Genetics News and Research

Latest Genetics News and Research

Novel brain cancer drug HhAntag for children may damage bones

A novel drug that fully eliminated brain tumors from mice in a dramatic 2004 study has shown a darker side - causing permanent bone damage in younger mice.

11 Mar 2008

Scientists unlock secrets of E coli contamination

Using new genetic techniques, scientists are unlocking the secrets of how E coli bacteria contaminate food and make people sick.

11 Mar 2008

Maternal obesity not strongly linked to obesity in offspring says study

Professor Debbie Lawlor and colleagues used two approaches to test the 'developmental overnutrition' hypothesis which asserts that if a woman is overweight during pregnancy, high sugar and fat levels in her body might permanently affect her growing baby's appetite control and metabolism, thus increasing the child's risk of becoming obese in later life.

11 Mar 2008

Long-term muscle improvements shown in gene therapy study in mice

Injecting a gene responsible for making a specific protein into a mouse that's used as a model for muscular dystrophy can lead to long-term improvements in the animal's muscle size and strength, a new study shows.

11 Mar 2008

Pesticides and nerve agents explain health problems in Persian Gulf war veterans

A study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine shows there is increasing evidence that high rates of illness in Persian Gulf War Veterans can be explained, in part, by exposure to certain chemicals, including pesticides and nerve agents.

11 Mar 2008

Portable DNA sensors

A researcher at the National University at San Diego has taken a mathematical approach to a biological problem - how to design a portable DNA detector.

11 Mar 2008

Gene could spell new chapter in fight against gout

Researchers have found why some people are more susceptible to gout than others. The scientists looked at the genetic codes of more than 12,000 people after identifying a gene linked to uric acid levels in the blood.

10 Mar 2008

$Girls and women with Rett syndrome have higher fracture risk$

Girls and women with Rett syndrome have higher fracture risk

Researchers at Perth's Telethon Institute for Child Health Research have found that girls and young women with Rett syndrome are nearly four times more likely to suffer a fracture.

10 Mar 2008

Paradoxical Alzheimer's finding may provide better understanding of memory loss

Do you remember the seventh song that played on your radio on the way to work yesterday?

10 Mar 2008

Improved method for genetically manipulating human embryonic stem cells

UC Irvine researchers have discovered a dramatically improved method for genetically manipulating human embryonic stem cells, making it easier for scientists to study and potentially treat thousands of disorders ranging from Huntington's disease to muscular dystrophy and diabetes.

10 Mar 2008

Jivan Biologics awarded US patent for splice array analysis

Jivan Biologics Inc., a privately held corporation located in Berkeley, CA, has been awarded US Patent #7,340,349, "Method and System for Identifying Splice Variants of a Gene."

10 Mar 2008

Genetic research unveils common origins for distinct clinical diagnoses

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered that two clinically different inherited syndromes are in fact variations of the same disorder.

10 Mar 2008

Fugitive cancer cells can be blocked by stopping blood cells that aid them

Cancer cells get a helping hand from platelets, specialized blood cells involved in clotting.

10 Mar 2008

Colorectal cancer gene found

Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researchers published a study in the March 7th issue of The American Journal of Human Genetics identifying the hereditary components of colorectal cancer (CRC.)

10 Mar 2008

Integrin beta3 protein yields clues to autism

Many children with autism have elevated blood levels of serotonin - a chemical with strong links to mood and anxiety.

6 Mar 2008

Curing cancer with natural products - a case for shamans and herb women?

Not at all, for many chemotherapies to fight cancer applied in modern medicine are natural products or were developed on the basis of natural substances. Thus, taxanes used in prostate and breast cancer treatment are made from yew trees. The popular periwinkle plant, which grows along the ground of many front yards, is the source of vinca alkaloids that are effective, for example, against malignant lymphomas. The modern anti-cancer drugs topotecan and irinotecan are derived from a constituent of the Chinese Happy Tree.

6 Mar 2008

How much and how often people drink influences mortality risk

How much and how often people drink - not just the average amount of alcohol they consume over time - independently influence the risk of death from several causes, according to a new study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

6 Mar 2008

Researchers discover molecular pathway in blood vessels that controls blood pressure and vascular function

University of Iowa researchers have identified a molecular pathway in blood vessels that controls blood pressure and vascular function and may help explain why certain drugs for type II diabetes also appear to lower patients' blood pressure.

6 Mar 2008

New potential drug target for atherosclerosis

A nuclear receptor protein, known for controlling the ability of cells to burn fat, also exerts powerful anti-inflammatory effects in arteries, suppressing atherosclerosis in mice prone to developing the harmful plaques, according to new research by scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the Harvard School of Public Health.

6 Mar 2008

Discovery of gene abnormality that causes the fatal paralysis, motor neuron disease

In a world first, University of Sydney researchers from the ANZAC Research Institute at Concord Hospital, in collaboration with colleagues at Kings College London, have found a new gene abnormality that causes the fatal paralysis, motor neuron disease (MND).

6 Mar 2008