Genetics News and Research

Latest Genetics News and Research

Gene mutation explains type of brittle bone disease

A newly identified gene mutation helps explain a subset of cases of osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), or brittle bone disease, whose origin had until now remained mysterious.

20 Oct 2006

Gene called Kibra plays an important role in memory

Researchers at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) have announced the discovery of a gene that plays a significant role in memory performance in humans.

20 Oct 2006

Blood clotting protein appears to also play a role in fertility

A protein known to play a role in blood clotting and other cell functions is also critical for proper sperm formation in mice, according to researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

20 Oct 2006

$74 million allocated to study environmental causes of disease

As part of the new Exposure Biology Program, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, a component of the National Institutes of Health, today announced $74 million in grant opportunities for the development of new technologies that will improve the measurement of environmental exposures that contribute to human disease.

19 Oct 2006

FDA advisory panel recommends adding warning label to Tamoxifen

An FDA advisory panel on Wednesday recommended that a warning label be added to tamoxifen, an agency-approved drug for treating and preventing breast cancer, the AP/Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports (Bridges, AP/Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 10/18).

19 Oct 2006

Black women in Chicago more likely to die from breast cancer than white women

Black women living in Chicago are more likely to die from breast cancer than white women in the city, according to a study released on Tuesday by the Sinai Urban Health Institute, the Chicago Tribune reports (Peres et al., Chicago Tribune, 10/18).

19 Oct 2006

Researchers identify cell line that is resistant to retroviruses

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have identified a protein that enables viruses such as HIV to infect cells and spread through the body.

17 Oct 2006

Co-delivery of drugs and DNA from cationic core-shell nanoparticles self-assembled from a biodegradable copolymer

Efforts to treat cancer using genes and other oligonucleotides, such as short interfering RNA (siRNA), that turn off the biochemical processes that trigger malignancies have been hindered by difficulties in delivering nucleic acids to tumors.

16 Oct 2006

A nanoplasmonic molecular ruler for measuring nuclease activity and DNA footprinting

The interactions between proteins and nucleic acids play a critical role in some of life’s most crucial biochemical processes, including gene expression and protein production, and some promising anticancer agents exert their effects by interfering with these interactions.

16 Oct 2006

FDA approves test to help diagnose HIV

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the APTIMA HIV-1 RNA Qualitative Assay, manufactured by Gen-Probe Incorporated (San Diego, Calif.).

5 Oct 2006

Food like an addictive drug for some people

Researchers in the U.S. have found that the same brain circuits are involved when obese people fill their stomachs as when drug addicts think about drugs and the discovery they say suggests an association between overeating and addiction.

3 Oct 2006

Research implicates brain circuits involved in drug craving and emotional response to food

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have found new clues to how the brain and the stomach interact with emotions to cause overeating and obesity.

2 Oct 2006

NHGRI funds assessment of public attitudes about population-based studies on genes and environment

The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) has announced it has awarded $2 million to the Genetics and Public Policy Center of the Berman Bioethics Institute at Johns Hopkins University to conduct a public discussion about future potential large U.S. population-based studies examining the roles of genes and environment in human health.

28 Sep 2006

Faulty gene linked to hair pulling disorder

An unusual and uncommon psychiatric disorder that compels people to pull out their hair is now thought to be caused by a mutant gene.

27 Sep 2006

SUMO1 gene implicated in cleft lip and palate defects

Researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health report in the current issue of the journal Science that a much-studied gene called SUMO1, when under expressed, can cause cleft lip and palate, one of the world's most common birth defects.

21 Sep 2006

New understanding of how cells defend themselves

Biologists at the EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne) have unveiled a new twist in a metabolic pathway that cells use to defend themselves against toxins made by disease-causing bacteria.

21 Sep 2006

Insulin receptor stops progression of Alzheimer's disease

Stimulation of a receptor in the brain that controls insulin responses has been shown to halt or diminish the neurodegeneration of Alzheimer's disease, providing evidence that the disease can be treated in its early stages, according to a study by researchers at Rhode Island Hospital and Brown Medical School.

21 Sep 2006