Genetics News and Research

Latest Genetics News and Research

New tool reveals surprising clues about how cancer cells respond to therapy

A new tool to observe cell behavior has revealed surprising clues about how cancer cells respond to therapy - and may offer a way to further refine personalized cancer treatments.

15 Aug 2012

Protein folding: Nobel laureate Ahmed H. Zewail summarizes his insights

Living subjects are very complex systems and, at the same time, stunningly robust and accommodative. The secret of success are their proteins which build up the cells of the organisms, act as cleaners, messengers, transporter, motors, and fulfill much more jobs. How proteins are genetically coded and how their linear chains of amino acids are put together, is in principle well known.

14 Aug 2012

Schizophrenia and the immune system: an interview with Prof Cyndi Shannon Weickert

Schizophrenia is the most disabling disease impacting youth today. It impacts 1% of the total population and typically causes withdrawal from society, loss in IQ, disordered thought and speech, hallucinations and delusions.

14 Aug 2012

Researchers identify key element in the development of Burkitt lymphoma

Burkitt lymphoma is a malignant, fast-growing tumor that originates from a subtype of white blood cells called B lymphocytes of the immune system and often affects internal organs and the central nervous system. Now Dr. Sandrine Sander and Professor Klaus Rajewsky of the Max Delbr-ck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch have identified a key element that transforms the immune cells into malignant lymphoma cells.

14 Aug 2012

Scientists identify new genetic alterations underlying high-risk subtype of ALL

Scientists have identified new genetic alterations underlying a high-risk subtype of the most common childhood cancer that could be effectively targeted with existing leukemia therapies.

14 Aug 2012

Researchers identify new gene in Cornelia deLange syndrome

Genetics researchers have identified a key gene that, when mutated, causes the rare multisystem disorder Cornelia deLange syndrome (CdLS). By revealing how mutations in the HDAC8 gene disrupt the biology of proteins that control both gene expression and cell division, the research sheds light on this disease, which causes intellectual disability, limb deformations and other disabilities resulting from impairments in early development.

13 Aug 2012

Fluorescent molecules 'tag' DNA and monitor looping process

In a new study, UT Dallas researchers outline how they used fluorescent molecules to "tag" DNA and monitor a process called DNA looping, a natural biological mechanism involved in rearranging genetic material in some types of cells.

13 Aug 2012

Researchers discover gene mutations linked to spinocerebellar ataxia

A global hunt for the cause of a crippling inherited nerve disorder has found its target. The discovery opens the door for better diagnosis and treatment of this particular disease - but also for better understanding of why nerves in the brain's movement-controlling center die, and how new DNA-mapping techniques can find the causes of other diseases that run in families.

13 Aug 2012

Medical ethics: an interview with Anita Silvers

Medical ethics assists healthcare professionals to make decisions respectful of persons who happen to be their patients.

13 Aug 2012

HDAC8 gene mutations cause Cornelia deLange syndrome

13 Aug 2012

Johns Hopkins CIDR receives NIH contract to study genetic diseases

The Johns Hopkins Center for Inherited Disease Research (CIDR) program contract, which provides up to $101 million in research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the genetic contribution to human diseases, has been renewed for another five years.

13 Aug 2012

Research focuses on evolution of sex and gamete function

The propagation of every animal on the planet is the result of sexual activity between males and females of a given species. But how did things get this way? Why two sexes instead of one? Why are sperm necessary for reproduction and how did they evolve? These as-yet-unresolved issues fascinate Timothy Karr, a developmental geneticist and evolutionary biologist at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute.

13 Aug 2012

Scientists discover how pten gene causes brain changes that lead to autism-like behavior

Scientists affiliated with the UC Davis MIND Institute have discovered how a defective gene causes brain changes that lead to the atypical social behavior characteristic of autism. The research offers a potential target for drugs to treat the condition.

13 Aug 2012

Reducing copper in the body delays onset of prion disease

Many of us are familiar with prion disease from its most startling and unusual incarnations-the outbreaks of "mad cow" disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) that created a crisis in the global beef industry. Or the strange story of Kuru, a fatal illness affecting a tribe in Papua New Guinea known for its cannibalism. Both are forms of prion disease, caused by the abnormal folding of a protein and resulting in progressive neurodegeneration and death.

13 Aug 2012

Research on language gene seeks to uncover origins of the singing mouse

Singing mice (Scotinomys teguina) are not your average lab rats. Their fur is tawny brown instead of the common white albino strain; they hail from the tropical cloud forests in the mountains of Costa Rica; and, as their name hints, they use song to communicate.

12 Aug 2012

Manipulating hormone-producing cells in the brain may help control blood sugar levels

Manipulating a group of hormone-producing cells in the brain can control blood sugar levels in the body - a discovery that has dramatic potential for research into weight-loss drugs and diabetes treatment.

10 Aug 2012

New subtype of Ewing sarcoma discovered

A new study of the genetic makeup, or genome, of Ewing sarcoma, a rare cancer that strikes children, teenagers, and young adults, has produced multiple discoveries: a previously unknown sarcoma subtype, genetic factors related to long-term survival, and identification of a genetic change between the primary and metastatic stages of the disease that could lead to better, more targeted treatment.

10 Aug 2012

Nematode worms help identify potential cancer targets

Through novel experiments involving small nematode worms, scientists from Wyoming have discovered several genes that may be potential targets for drug development in the ongoing war against cancer. Specifically, researchers hypothesize that inhibiting these genes could reverse certain key traits associated with cancer cells.

10 Aug 2012

The ALS Association announces new grants to support research on Lou Gehrig's Disease

The ALS Association announced today its latest research awards that include funding commitments of $4 million to researchers in 31 laboratories in the United States, United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany and Canada. These awards are part of its Translational Research Advancing Therapies for ALS (TREAT ALS™) program, through which The Association funds a diverse portfolio of research to find treatments and a cure for Lou Gehrig's Disease.

9 Aug 2012

Alfa Wassermann, Salix enter license agreement for EIR formulation of rifaximin

Salix Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. and Alfa Wassermann S.p.A. today announced that they have entered into an exclusive agreement by which Salix has licensed rights in the United States and Canada to an extended intestinal release (EIR) formulation of rifaximin for gastrointestinal and respiratory indications, including Crohn's disease.

9 Aug 2012