Genetics News and Research

Latest Genetics News and Research

Possible biomarker for colon cancer in people under 50

An abnormality of chromosomes long associated with diseases of aging has, for the first time, been linked to colon cancer in people 50 years old and younger, an age group usually considered young for this disease.

28 Oct 2007

Red hair and freckles - Neanderthals in Europe

Fossil remains of Neanderthals paint an incomplete picture; they cannot tell us about their cognitive skills or give us details of what they looked like.

28 Oct 2007

Therapeutic gene expression can be sustainable for 1 year

Researchers at the Board of Governors Gene Therapeutics Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center have shown for the first time that it is possible to sustain therapeutic gene expression in the central nervous system for up to a year, even in the presence of an anti-viral immune response mechanism that is normally present in humans.

28 Oct 2007

Possible biomarker for colon cancer in people 50 and under

28 Oct 2007

Intravenous gene therapy protects normal tissue of mice during whole-body radiation

Gene therapy administered intravenously could be an effective agent to protect vital organs and tissues from the effects of ionizing radiation in the event of large-scale exposure from a radiological or nuclear bomb, according to an animal study presented today by University of Pittsburgh researchers at the 49th annual meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) in Los Angeles.

28 Oct 2007

Discovery of a key cell-signaling pathway

University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) researchers have discovered a key cell-signaling pathway that regulates cell progression and switches on front-to-back body patterning in tadpoles.

28 Oct 2007

Scientists discover new causes for neurodegeneration

Diseases that cause neurons to break-down, such as Alzheimer's, Multiple Sclerosis and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (Mad Cow Disease), continue to be elusive to scientists and resistant to treatments.

25 Oct 2007

Emerging cancer therapies and novel targets

What are the cancer drugs of tomorrow and how will they be developed? At the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics, researchers will present some answers to these and other pressing questions regarding emerging cancer therapeutics.

25 Oct 2007

Sigma-Aldrich and Oxford BioMedica win key ruling in Open Biosystems patent case

Sigma-Aldrich and Oxford BioMedica have announced that they received a key order confirming the strength and validity of intellectual property owned by Oxford BioMedica and licensed exclusively in the research field to Sigma-Aldrich.

25 Oct 2007

piRNAs play an important role in controlling gene function

A study by researchers at the Yale Stem Cell Center for the first time demonstrates that piRNAs, a recently discovered class of tiny RNAs, play an important role in controlling gene function, it was reported this week in Nature.

25 Oct 2007

Public not so sure about 'personalized medicine'

Ordinary people worry about the extra, and often burdensome, responsibilities which could come with scientists' promises of 'personalised medicine', according to evidence to be presented at a major two-day showcase of groundbreaking social science research into the whole field of genomics, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

25 Oct 2007

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