Genetics News and Research

Latest Genetics News and Research

Stowers investigators define factors that regulate size of cellular fat pools

As the national waistline expands, so do pools of intra-cellular fat known as lipid droplets. Although most of us wish our lipid droplets would vanish, they represent a cellular paradox: on the one hand droplets play beneficial roles by corralling fat into non-toxic organelles. On the other, oversized lipid droplets are associated with obesity and its associated health hazards.

30 Aug 2012

GWSMHS professor to study correlation between genetics and susceptibility to drug abuse

Norman H. Lee, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS), received a total of $405,001 in grant funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to continue to study the correlation between genetics and susceptibility to drug abuse.

30 Aug 2012

Study shows molecular mechanism behind type 3c pancreatic diabetes

Mice develop pancreatic diabetes (type 3c) when they lack certain genes in the E2F group, and to understand how this happens, Olatz Zenarruzabeitia has focussed on the molecular mechanism behind it.

29 Aug 2012

Genetic investigation of tribes may explain why East Asians have lower skin cancer rates

Genetic investigation of a Malaysian tribe may tell scientists why East Asians have light skin but lower skin cancer rates than Europeans, according to a team of international researchers. Understanding the differences could lead to a better way to protect people from skin cancer.

29 Aug 2012

Hispanic children often have undiagnosed developmental delays, autism

Hispanic children often have undiagnosed developmental delays and large numbers of both Hispanic and non-Hispanic children who first were thought to have developmental delay actually had autism, researchers affiliated with the UC Davis MIND Institute have found.

29 Aug 2012

Scientists identify genes that underlie growth of primitive leukemia stem cells

University of Rochester Medical Center scientists believe they are the first to identify genes that underlie the growth of primitive leukemia stem cells, and then to use the new genetic signature to identify currently available drugs that selectively target the rogue cells.

29 Aug 2012

Cyclin D3 protein regulates size and quantity of RBCs

The adult human circulatory system contains between 20 and 30 trillion red blood cells (RBCs), the precise size and number of which can vary from person to person. Some people may have fewer, but larger RBCs, while others may have a larger number of smaller RBCs. Although these differences in size and number may seem inconsequential, they raise an important question: Just what controls these characteristics of RBCs?

29 Aug 2012

Friedreich Ataxia Research Alliance, USF ARC to host ‘Understanding a Cure’ symposium

Scientists, clinicians and patients will gather at the University of South Florida's Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation (CAMLS) in downtown Tampa Sept. 6 to share research insights and energize the search for a cure for Friedreich's ataxia and related disorders.

28 Aug 2012

ABCD4 and CblF proteins responsible for hereditary vitamin B12 deficiency

Vitamin B12 is vital for cell division, the synthesis of red blood cells and the functioning of the nervous system. Unable to produce the vitamin itself, the human body has to obtain it via animal proteins. So far it has been known that on its way into the cell vitamin B12 is absorbed by little organelles, so-called lysosomes. From there, the vitamin enters the cell interior with the aid of the transport protein CblF, which was discovered by the same research team three years ago.

28 Aug 2012

Short sleep duration linked to more aggressive breast cancers

Lack of sleep is linked to more aggressive breast cancers, according to new findings published in the August issue of Breast Cancer Research and Treatment by physician-scientists from University Hospitals Case Medical Center's Seidman Cancer Center and Case Comprehensive Cancer Center at Case Western Reserve University.

28 Aug 2012

People with guanine version of rs55705857 SNP more likely to develop gliomas

People who carry a "G" instead of an "A" at a specific spot in their genetic code have roughly a six-fold higher risk of developing certain types of brain tumors, a Mayo Clinic and University of California, San Francisco study has found. The

27 Aug 2012

Researchers discover new genetic disease related to vitamin B12 deficiency

Vitamin B12 is essential to human health. However, some people have inherited conditions that leave them unable to process vitamin B12. As a result they are prone to serious health problems, including developmental delay, psychosis, stroke and dementia. An international research team recently discovered a new genetic disease related to vitamin B12 deficiency by identifying a gene that is vital to the transport of vitamin into the cells of the body.

27 Aug 2012

Mexican-Americans with ancestral links have higher insulin resistance levels

Mexican-Americans with an ancestral link to Amerindian tribes were found to have higher insulin resistance levels, which is an indication of several chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes, according to research by The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

26 Aug 2012

Personalized colon cancer therapy based on genetics of specific cancer

University of Minnesota Medical School and Masonic Cancer Center researchers have partnered with geneticists from Genentech, Inc., to discover how some proteins may cause the development of some forms of colon cancers.

24 Aug 2012

Seattle Genetics commences everolimus-SGN-75 combination phase Ib clinical trial for advanced RCC

Seattle Genetics, Inc. today announced the initiation of a phase Ib clinical trial evaluating SGN-75 in combination with everolimus (Afinitor) for patients with advanced metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

24 Aug 2012

Cocoa and blood pressure: an interview with Dr Karin Ried

The compounds in cocoa responsible for blood pressure reduction are called flavanols or polyphenols. Flavanols are also found in green tea, dark berries or red wine.

24 Aug 2012

Study demonstrates how DBP production is modulated by daily variations of temperature

Numerous processes in our body fluctuate in a regular pattern during the day. These circadian (or daily) variations can be driven by local oscillators present within our cells or by systemic signals controlled by the master pacemaker, located in the brain. Ueli Schibler, professor at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, unveils a molecular mechanism by which body temperature rhythms influence the expression of 'clock genes' and synchronize local oscillators.

24 Aug 2012

Certain human diseases may have evolutionary epigenetic origins

Ninety-six percent of a chimpanzee's genome is the same as a human's. It's the other 4 percent, and the vast differences, that pique the interest of Georgia Tech's Soojin Yi. For instance, why do humans have a high risk of cancer, even though chimps rarely develop the disease? In research published in September's American Journal of Human Genetics, Yi looked at brain samples of each species. She found that differences in certain DNA modifications, called methylation, may contribute to phenotypic changes.

24 Aug 2012

Changes in DNA methylation might be linked to evolution of humans' vulnerability to diseases

Chimpanzees rarely get cancer, or a variety of other diseases that commonly arise in humans, but their genomic DNA sequence is nearly identical to ours. So, what's their secret? Researchers reporting in the September issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics, a Cell Press journal, have found that differences in certain DNA modifications, called methylation, might play a role.

24 Aug 2012

Scripps Research Institute scientist to uncover workings of the immune system

A team led by a scientist at The Scripps Research Institute has received a $22.5 million, five-year project renewal from the National Institutes of Health to uncover the workings of the immune system.

24 Aug 2012