan 2016

Diabetes drug fails to show any benefit against pancreatic cancer

A diabetes drug that showed promise in previous studies as an anti-cancer treatment failed to show any benefit in a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center-led study that used pancreatic cancer tissue samples to test sensitivity to the drug.

20 Jan 2016

Genetics play vital role in knee pain sensitivity

Genetics play a key role in knee pain sensitivity, according to a team of researchers studying knee osteoarthritis patients.

20 Jan 2016

Experts create new guidelines to improve treatments for cancer patients

A committee of national experts, led by a Cleveland Clinic researcher, has established first-of-its-kind guidelines to promote more accurate and individualized cancer predictions, guiding more precise treatment and leading to improved patient survival rates and outcomes.

20 Jan 2016

Combining nanomedicine with two anticancer treatments could improve outcomes for pancreatic cancer patients

A nanoparticle drug-delivery system that combines two complementary types of anticancer treatment could improve outcomes for patients with pancreatic cancer and other highly treatment-resistant tumors while decreasing toxicity.

20 Jan 2016

Researchers identify protein that could protect against toxic degeneration of cells in ALS

J. Gavin Daigle, a PhD candidate at the LSU Health New Orleans School of Graduate Studies, is the first author of a paper whose findings reveal another piece of the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) puzzle.

19 Jan 2016

Gene linked to autism lays groundwork for crucial brain structure during prenatal development

A gene linked to mental disorders helps lays the foundation for a crucial brain structure during prenatal development, according to Salk Institute research published January 14, 2016 in Cell Reports.

18 Jan 2016

MGH researchers find how metformin drug prevents progression of pancreatic cancer

Massachusetts General Hospital investigators may have uncovered a novel mechanism behind the ability of the diabetes drug metformin to inhibit the progression of pancreatic cancer.

17 Jan 2016

Researchers engineer antibodies that could potently neutralize two deadliest strains of Ebola virus

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases have engineered the first antibodies that can potently neutralize the two deadliest strains of the virus that causes Ebola hemorrhagic fever.

13 Jan 2016

UCLA discovery could lead to new therapies for autism

UCLA scientists have discovered that an overlooked region in brain cells houses a motherlode of mutated genes previously tied to autism. Recently published in Neuron, the finding could provide fresh drug targets and lead to new therapies for the disorder, which affects one in 68 children in the United States.

13 Jan 2016

Pulmonary neuroendocrine cells act like sensor to orchestrate immune response

An uncommon and little-studied type of cell in the lungs has been found to act like a sensor, linking the pulmonary and central nervous systems to regulate immune response in reaction to environmental cues.

13 Jan 2016

CPMC study discovers six genes that affect sleep duration

The Coriell Personalized Medicine Collaborative, a research initiative exploring the utility of genetic information in the clinical setting, has published a study and identified six noteworthy genes that affect human sleep duration.

13 Jan 2016

New gene-filtering tool aims to predict disease-causing mutations

Despite their bad reputations, the vast majority of mutations are not harmful. Even in very rare genetic disorders, only one or two genetic variations — out of tens of thousands — is actually the cause of disease. Distinguishing between harmful and harmless mutations has long been a challenge.

13 Jan 2016

New mechanism of differentiation may offer novel therapeutic approaches to blood malignancies, solid tumors

In humans the differentiation of stem cells into hundreds of specialized cell types is vital. Differentiation drives development from fertilized egg to a newborn, and it underlies the continuous replacement of the 5 billion cells that die every hour in an adult. On the downside, mutations in differentiation pathways of different cell types can be drivers of cancers.

13 Jan 2016

Three new genetic associations identified for primary open angle glaucoma

Researchers from Massachusetts Eye and Ear/Harvard Medical School and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have led an international effort to identify three genetic associations that influence susceptibility to primary open angle glaucoma -- the most common form of adult onset glaucoma and the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the world.

12 Jan 2016

NIH-funded analysis identifies three genes that contribute to most common form of glaucoma

An analysis funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health, has identified three genes that contribute to the most common type of glaucoma. The study increases the total number of such genes to 15.

12 Jan 2016

Genetics News and Research

Latest Genetics News and Research

Sensitive computational method could help reveal effect of the immune system on cancer

Amgen announces approval of cholesterol-lowering medication Repatha (evolocumab) Injection in Japan

Study explores role of genetic and environmental factors in development of social anxiety

Northwestern researchers use fruit fly genetics to understand how things may go wrong in cancer

Study provides better understanding of familial risk for depression

Diabetes drug fails to show any benefit against pancreatic cancer

Genetics play vital role in knee pain sensitivity

Experts create new guidelines to improve treatments for cancer patients

Combining nanomedicine with two anticancer treatments could improve outcomes for pancreatic cancer patients

Researchers identify protein that could protect against toxic degeneration of cells in ALS

Gene linked to autism lays groundwork for crucial brain structure during prenatal development

MGH researchers find how metformin drug prevents progression of pancreatic cancer

Researchers engineer antibodies that could potently neutralize two deadliest strains of Ebola virus

UCLA discovery could lead to new therapies for autism

Pulmonary neuroendocrine cells act like sensor to orchestrate immune response

CPMC study discovers six genes that affect sleep duration

New gene-filtering tool aims to predict disease-causing mutations

New mechanism of differentiation may offer novel therapeutic approaches to blood malignancies, solid tumors

Three new genetic associations identified for primary open angle glaucoma

NIH-funded analysis identifies three genes that contribute to most common form of glaucoma

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