Genetics News and Research

Latest Genetics News and Research

MGH, MIT researchers reveal how the brain controls different sleep states

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have added another piece to the complex puzzle of how the brain controls one of the most essential functions - sleep.

4 Feb 2015

Scientists find eight different types of schizophrenia

Scientists from the universities of Granada (Spain) and Washington in St Louis (US) have found that there is not a single type of schizophrenia, but that it consists of a group made up of eight genetically different types of diseases, each of which presents its own set of symptoms.

4 Feb 2015

Whole exome sequencing helps Mayo Clinic neurologist solve a medical mystery

Precision medicine is getting a jump-start from a new national initiative announced in President Obama's State of the Union message. One Georgia family has already experienced its benefits: genomic testing called whole exome sequencing helped Mayo Clinic neurologist Zbigniew Wszolek, M.D., solve a medical mystery that had left a boy with painful, jerking spasms that at times prevented him from walking or talking.

4 Feb 2015

New initiative aims at reducing adverse effects of medications in individuals with mental illnesses

Geneticists at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health will provide their scientific expertise to a new initiative aimed at preventing and reducing the adverse effects of medications in people with mental illnesses.

4 Feb 2015

International researchers discover gene that causes familial scoliosis

The discovery of the first gene causing familial scoliosis was announced by an international France-Canada research team today. "Mystery surrounds the cause of scoliosis, which is a three dimensional deformation of the vertebral column. Many researchers have been attempting to uncover the origins of this disease, particularly from a genetic point of view," explained leading co-author Dr Florina Moldovan of the University of Montreal and the CHU Sainte Justine research hospital.

3 Feb 2015

Professional medical societies must update guidelines for Googling patients, say Penn researchers

With the Internet and social media becoming woven into the modern medical practice, Penn State College of Medicine researchers contend that professional medical societies must update or amend their Internet guidelines to address when it is ethical to "Google" a patient.

3 Feb 2015

Large clinical trial to assess safety, efficacy of two experimental Ebola vaccines opens in Liberia

A large clinical trial to assess the safety and efficacy of two experimental vaccines to prevent Ebola virus infection is now open to volunteers in Liberia. The trial is being led by a recently formed Liberia-U.S. clinical research partnership and is sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.

3 Feb 2015

ABIVAX doses first HIV positive patient in ABX464 Phase IIa clinical trial

ABIVAX, a leading clinical stage biotech company developing and commercialising anti-viral compounds and human vaccines, today announced that enrolment has been initiated and the first HIV positive patient dosed in a Phase IIa clinical trial of ABX464.

2 Feb 2015

EarlyBird study that tracks child-to-adult lifestyle receives financial support

A unique study which has followed 300 young people from age five since 2000, has received backing for a third phase which will see it become the first study of its kind in the world to track the same group from childhood to adulthood.

2 Feb 2015

Scientists identify how 'mini-brain' in spinal cord helps keep our body balanced

Walking across an icy parking lot in winter--and remaining upright--takes intense concentration. But a new discovery suggests that much of the balancing act that our bodies perform when faced with such a task happens unconsciously, thanks to a cluster of neurons in our spinal cord that function as a "mini-brain" to integrate sensory information and make the necessary adjustments to our muscles so that we don't slip and fall.

2 Feb 2015

Study: Teens who perceive themselves as overweight are at greater risk of obesity as adults

Teens who mistakenly perceive themselves as overweight are actually at greater risk of obesity as adults, according to research findings forthcoming in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

2 Feb 2015

Scientists create largest ever catalogue of biological chimeras

Scientists from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre's Structural Computational Biology Group, led by Alfonso Valencia, are making the largest ever catalogue of biological chimeras available to the public domain.

2 Feb 2015

VG Life Sciences issues patent relating to treatment of IBD through CLIP-inducing agent

VG Life Sciences, (VGLS), a biotechnology company developing therapies for autoimmune and infectious diseases, today announced the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued U.S. Patent No. 8906846, covering a method of treating inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) through the administration of a CLIP-inducing agent.

31 Jan 2015

Emory researchers complete detailed maps of 184 duplications found in genomes

Copy number variations (deletions or duplications of large chunks of the genome) are a major cause of birth defects, intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disorders. Still, geneticists can definitively say how a CNV, once discovered in someone's DNA, leads to one of these conditions in just a fraction of cases.

31 Jan 2015

New insight on how naturally occurring mutations can be introduced into DNA

Scientists have shed light on how naturally occurring mutations can be introduced into our DNA.

31 Jan 2015

Scientists identify strong link between beclin 1 gene and triple-negative breast cancer

UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists have identified a strong link between the most aggressive type of breast cancer and a gene that regulates the body's natural cellular recycling process, called autophagy.

30 Jan 2015

UCSD, UCSF launch new project to map cancer cells

Researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and University of California, San Francisco, with support from a diverse team of collaborators, have launched an ambitious new project - dubbed the Cancer Cell Map Initiative or CCMI - to determine how all of the components of a cancer cell interact.

30 Jan 2015

Researchers identify molecular pathways that could lead to new therapeutic targets for cerebral malaria

A drug already approved for treating other diseases may be useful as a treatment for cerebral malaria, according to researchers at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. They discovered a novel link between food intake during the early stages of infection and the outcome of the disease, identifying two molecular pathways that could serve as new targets for treatment.

30 Jan 2015

Study: Common pesticide may alter the development of brain's dopamine system

A commonly used pesticide may alter the development of the brain's dopamine system -- responsible for emotional expression and cognitive function - and increase the risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children, according to a new Rutgers study.

30 Jan 2015

Researchers create customized soap bubbles that promote drug and vaccine delivery

When University of Maryland Professors Philip DeShong and Daniel Stein began tagging soap bubbles with biomolecules, they had no idea this technology would one day be poised to change the way drugs and vaccines fight against bacteria, viruses and cancer.

29 Jan 2015

Genetics News and Research

Latest Genetics News and Research

MGH, MIT researchers reveal how the brain controls different sleep states

Scientists find eight different types of schizophrenia

Whole exome sequencing helps Mayo Clinic neurologist solve a medical mystery

New initiative aims at reducing adverse effects of medications in individuals with mental illnesses

International researchers discover gene that causes familial scoliosis

Professional medical societies must update guidelines for Googling patients, say Penn researchers

Large clinical trial to assess safety, efficacy of two experimental Ebola vaccines opens in Liberia

ABIVAX doses first HIV positive patient in ABX464 Phase IIa clinical trial

EarlyBird study that tracks child-to-adult lifestyle receives financial support

Scientists identify how 'mini-brain' in spinal cord helps keep our body balanced

Study: Teens who perceive themselves as overweight are at greater risk of obesity as adults

Scientists create largest ever catalogue of biological chimeras

VG Life Sciences issues patent relating to treatment of IBD through CLIP-inducing agent

Emory researchers complete detailed maps of 184 duplications found in genomes

New insight on how naturally occurring mutations can be introduced into DNA

Scientists identify strong link between beclin 1 gene and triple-negative breast cancer

UCSD, UCSF launch new project to map cancer cells

Researchers identify molecular pathways that could lead to new therapeutic targets for cerebral malaria

Study: Common pesticide may alter the development of brain's dopamine system

Researchers create customized soap bubbles that promote drug and vaccine delivery

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