Genetics News and Research

Latest Genetics News and Research

Researchers initiate gene therapy trial in patients with advanced skin cancer

Researchers at the Ireland Cancer Center of University Hospitals Case Medical Center are the first in the region to have joined a nationwide clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness of a gene therapy in patients with advanced melanoma which is aimed to help a patient ' s own immune system fight their cancer.

18 Dec 2007

Discovery of new ALS gene

The ALS research team at Umea University in Sweden, working with Dutch and Belgian colleagues, has found new connections between mutations in gene DPP6 and contracting the non-hereditary form of ALS. The findings are being published december 16 in Nature Genetics on the Web.

18 Dec 2007

New findings on myotonic muscular dystrophy

New research from the University of Virginia Health System shows that, in cases of Type 1 myotonic muscular dystrophy (DM1), a well known heart protein does several surprising things. DM1 is the most common form of muscular dystrophy in adults and affects approximately 40,000 adults and children in the U.S.

18 Dec 2007

Overexcited neurons not good for cell health

Neurotransmitters have consequences. They initiate events that are critical to a healthy life, giving us the ability to move, to talk, to breathe, to think. But that's if the neurotransmitters are getting it right and sending proper signals downstream to muscle cells, neurons or other cells.

18 Dec 2007

Research provides new information about the body's immune system

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University have uncovered new information about the body's immune system in a study that suggests new strategies may be in order for protecting the country's aging population against disease.

18 Dec 2007

Medical College of Georgia selected as RNA laboratory for worldwide diabetes study

The Medical College of Georgia Center for Biotechnology and Genomic Medicine has been selected to isolate RNA and DNA from the blood of thousands of children involved in a worldwide study of the causes of type 1 diabetes.

18 Dec 2007

Discovery reveals how fat is stored in cells

In discovering the genes responsible for storing fat in cells, scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have answered one of biology's most fundamental questions.

18 Dec 2007

Scientists identify and repress breast cancer stem cells in mouse tissue

By manipulating highly specific gene-regulating molecules called microRNAs, scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) report that they have succeeded in singling out and repressing stem-like cells in mouse breast tissue - cells that are widely thought to give rise to cancer.

18 Dec 2007

Bowel cancer genes that triple risk discovered

Cancer Research UK funded scientists have identified two common genetic variants that could triple a person's risk of getting bowel cancer. Their findings are published in Nature Genetics (Sunday).

17 Dec 2007

Researchers spearhead key genome initiative

The complete collection of genes - the genome - of a moss has been sequenced, providing scientists an important evolutionary link between single-celled algae and flowering plants.

17 Dec 2007

Men unaware of their cancer risk when female relatives test positive for BRCA mutation

Men whose mothers, sisters or daughters test positive for a cancer-causing gene mutation also have an increased risk of developing the disease but are unaware of that risk.

17 Dec 2007

Genetic cause of Kawasaki disease

Researchers from Japan's RIKEN SNP Research Center, collaborating with a team at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), have discovered a new genetic variation that affects a child's risk of getting Kawasaki disease (KD), an illness characterized by acute inflammation of the arteries throughout the body.

17 Dec 2007

Herceptin helps women with multiple chromosomes containing HER2 gene

The targeted therapy Herceptin helps women with HER2+ type of breast cancer independent of whether patients have extra copies of chromosome 17, home to the HER2 gene which produces the HER2 protein that fuels cancer growth.

17 Dec 2007

Evolution with a restricted number of genes

The development of higher forms of life would appear to have been influenced by RNA polymerase II.

17 Dec 2007

Aging gracefully requires taking out the trash

Suppressing a cellular cleanup-mechanism known as autophagy can accelerate the accumulation of protein aggregates that leads to neural degeneration.

17 Dec 2007

Researchers zero in on the tiniest members in the war on cancer

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University have uncovered another reason why one of the most commonly activated proteins in cancer is so dangerous.

14 Dec 2007

Study uncovers clues to cystic fibrosis gene dysfunction and gastrointestinal disease

A new study by researchers at Hasbro Children's Hospital, the pediatric division of Rhode Island Hospital, and Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, offers new insight into the role that the cystic fibrosis gene plays in the development of gastrointestinal disease.

14 Dec 2007