Genetics News and Research

Latest Genetics News and Research

Not just humans benefit from animal biotechnology

Laboratory animals are the source of major discoveries and breakthroughs in biology, not just in tackling disease but also unravelling fundamental molecular processes.

25 Oct 2007

Lower frequency deep brain stimulation effective treatment for dystonia

A Mount Sinai Medical Center study has found that lower frequency deep brain stimulation in young patients with primary torsion dystonia is as effective as higher frequency stimulation, which has been commonly used.

25 Oct 2007

Test gives insight into prognosis in patients with plasma cell malignancies

A new Mayo Clinic study due to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics in San Diego this week shows that a chromosome test called “FISH” is better than conventional methods in identifying chromosomal genetic abnormalities associated with plasma cell malignancies.

24 Oct 2007

Many medical disorders may be languishing in mountains of discarded gene data

Previously hidden obesity-related genes have been uncovered from old experiments by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.

24 Oct 2007

Role of cholesteryl ester hydrolase in reducing heart disease identified

Virginia Commonwealth University researchers have identified the role of a key enzyme called CEH in reducing heart disease, paving the way for new target therapies to reduce plaques in the arteries and perhaps in the future, help predict a patient's susceptibility to heart disease.

24 Oct 2007

Researchers find crucial signal that switches on eye development

Researchers at the University of Warwick, funded by Wellcome Trust, have uncovered a crucial signal that switches on eye development.

24 Oct 2007

Researchers discover important tool in understanding differentiation in human embryonic stem cells

Researchers at the University of Minnesota's Stem Cell Institute have described how an existing genetic tool can be used to study how human embryonic stem cells differentiate.

24 Oct 2007

Genetics of alcoholism

While both environmental and genetic factors contribute to the risk of developing alcohol dependence, it is believed to be a largely heritable – 52 to 64 percent – disease.

24 Oct 2007

New understanding of vagus nerve's role in regulating inflammation

It used to be dogma that the brain was shut away from the actions of the immune system, shielded from the outside forces of nature.

24 Oct 2007

Combination targets offer new hope in fight against cancer

While some targeted therapies - drugs developed to attack specific molecules in the critical chemical pathways occurring within cancer cells - work well by themselves, increasingly researchers are finding that they work better when teamed with other targeted and conventional therapies.

24 Oct 2007

Decoding effects of toxins on embryo development

Changes in gene expression patterns in zebrafish embryos resulting from exposure to environmental toxins can identify the individual toxins at work, according to research published in the online open access journal Genome Biology.

24 Oct 2007

Simple blood test may accurately detect thoracic aneurysm disease

Yale scientists have discovered a way to use a simple blood test that may accurately detect thoracic aneurysm disease (TAA), which gives little warning and is almost always fatal if untreated.

24 Oct 2007

New theory of how viruses may contribute to cancer

A new study suggests that viruses may contribute to cancer by causing excessive death to normal cells while promoting the growth of surviving cells with cancerous traits.

24 Oct 2007

Hate those greens?....could be in your genes!

Scientists in the UK are suggesting that food preferences may all be the result of a person's DNA.

24 Oct 2007

Inflammatory breast cancer

Everyone knows to be concerned about a lump as a sign of breast cancer. But there's another type of breast cancer – much more rare and much more lethal – that has as its primary sign redness, sometimes without any lump.

23 Oct 2007

Advances in drug screening

With the discovery of suitable molecular targets - cellular molecules along pathways crucial for sustaining the life of cancer cells - comes the perplexing dilemma of where to find the next therapeutics that will bind to and disable those targets.

23 Oct 2007

Genetic influence on HIV/AIDS progression

Viral load - the amount of virus in the blood of an HIV-infected person - has long been viewed as the chief indicator of how quickly someone infected with HIV infection progresses to AIDS.

22 Oct 2007

Researchers discover genes linking stress, high blood pressure, alcoholism and tobacco addiction

A team led by a Heart and Stroke Foundation researcher has uncovered a series of genes linking mental stress, high blood pressure, alcoholism and tobacco addiction.

22 Oct 2007

Heparanase shows potential as cancer drug

Laboratory experiments have previously shown that cancer cells overproduce an enzyme, heparanase, which splits the body's own polysaccharide heparan sulfate into shorter fragments.

22 Oct 2007

Hispanics and African Americans are less likely to use commercial weight loss programs

A new analysis of a landmark weight loss survey suggests that Hispanics and African Americans are more likely than whites to use unproven dietary supplements for weight loss.

22 Oct 2007