Genetics News and Research

Latest Genetics News and Research

VitaYeast project to curb global malnutrition

Any way you slice it, bread that contains critical nutrients could help combat severe malnutrition in impoverished regions. That is the goal of a group of Johns Hopkins University undergraduate students who are using synthetic biology to enhance common yeast so that it yields beta carotene, the orange substance that gives carrots their color. When it's eaten, beta-carotene turns into vitamin A.

27 Oct 2011

Study provides details on genetics behind many metabolic diseases

In what is so far the largest investigation of its kind, researchers uncovered a wide range of new insights about common diseases and how they are affected by differences between two persons' genes. The results from this study could lead to highly targeted, individualized therapies.

27 Oct 2011

Comprehensive ADMESeq Research Screening Panel launched

RainDance Technologies, Inc., the Digital Biology Company, and Ambry Genetics, today announced the launch of a comprehensive targeted sequencing panel to screen genes involved with drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) research. The ADMESeq Research Screening Panel enables researchers to simultaneously interrogate 242 known pharmacogenetic genes using next-generation sequencing (NGS) systems.

24 Oct 2011

UCR biology professor inducted into American Academy of Arts and Sciences

David Reznick, a professor of biology at the University of California, Riverside, was among 179 of the nation's most influential artists, scientists, scholars, authors, and institutional leaders who were inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences at a ceremony in Cambridge, Mass., on Oct. 1.

22 Oct 2011

Old age not synonymous with impairment and disability

Exceptional cognitive and physical function in old age leaves a tell-tale immunologic fingerprint, say researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. Likewise, older adults who have mild impairments bear a distinct immunologic pattern, too, according to findings published today in the Public Library of Science: One.

22 Oct 2011

Researchers identify facial characteristics of children with autism

The face and brain develop in coordination, with each influencing the other, beginning in the embryo and continuing through adolescence. Now, University of Missouri researchers have found distinct differences between the facial characteristics of children with autism compared to those of typically developing children.

21 Oct 2011

A more accurate blood test to detect fetal Downs syndrome launched

Pregnant mothers in the U.S. who wish to know whether they're carrying a fetus with Down syndrome now have access to a commercial genetic blood test that has a 99 per cent accuracy rate.

20 Oct 2011

Women with MET genetic variant and autoantibodies more likely to have autistic children

A study by researchers at UC Davis has found that pregnant women with a particular gene variation are more likely to produce autoantibodies to the brains of their developing fetuses and that the children of these mothers are at greater risk of later being diagnosed with autism.

20 Oct 2011

OPHN1 protein mediates mGluR-dependent longterm depression at synapses

Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have solved part of a puzzle concerning the relationship between changes in the strength of synapses - the tiny gaps across which nerve cells in the brain communicate - and dysfunctions in neural circuits that have been linked with drug addiction, mental retardation and other cognitive disorders.

20 Oct 2011

NeoGenomics third quarter revenue increases 30% to $11.3 million

NeoGenomics, Inc., a leading provider of cancer-focused genetic testing services today reported its results for the third quarter 2011.

19 Oct 2011

New sequencing method can identify genetic variants linked to ASD

Geneticists at Emory University School of Medicine have demonstrated a method that enables the routine amplification of all the genes on the X chromosome. The technology allows the rapid and highly accurate sequencing and identification of novel genetic variants affecting X chromosome genes.

19 Oct 2011

New form of respiratory distress syndrome in newborn mice

A discovery by scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies might explain why some premature infants fail to respond to existing treatments for a deadly respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) and offers clues for new ways to treat the breathing disorder.

19 Oct 2011

AICR recommends intake of cancer-fighting foods

Colleen Spees has always been interested in the role that diet played in disease, and set her sights on a career where she would counsel patients and train future dietitians. With multiple family members diagnosed with various types of cancer, Colleen decided to make the transition from clinical professional and nutrition educator to research scientist.

18 Oct 2011

HMS launches Initiative in Systems Pharmacology

Taking aim at the alarming slowdown in the development of new and lifesaving drugs, Harvard Medical School is launching an Initiative in Systems Pharmacology, a comprehensive strategy to transform drug discovery by convening biologists, chemists, pharmacologists, physicists, computer scientists and clinicians to explore together how drugs work in complex systems.

18 Oct 2011

National Centre for Bowel Research and Surgical Innovation to be set up in London

A national research centre for bowel disease is to be set up in London to bring the Cinderella area of medicine to the forefront of surgical innovation.

18 Oct 2011

New DNA-based prenatal blood test can identify pregnancy with Down syndrome

A new DNA-based prenatal blood test that can strikingly reduce the number of risky diagnostic procedures needed to identify a pregnancy with Down syndrome is ready to be introduced into clinical practice.

18 Oct 2011

Accera identifies genetic profile of AD patients with heightened response to Axona

Accera, Inc., a biotech company specializing in cognitive health, announced today that it has identified the genetic profile of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients who have a high probability of responding to Axona (AC-1202), a prescription medical food product available at pharmacies nationwide.

18 Oct 2011

NIH awards Einstein College of Medicine $5.7M for children's IDD Research Center

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University $5.7 million to fund the Rose F. Kennedy Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC).

18 Oct 2011

Women with morbid obesity develop breast cancer at a younger age

Obese women develop breast cancer at a younger age than other women. Furthermore, the likelihood of developing breast cancer is much higher in patients with morbid obesity.

18 Oct 2011

Researchers identify 42 genetic regions associated with liver function

Researchers have identified a large number of areas in the human genetic code that are involved in regulating the way in which the liver functions, in a new study of over 61,000 people, published today in the journal Nature Genetics.

18 Oct 2011