Genetics News and Research

Latest Genetics News and Research

Researchers discover new inherited disorder that causes mental retardation, liver dysfunction

Researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have discovered a new inherited disorder that causes severe mental retardation and liver dysfunction. The disease, adenosine kinase deficiency, is caused by mutations in the ADK gene, which codes for the enzyme adenosine kinase.

1 Oct 2011

The 7th annual World Stem Cell Summit takes place in Pasadena, CA

Stem cell research and regenerative medicine has long held the potential to treat serious medical conditions, but only recently has the industry as a whole begun to take shape. What was once confined within the realm of research and academia is now attracting the interest of corporations and philanthropists who are investing large amounts of money into this promising science.

30 Sep 2011

New targeting approach to develop an active site-directed, drug-like PTP1B inhibitor

The work of a team of scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) led by Professor Nicholas Tonks FRS, suggests a way to overcome one of the major technical obstacles preventing a leading therapeutic target for diabetes and obesity from being addressed successfully by novel drugs.

30 Sep 2011

UCLA scientists create mouse model for autism

UCLA scientists have created a mouse model for autism that opens a window into the biological mechanisms that underlie the disease and offers a promising way to test new treatment approaches.

30 Sep 2011

Two UTA scientists win 2011 PECASE award for innovative research

Two scientists from The University of Texas at Austin are among the 2011 recipients of Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.

30 Sep 2011

GWAS uncovers new genes associated with type 1 diabetes

The largest-ever analysis of genetic data related to type 1 diabetes has uncovered new genes associated with the common metabolic disease, which affects 200 million people worldwide. The findings add to knowledge of gene networks involved in the origin of this complex disorder, in which patients depend on frequent insulin injections to control their blood sugar levels.

30 Sep 2011

PTK6 protein may play a different role in colon and breast cancer

A protein that regulates cell differentiation in normal tissue may play a different role in colon and breast cancer, activating proliferation of damaged cells, according to researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine.

30 Sep 2011

Ambry to provide CLIA-approved exome services for applications in clinical diagnostics

Ambry Genetics today announces that it is the first laboratory to provide CLIA-approved exome services for applications in clinical diagnostics. After comprehensive review by Ambry's staff of geneticists and medical directors, these results will allow clinicians to diagnose affected patients with conditions that have eluded traditional diagnostic approaches.

30 Sep 2011

FDA approves NeuRx Diaphragm Pacing System to treat ALS

An electronic system that stimulates the nerve of the diaphragm muscles has received approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

30 Sep 2011

G-Zero receives NIAID's Phase II Small Business Innovation Research Grant

G-Zero Therapeutics, an RTP company started in 2008 based on technologies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been awarded a $3 million Phase II Small Business Innovation Research Grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.

30 Sep 2011

Lin28/let-7 pathway plays an unexpected key role in type 2 diabetes

A pathway activated in cancer plays an unexpected key role in metabolic diseases like type 2 diabetes, according to a study by researchers at Children's Hospital Boston. Evidence that the Lin28/let-7 pathway influences the cellular response to glucose provides a unifying theme to perplexing data that associates human genetic variation with diabetes risk.

30 Sep 2011

Genetic variant may increase severity of coronary artery disease in patients with diabetes

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified the first genetic variant associated with severity of coronary artery disease in patients with type 2 diabetes.

29 Sep 2011

Researchers use patient's own stem cells to correct genetic alteration that causes SCD

Using a patient's own stem cells, researchers at Johns Hopkins have corrected the genetic alteration that causes sickle cell disease (SCD), a painful, disabling inherited blood disorder that affects mostly African-Americans. The corrected stem cells were coaxed into immature red blood cells in a test tube that then turned on a normal version of the gene.

29 Sep 2011

Salk Institute professor named 2011 recipient of NIH Director's T-R01 program

Dr. Fred Gage, a professor in the Salk Institute Laboratory of Genetics and holder of the Vi and John Adler Chair for Research on Age-Related Neurodegenerative Diseases, has been named a 2011 recipient of the prestigious National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director's Transformative Research Projects (T-R01) program.

29 Sep 2011

Men need colon cancer screening earlier than women: Study

A new study finds that men are at a higher risk of colon cancer than women and should get their first colonoscopy to screen for the disease at age 45, five years earlier than the current recommendation.

28 Sep 2011

University of Utah organic chemist wins National Medal of Science

University of Utah organic chemist Peter J. Stang has won a National Medal of Science - the highest U.S. honor for a scientist or engineer - and is tentatively scheduled to be honored by President Barack Obama at the White House later this year.

28 Sep 2011

UCLA researchers sequence complete genomes of 17 strains of mice

For decades, laboratory mice have been widely used in research aimed at understanding which genes are involved in various illnesses. But actual variations in past gene sequences of mice were unknown. While researchers were able to determine that a variant affecting disease was in a certain region, they couldn't pinpoint the exact set of variants in that region.

27 Sep 2011

Scientists uncover how methylation changes can influence blood stem cell's fate

Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and the University of Southern California (USC) have uncovered intriguing new evidence helping to explain one of the ways in which a stem cell's fate can be determined.

27 Sep 2011

Asuragen announces data from Signature LTx v2.0 clinical study on leukemia

Asuragen, Inc. announced today that data from a study evaluating its Signature LTx v2.0, a CE-marked IVD test, for the multiplex detection of fusion transcripts associated with ALL, AML and CML leukemia, will be presented at the upcoming Planet XMAP Europe being held September 28 - 29, 2011 in Vienna, Austria.

27 Sep 2011

Weill Cornell receives NIH's T-R01 Award for spina bifida research

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a five-year, $5.5 million Transformative Research Project (T-R01) Award to fund research into risk factors for spina bifida and related congenital defects in which an area of the affected baby's spine or brain is not fully enclosed.

27 Sep 2011