Genetics News and Research

Latest Genetics News and Research

Innovative gene therapy research for muscular dystrophy

A major grant of approximately $10 million from the National Institutes of Health will help investigators at Columbus Children's Research Institute (CCRI) at Columbus Children's Hospital learn more about strategies to treat muscular dystrophy, potentially leading to two new gene therapy approaches.

3 Aug 2007

New treatment for glaucoma shows promise

Iowa State University researchers have developed a new technique that successfully treated rats for blindness caused by glaucoma.

3 Aug 2007

New diagnostic tool to detect infection-causing bacteria

Infection-causing bacteria can't hide from researchers at Northern Arizona University, who recently helped develop the first diagnostic tool to detect them.

3 Aug 2007

Gene fusion subtypes in prostate carcinoma have clinical implications

Building on an earlier study that used Oncomine to identify ETS-fusion proteins in prostate cancer (Science, Oct 28 2005), Tomlins et al. report the identification of four additional classes of ETS rearrangements in prostate cancer, each of which activates ETV1 by a different genetic mechanism (Nature, Aug 2 2007).

3 Aug 2007

Possible anthrax drug targets

In the American government's biodefense efforts, the potential for terrorists to cause a deadly anthrax outbreak remains a significant concern, six years after the letter attacks that shook the nation shortly after 9/11.

3 Aug 2007

Gene variation makes people with depression more likely to respond to the medication citalopram

A variation in a gene called GRIK4 appears to make people with depression more likely to respond to the medication citalopram (Celexa) than are people without the variation, a study by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health, has found.

3 Aug 2007

Detection of gene fusions in prostate cancer

Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have discovered how genes turn on the switch that leads to prostate cancer.

3 Aug 2007

Discovery of molecular pathway that detects and eliminates defective messenger RNAs from red blood cells

Other such pathways - known as surveillance pathways - operate in a more general way, in many cell types. Knowing how this specific surveillance system works can help researchers better understand hereditary diseases, in this case, thalassemia, a form of anemia, which is the most common genetic disorder worldwide.

3 Aug 2007

Phase II study of TroVax vaccine in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer

A therapeutic cancer vaccine has shown effectiveness when given alongside chemotherapy to patients with metastatic colorectal cancer in a phase II trial, according to researchers at Oxford BioMedica (UK) Ltd.

2 Aug 2007

Specific microRNA, called miR-21, helps liver cancer develop

New research shows how a particular small molecule blocks the activity of a cancer-suppressing gene, allowing liver-cancer cells to grow and spread.

2 Aug 2007

Prototype vaccine against tuberculosis

Using a novel approach, researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have developed a prototype vaccine against tuberculosis (TB) that works better in animal models than the only TB vaccine now available.

2 Aug 2007

Vaccines approved by the FDA are at least a million times safer than the viruses that they prevent

For more than 200 years, vaccines have played an important role in the prevention of infectious diseases.

2 Aug 2007

Colon cancer may benefit from hormone replacement therapy

Researchers at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson in Philadelphia have found new evidence suggesting that colon cancer is actually a disease of missing hormones that could potentially be treated by hormone replacement therapy.

2 Aug 2007

Cell injury caused by brushing may help keep gums healthy

One way regular brushing may help keep gums firm and pink is, paradoxically, by tearing open cells, researchers have found.

2 Aug 2007

Aggressive therapy best for certain acute myeloid leukemia patients

A new study suggests that acute leukemia patients whose cancer cells show a genetic change that usually predicts a swift return of the disease following remission may remain disease-free longer when given aggressive therapy.

2 Aug 2007

Fear protein found

A University of Iowa study shows that loss or chemical inhibition of a protein, known as acid sensing ion channel protein (ASIC1a), reduces innate fear behavior in lab animals, making normally timid mice relatively fearless.

2 Aug 2007

Biological markers of narcolepsy

The first report to identify the biological markers of narcolepsy using gene expression in white blood cells finds that the MX2 gene, which is relevant to the immune system, is significantly less expressed in narcoleptics compared with normal subjects.

2 Aug 2007

Study of therapeutic vaccine shows promise for metastatic colorectal cancer

1 Aug 2007

Drugs designed to disable enzyme TOPK could have anti-cancer benefits

Working with human colorectal cancer cells, a University of Minnesota team, led by cancer biologists Zigang Dong and Ann Bode, has found the potential culprit among a network of enzymes that relay signals inside cells to regulate such functions as cell growth, cancer development and programmed cell death.

1 Aug 2007