Genetics News and Research

Latest Genetics News and Research

23andMe, Cleveland Clinic to discover how genes and environment influence PD

In an effort to study the interactions between genomics and Parkinson's disease, Cleveland Clinic has joined the ongoing efforts of 23andMe, a leading personal genetics company, to recruit Parkinson's patients to participate in research by contributing their DNA to a research database and completing online surveys about their health.

15 Feb 2012

Calcium scoring screening can effectively detect CAD

Heart disease tragically affects almost every family in the United States. It claimed more than 616,000 lives in 2008, the latest year for which statistics are available. Coronary artery disease is the most common type of heart disease and can lead to heart attacks, heart failure, strokes, arrhythmia and angina.

15 Feb 2012

New WSU model system focuses on causes of everyday MS symptoms

Annoying, frustrating symptoms like difficulty hearing or remembering things can complicate everyday living for multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, but most research to date has focused on the disease's less frequent but more debilitating consequences.

15 Feb 2012

UPV/EHU biologist analyzes genetic and environmental causes of obesity in Romani families

Esther Rebato is a well-known figure in the field of Physical Anthropology. She not only holds the prestigious Alex Hrdli-ka academic medal of the Czech Republic, but she is also the Chair of the Spanish Association of Physical Anthropology. This lecturer at the Department of Genetics, Physical Anthropology and Animal Physiology of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) has carried out numerous pieces of work into nutritional habits, life quality and other associated aspects.

15 Feb 2012

Aspirin-like drugs help prevent spread of tumors in the body

Australian scientists have made a breakthrough which could help in the fight against cancer. The team from Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne has found a link between non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as aspirin, and the ability of tumours to spread in the body. They say that doctors have been aware of the benefits of NSAIDs for many years, but did not fully understand the biological processes involved.

14 Feb 2012

Gene sequencing could identify genetic variants of lung cancer and colorectal cancer

Foundation Medicine Inc., a molecular information company that brings comprehensive cancer gene analysis to routine clinical care, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have come up with the results from their collaborative next-generation sequencing (NGS) study to assay cancer-relevant genes in 24 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and 40 colorectal cancer (CRC) cases.

14 Feb 2012

Scientists create fungi with additional foreign genes to produce chemicals for drugs

Usually, mould fungi are nothing to cheer about - but now they can be used as "chemical factories". Scientists at the Vienna University of Technology have succeeded in introducing bacterial genes into the fungus Trichoderma, so that the fungus can now produce important chemicals for the pharmaceutical industry. The raw material used by the fungus is abundant - it is chitin, which makes up the shells of crustaceans.

14 Feb 2012

Radiation induces testicular cancer in male fetuses

Male fetuses of mothers that are exposed to radiation during early pregnancy may have an increased chance of developing testicular cancer, according to a study in mice at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

14 Feb 2012

Agilent's microarrays used in landmark study on prenatal samples

Agilent Technologies Inc. today announced its microarrays were used in a landmark research study on prenatal samples. The three-year study was designed to evaluate the accuracy, efficacy and potential advantages of using microarray analysis as compared with conventional karyotyping. Agilent SurePrint CGH microarrays and analysis software were used for the majority sample cohort of 4,400 samples.

14 Feb 2012

People with Lynch syndrome face increased risks of breast and pancreatic cancers

A new prospective study of patients with Lynch syndrome - an inherited disorder of cancer susceptibility caused by mutations in specific DNA repair genes - provides the first strong evidence that people with Lynch syndrome face significantly increased risks of breast and pancreatic cancers.

14 Feb 2012

Researchers discover a startling feature of early brain development

Researchers at the Salk Institute have discovered a startling feature of early brain development that helps to explain how complex neuron wiring patterns are programmed using just a handful of critical genes. The findings, published February 3 in Cell, may help scientists develop new therapies for neurological disorders, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and provide insight into certain cancers.

13 Feb 2012

Y chromosome may be the link that passes heart disease risk from father to son

The study, published in The Lancet, focused on genetic markers on the Y chromosome — which is present only in male DNA (women have two X chromosomes) — and found that men with a certain genetic variant were 50% more likely to have coronary artery disease than those without it. The increased risk was independent of other contributors to heart disease such as age, weight, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and smoking.

12 Feb 2012

U-M research sheds light on aging process

Beauty is more than skin deep, at least for fruit flies studied in new research that demonstrates how age-related changes in pheromone production can reduce sexual attractiveness.

10 Feb 2012

Study identifies new gene variants linked with risk of T2D

The largest genetics study to date of type 2 diabetes (T2D) has identified new gene variants associated with risk for the common metabolic disease. An international scientific consortium, studying multiethnic populations, uncovered genes that may point to biological targets for developing more effective drugs for T2D.

10 Feb 2012

Chromosomal microarray provides more information about fetal abnormalities

A nationwide, federally funded study has found that testing a developing fetus' DNA through chromosomal microarray (CMA) provides more information about potential disorders than does the standard method of prenatal testing, which is to visually examine the chromosomes.

10 Feb 2012

UC Riverside uncovers new insight into colon cancer

An international research team led by cell biologists at the University of California, Riverside has uncovered a new insight into colon cancer, the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. The research provides potential new avenues for diagnosing and treating the disease.

10 Feb 2012

Adaptive radiotherapy may benefit patients with head and neck cancer

Researchers led by a senior investigator at Hofstra-North Shore LIJ School of Medicine and The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research have released initial findings from a first-of-a-kind clinical trial in adaptive radiotherapy (ART) for head and neck cancer.

10 Feb 2012

Parkinson’s disease gene - parkin explored: Study

Researchers at the University at Buffalo have discovered how mutations in the parkin gene cause Parkinson's disease, which afflicts at least 500,000 Americans and for which there is no cure. The results are published in the current issue of Nature Communications.

9 Feb 2012

Gene therapy succeeds in the second blind eye for three patients

Three people have now have reported a dramatic improvement in vision after having gene therapy in both eyes after having lost their eyesight as children.

9 Feb 2012

BGI and VIB's genomics meeting to take place on Feb. 15

Both organizations are already collaborating on several projects, including the mapping of the genomes of more than 1,000 species of gut bacteria, compiled from 577 billion base pairs of sequence data. The leading scientific journal Science selected this work as one of the scientific breakthroughs of 2011. Large-scale genome sequencing is becoming ever more important in life sciences, healthcare and agricultural research.

9 Feb 2012