Genetics News and Research

Latest Genetics News and Research

Plant hormone auxin acts as a signalling molecule in embryo development

During the development of organisms, a particular event repeatedly occurs: a signal appears temporarily, but the processes it triggers must be maintained - for example, when the fate of cells in the embryo is established.

20 Apr 2011

Parents open to genetic tests for children

Genetic testing techniques have not been perfected yet but parents are willing to take the risk to know if their children are at risk for diseases in adulthood. Some parents would like the ability to predict the future, in terms of their child's risk for certain chronic health conditions. This comes in a new study published online in the journal Pediatrics. Experts, however, say the tests are of little value at this time.

19 Apr 2011

Gene mutation in Tibetian Terrier dogs causes hereditary form of Parkinson's disease in humans

University of Missouri researchers believe both man and animal will benefit from their discovery that the same gene mutation found in Tibetan Terrier dogs can also be found in a fatal human neurological disorder related to Parkinson's disease.

19 Apr 2011

Seattle enters second ADC research collaboration agreement with Genmab

Genmab A/S and Seattle Genetics, Inc. announced today that the companies have entered into a second antibody-drug conjugate research collaboration agreement.

19 Apr 2011

Study finds more evidence linking high-grade serous ovarian cancer to fallopian tubes

High-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC), the fifth-deadliest cancer among American women, is thought by many scientists to often be a fallopian tube malignancy masquerading as an ovarian one. While most of the evidence linking HGSOC to the fallopian tubes has so far been only circumstantial, a new Dana-Farber Cancer Institute study suggests there is a direct connection, a finding that could aid in the development of better treatments for the cancer.

19 Apr 2011

First ever genome scan for womb cancer reveals genetic region that reduces risk of the disease

Scientists have carried out the first ever genome scan for womb cancer and discovered a genetic region that reduces risk of the disease, according to a study published in Nature Genetics.

18 Apr 2011

Intellectual disability may have genetic origin, but is not hereditary

Mutations in a group of genes associated with brain activity frequently cause intellectual disability, according to a study led by scientists affiliated with the University of Montreal and the research centre at the Centre hospitalier universitaire Sainte-Justine. Intellectual disability is a severe handicap that affects between one and two percent of children worldwide. It can often be attributed to genetic causes, but the specific genes involved were mostly unknown.

18 Apr 2011

Parents may chose predictive genetic tests for their children

Parents offered genetic testing to predict their risks of common, adult-onset health conditions say they would also test their children. That is the finding of a new study published in the May issue of Pediatrics.

18 Apr 2011

Drug resistant bug plaguing the meat industry: Study

It has been found that nearly half of the meat and poultry (47 percent) sold in U.S. grocery stores is contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus (“Staph”), a bacteria linked to a wide range of human diseases, and this bacteria is resistant to at least three classes of antibiotics in more than half (52 percent) of contaminated samples. This comes from a nationwide study by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) published this week in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

17 Apr 2011

Analysis calls for experimental evidence to determine best way to disclose information to patients

Giving patients data about the risks and benefits of a medical intervention is not always helpful and may even lead them to irrational decisions, according to an article in the Hastings Center Report. That finding calls into question whether it is essential to disclose quantitative data to patients to help them make informed decisions.

16 Apr 2011

NIH researchers survey landscape of melanoma genome

A team led by researchers at the National Institutes of Health is the first to systematically survey the landscape of the melanoma genome, the DNA code of the deadliest form of skin cancer. The researchers have made surprising new discoveries using whole-exome sequencing, an approach that decodes the 1-2 percent of the genome that contains protein-coding genes.

16 Apr 2011

Astrocytes regulate circadian system that controls normal sleep patterns

The circadian system that controls normal sleep patterns is regulated by a group of glial brain cells called astrocytes, according to a study published online on April 14th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. Neuroscientists from Tufts University School of Medicine found that disruption of astrocyte function in fruit flies ( Drosophila) led to altered daily rhythms, an indication that these star-shaped glial cells contribute to the control of circadian behavior.

15 Apr 2011

Study finds 47% of meat and poultry samples contaminated with S. aureus

Drug-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus, a bacteria linked to a wide range of human diseases, are present in meat and poultry from U.S. grocery stores at unexpectedly high rates, according to a nationwide study by the Translational Genomics Research Institute.

15 Apr 2011

Researchers develop Short-CGH method for preimplantation genetic screening

A Short Comparative Genomic Hybridisation method has been developed to carry out preimplantation genetic screening by analysing all chromosomes and transferring selected embryos to the recipient uterus in the same in vitro fertilisation cycle. This eliminates the need to freeze them.

15 Apr 2011

African genital herpes strains are more infectious than the U.S. virus

Strains of genital herpes in Africa are far more virulent than those in the United States, researchers at Harvard Medical School report, a striking insight into a common disease with important implications for preventing HIV transmission in a region staggered by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

15 Apr 2011

Researchers temporarily turn off essential gene using RNAi technology

One way of discovering a gene's function is to switch it off and observe how the loss of its activity affects an organism. If a gene is essential for survival, however, then switching it off permanently will kill the organism before the gene's function can be determined. Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have overcome this problem by using RNA interference (RNAi) technology to temporarily turn off any essential gene in adult mice and then turn it back on before the change kills the animals.

15 Apr 2011

NIST's new reference can aid in Huntington's disease diagnosis

A new Standard Reference Material from the National Institute of Standards and Technology will help clinical genetics labs accurately diagnose Huntington's disease, an inherited degenerative brain disorder that usually begins between ages 35 and 50 and progressively leads to physical impairment, dementia and death.

15 Apr 2011

Trial of non-invasive prenatal test to determine Down syndrome successful

At the moment, the only reliable way of diagnosing chromosomal irregularities during pregnancy is to use invasive prenatal methods. This causes miscarriage in about one per cent of these risky surgical procedures.

14 Apr 2011

NIAID finding to accelerate Chlamydia infection study

WHAT: In a new study from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, scientists describe successfully mutating specific genes of Chlamydia bacteria, which cause the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States as well as a type of blindness common in developing nations.

12 Apr 2011

Study provides new insights into tuberculosis behavior

Patience may be a virtue in a person, but in an infectious disease, it is insidious. Witness tuberculosis, which can lie dormant in a human host for decades before bursting forth into infection. TB's stealthy nature has made it difficult to decipher how it spreads, seriously hampering efforts to control it. The World Health Organization estimates that a third of the people on Earth are infected.

12 Apr 2011