Genetics News and Research

Latest Genetics News and Research

Viewpoints: Shinseki's efforts haven't yet solved VA's problems; treating children with mental illness is complicated; abuse of painkillers

Just in time for Veterans Day, the embattled secretary of Veterans Affairs, Eric K. Shinseki, announced last week that his department had reduced its backlog of overdue disability claims from more than 600,000 in March to about 400,000. "The trend line is in the right direction," Shinseki told reporters, noting that the VA had cut the number of claims older than a year by 93%. With hundreds of thousands of cases still unresolved, Shinseki hasn't gotten much credit so far - but to the surprise of his critics, he's on track to achieve his goal of eliminating the backlog by 2015. Still, that won't solve all the VA's problems; far from it (Doyle McManus, 11/10).

12 Nov 2013

Georgia University scientists identify cause of muscle weakness disease myasthenia gravis

An antibody to a protein critical to enabling the brain to talk to muscles has been identified as a cause of myasthenia gravis, researchers report.

12 Nov 2013

Scientists study effect of diet complexity, estrogen hormone receptors on intestinal microbiota

Texas A&M University and University of North Carolina School of Medicine scientists have completed a study on the effect of diet complexity and estrogen hormone receptors on intestinal microbiota.

11 Nov 2013

Treatment with rheumatoid arthritis drug saved transplanted kidney and achieved remission

A drug approved for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis may also turn out to be the first targeted therapy for one of the most common forms of kidney disease, a condition that almost inevitably leads to kidney failure.

11 Nov 2013

Scientists use new technology to study whole genome to find the cause of genetic disease

For the first time, scientists have used new technology which analyses the whole genome to find the cause of a genetic disease in what was previously referred to as "junk DNA".

11 Nov 2013

A*STAR scientists discover potential target to weed out progression of cancer

Scientists at A*STAR have discovered an enzyme, Wip1 phosphatase, as a potential target to weed out the progression of cancer. Although studies in the past have revealed that this enzyme plays a critical role in regulating the budding of tumours, scientists have for the first time unearthed a mechanism for its mode of action.

10 Nov 2013

Coding variants in immune disease-related genes play only small part in risk for psoriasis

Coding variants in immune disease-related genes play only a small part in the overall genetic risk for psoriasis, according to a new study led by Anhui Medical University and BGI.

10 Nov 2013

Scientist shows how immune system 'attacks' liver cells during hepatitis by using JunB gene

Viral infections are the primary cause of liver inflammation or hepatitis, affecting hundreds of millions of people all over the world, and they represent a public health problem worldwide.

10 Nov 2013

Cancer research leaders announce the opening of ICGC-TCGA-DREAM SMC Challenge

Cancer research leaders from the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and the University of California, Santa Cruz, in collaboration with Sage Bionetworks and IBM's DREAM, will announce tomorrow the opening of the ICGC-TCGA-DREAM Somatic Mutation Calling Challenge at the Sixth Annual RECOMB/ISCB conference.

8 Nov 2013

Children's Hospital Los Angeles opens new outpatient care center in Santa Monica

Children's Hospital Los Angeles opened the doors of its new outpatient care center in Santa Monica today. The pediatric medical facility, Children's Hospital Los Angeles - Santa Monica, will be staffed by 10 physicians who are Board-Certified in seven specialties and subspecialties, including hematology-oncology, medical genetics, neurology, orthopaedics, plastic and maxillofacial surgery, and urology.

8 Nov 2013

Discovery could rev up body's immune response to infection, autoimmune diseases

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report that disrupting the light-dark cycle of mice increased their susceptibility to inflammatory disease, indicating that the production of a key immune cell is controlled by the body's circadian clock.

8 Nov 2013

Cholesterol metabolite promotes tumor growth in breast cancers

A team of researchers at UT Southwestern has found that as cholesterol is metabolized, a potent stimulant of breast cancer is created - one that fuels estrogen-receptor positive breast cancers, and that may also defeat a common treatment strategy for those cancers.

