Genetics News and Research

Latest Genetics News and Research

SGWHC launches first digital resource dedicated solely to sex and gender evidence based care

The Food and Drug Administration recently announced a change to current dosages for sleeping medications in women to half the current prescribed level, and research suggests that flu dosages for women be reconsidered as well. Consideration of how women respond to medicine should be common practice, but we aren't there yet.

13 Feb 2013

Researchers describe novel antiviral property of cholesterol-25-hydroxylase

A team of UCLA-led researchers has identified a protein with broad virus-fighting properties that potentially could be used as a weapon against deadly human pathogenic viruses such as HIV, Ebola, Rift Valley Fever, Nipah and others designated "priority pathogens" for national biosecurity purposes by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.

13 Feb 2013

University of Utah geneticists engineer mice that develop clear cell sarcoma

Geneticists led by University of Utah Nobel Prize Laureate Mario R. Capecchi, Ph.D., have engineered mice that develop clear cell sarcoma (CCS), a significant step in better understanding how this rare and deadly soft tissue cancer arises. The mouse model also can potentially speed the development of drugs to target genes that must be activated for the cancer to form.

13 Feb 2013

Two different mechanisms trigger early-onset prostate cancers

While prostate cancer is the most common cancer in elderly Western men it also, but more rarely, strikes patients aged between 35 and 50. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, in collaboration with several other research teams in Germany, have discovered that such early-onset prostate cancers are triggered by a different mechanism from that which causes the disease at a later age.

12 Feb 2013

RNF20 protein required for MLL-rearranged leukemia amplification

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an aggressive blood cancer that is currently incurable in 70% of patients. In a bold effort, CSHL scientists are among those identifying and characterizing the molecular mechanisms responsible for this cancer in order to generate potential new therapeutics.

12 Feb 2013

Combined genomic and proteomic plasma analysis can identify molecular disease mechanisms

For the first time, scientists have combined genomic and proteomic analysis of blood plasma to enhance identification of genetically regulated protein traits. This could be applied to any large association study of civilization diseases where blood plasma has been collected, vastly improving a clinician's ability to identify disease susceptibility in individuals and populations.

11 Feb 2013

MicroRNA can be used to define four subtypes of triple-negative breast cancer

A new, large-scale study of triple-negative breast cancer shows that small molecules called microRNA can be used to define four subtypes of this aggressive malignancy.

11 Feb 2013

NIH researchers review research on dog cranium development

Man's best friend may touch our hearts with their empathy, companionship, playfulness and loyalty, and they may also lead us to a deeper understanding of our heads.

11 Feb 2013

Fbxl10 molecule plays a crucial role in differentiation of embryonic stem cells

A single embryonic stem cell can develop into more than 200 specialized cell types that make up our body. This maturation process is called differentiation and is tightly regulated. If the regulation is lost, specialized cells cannot develop correctly during development. In adulthood, the specialized cells may forget their identity and develop into cancer cells.

10 Feb 2013

$Scientists discover 24 new genes that cause refractive errors and myopia$

Scientists discover 24 new genes that cause refractive errors and myopia

An international team of scientists led by King's College London has discovered 24 new genes that cause refractive errors and myopia (short-sightedness).

10 Feb 2013

Scientists discover recurring pattern of more than 13,000 epigenetic alterations in young tumours

Tumourigenesis is driven by genetic alterations and by changes in the epigenome, for instance by the addition of methyl groups to cytosine bases in the DNA. A deeper understanding of the interaction between the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms is critical for the selection of tumour biomarkers and for the future development of therapies. Human tumour specimens and cell lines however contain a plethora of genetic and epigenetic changes, which complicate data analysis.

10 Feb 2013

Highlights for Feb. 2013 issue of Genetics journal

Listed below are the selected highlights for the February 2013 issue of the Genetics Society of America's journal, Genetics.

10 Feb 2013

Social networking sites could effectively help prevent HIV infection among at-risk groups

Facebook and other social networking technologies could serve as effective tools for preventing HIV infection among at-risk groups, new UCLA research suggests.

9 Feb 2013

CtBP may play a key role in aggressive forms of breast cancer

A protein associated with conditions of metabolic imbalance, such as diabetes and obesity, may play a role in the development of aggressive forms of breast cancer, according to new findings by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and their colleagues.

9 Feb 2013

Researchers design guideline for physicians and patients on Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome

University of Granada researchers have designed a guideline for physicians and patients on the Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS), a rare disease that makes the subject develop reverse sex, which occurs when a subject looks like a woman but has male genes.

7 Feb 2013

Basis of antidepressant drugs and electroconvulsive therapy found

Through a series of investigations in mice and humans, Johns Hopkins researchers have identified a protein that appears to be the target of both antidepressant drugs and electroconvulsive therapy. Results of their experiments explain how these therapies likely work to relieve depression by stimulating stem cells in the brain to grow and mature.

7 Feb 2013

Liver gene found to regulate cholesterol and fat blood levels

Researchers have identified a microRNA liver gene, miR-27b, which regulates lipid (cholesterol or fat) levels in the blood. This regulator gene controls multiple genes involved in dyslipidemia—abnormal blood cholesterol levels that can contribute to heart disease.

7 Feb 2013

Migraine, epilepsy and genetics: an interview with Dr. Melodie Winawer

This work is the product of an extraordinary consortium called the Epilepsy Phenome/Genome project (EPGP). It is a consortium of 27 centres in the U.S. and internationally with several hundred physicians and staff who have worked together to enrol more than 4000 patients with epilepsy and their family members.

7 Feb 2013

Seattle Genetics commences two SGN-CD19A phase I trials in hematologic malignancies

Seattle Genetics, Inc. today announced the initiation of two phase I clinical trials of SGN-CD19A, one for patients with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and one for patients with B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas.

6 Feb 2013

PET with 11C-PIB can positively visualize amyloid deposits in the heart

While amyloid imaging may now be most associated with detecting plaques in the brain, it has the potential to change the way cardiac amyloidosis is diagnosed. According to first-of-its-kind research published in the February issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, positron emission tomography (PET) with 11C-PIB can positively visualize amyloid deposits in the heart.

5 Feb 2013