8 Nov 2013

Diets and the famine reaction: an interview with Associate Professor Amanda Salis, University of Sydney

The statistic that you often hear is that 95% of diets fail, but in actual fact, emerging research is now showing that it’s around 70% of diets that fail. That means that around 30% of people who are losing weight are actually keeping it off. So we’re doing better now than we were doing in the past, but there’s still work to be done.

7 Nov 2013

ImmunGene secures $9 million in Series A financing from Ally Bridge Group

ImmunGene, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on developing antibody-cytokine fusion technology therapies to treat cancer, today announced it has secured $9 million in a milestone-based Series A financing from Ally Bridge Group. Previous investments in the Company were converted into Series A preferred stock. ImmunGene will use the capital to advance its early-stage development products to IND-enabling studies.

7 Nov 2013

Majerus to donate $2M for new Primary Children's and Families' Cancer Research Center at HCI

Today the Majerus Family Foundation (a foundation Rick Majerus, former University of Utah basketball coach from 1989-2004, established prior to his death in 2012) announced that it will make a gift in the amount of $2 million toward the construction of the new Primary Children's and Families' Cancer Research Center at Huntsman Cancer Institute.

7 Nov 2013

MGH researchers identify probable mechanism for pain-induced cognitive impairment

The pain caused by a surgical incision may contribute to the risk of postoperative cognitive dysfunction, a sometimes transient impairment in learning and memory that affects a small but significant number of patients in the days following a surgical procedure.

7 Nov 2013

Researchers identify markers of social disability in 2 to 6-month-old infants

Researchers at Marcus Autism Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University School of Medicine have identified signs of autism present in the first months of life.

7 Nov 2013

New 4th generation HIV assays now available to improve screening for HIV infection

Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings announced today the availability of a 4th generation HIV antigen/antibody combination assay and a new diagnostic algorithm that improves screening for HIV infection.

6 Nov 2013

Population genetic studies may have limited role in schizophrenia

Studying the genetics of people in the general population who have psychotic experiences is unlikely to yield useful information about schizophrenia, say researchers.

6 Nov 2013

Study: Interactions between inflammation and changes in gut microbiota may result in colon tumors

Transferring the gut microbes from a mouse with colon tumors to germ-free mice makes those mice prone to getting tumors as well, according to the results of a study published in mBio-, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

6 Nov 2013

Genetics News and Research

Latest Genetics News and Research

Viewpoints: Shinseki's efforts haven't yet solved VA's problems; treating children with mental illness is complicated; abuse of painkillers

Georgia University scientists identify cause of muscle weakness disease myasthenia gravis

Scientists study effect of diet complexity, estrogen hormone receptors on intestinal microbiota

Treatment with rheumatoid arthritis drug saved transplanted kidney and achieved remission

Scientists use new technology to study whole genome to find the cause of genetic disease

A*STAR scientists discover potential target to weed out progression of cancer

Coding variants in immune disease-related genes play only small part in risk for psoriasis

Scientist shows how immune system 'attacks' liver cells during hepatitis by using JunB gene

Cancer research leaders announce the opening of ICGC-TCGA-DREAM SMC Challenge

Children's Hospital Los Angeles opens new outpatient care center in Santa Monica

Discovery could rev up body's immune response to infection, autoimmune diseases

Cholesterol metabolite promotes tumor growth in breast cancers

Diets and the famine reaction: an interview with Associate Professor Amanda Salis, University of Sydney

ImmunGene secures $9 million in Series A financing from Ally Bridge Group

Majerus to donate $2M for new Primary Children's and Families' Cancer Research Center at HCI

MGH researchers identify probable mechanism for pain-induced cognitive impairment

Researchers identify markers of social disability in 2 to 6-month-old infants

New 4th generation HIV assays now available to improve screening for HIV infection

Population genetic studies may have limited role in schizophrenia

Study: Interactions between inflammation and changes in gut microbiota may result in colon tumors

eBook: Using iPSCs models for human disease research and drug discovery eBook

Real-time Raman monitoring for pharmaceutical hot melt extrusion

Synthetic Psychedelics: A Growing Public Health Concern

How the Vutara VXL simplifies single-molecule imaging