Genetics News and Research

Latest Genetics News and Research

Researchers pinpoint autism's genetic roots

By deleting a gene in certain parts of the brain, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have created mice that show deficits in social interaction that are reminiscent of humans with autism spectrum disorders.

3 May 2006

Combination of genetic mutation and viral infection may cause prostate cancer

Significant recent interest in the literature (JAMA 2006;295:1503, Lancet, epub) and by patients has arisen in response to a presentation given by Dr. Eric Klein of the Cleveland Clinic at the 2006 Prostate Cancer Symposium in San Francisco, February 24, 2006.

3 May 2006

Therapeutic gene suspected to cause cancer

One of the few gene therapy studies that had ever been successful was terminated in 2003, because several of the treated children had developed leukemia.

3 May 2006

DARPA grant supports research toward realizing tissue regeneration

While U.S. soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are surviving injuries that in previous conflicts likely would have been fatal, the number of wounded with major tissue loss has never before been so high.

3 May 2006

Differential effects of HOXB4 on nonhuman primate short and long-term repopulating cells

Transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs, the cells that can give rise to all blood and most immune cell types) can save patients whose own hematopoietic system is defective or has been destroyed (often through radiation or chemotherapy of cancer).

3 May 2006

Hormones may affect how brain listens

From zebra fish to humans, reproductive hormones govern behavioral responses to courtship signals.

3 May 2006

Compensation by tumor suppressor genes during retinal development in mice and humans

Humans are more susceptible to developing the eye cancer retinoblastoma than mice because, unlike humans, mice can compensate for the loss of activity of a gene critical to normal retinal development, according to results of a study by investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

3 May 2006

Scientists create leaner and meaner E. coli

By stripping the E. coli genome of vast tracts of its genetic material - hundreds of apparently inconsequential genes - a team of Wisconsin researchers has created a leaner and meaner version of the bacterium that is a workhorse of modern biology and industry.

3 May 2006

Identification of CPT1c gene that the brain needs to manage body weight

Working with genetically engineered mice, Johns Hopkins scientists have interfered with the brain's ability to control an animal's response to a high-fat diet.

3 May 2006

Researchers recommend national uniform newborn screening tests

In a new study, conducted for the federal government and published in a supplement to the May issue of the journal Pediatrics, Stephen M. Downs, M.D. and Aaron E. Carroll, M.D., of the Indiana University School of Medicine, recommend a national uniform panel of newborn screening tests which they found to be cost saving as well as life saving.

3 May 2006

Comprehensive analysis of the human and mouse transcriptomes

An international consortium of scientists, including a team from The University of Queensland's Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB), is a step closer to the next generation of treatments to combat disease, after publishing a comprehensive analysis of the human and mouse transcriptomes.

3 May 2006

Scientists discover a master key to microbes' pathogenic lifestyles

For some microbes, the transformation from a benign lifestyle in the soil to that of a potentially deadly human pathogen is just a breath away.

3 May 2006

Risk of secondary malignancies in testicular cancer

While in the United States the preferred treatment for stage I mixed germ cell tumors has been retroperitoneal lymphadenectomy, adjuvant chemotherapy has been more commonly used in Europe.

2 May 2006

Possible target for future therapies aimed at delaying or stopping Alzheimer's disease

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University's Neurological Sciences Institute (NSI) have located a possible target for future therapies aimed at delaying or stopping Alzheimer's disease.

2 May 2006

Study investigates early biology of HIV infection

In July 2005, the race to find a vaccine that would stem the worldwide rate of 13,000 new cases of HIV infection each day moved from competition among research institutions to a strategy of cooperation.

2 May 2006

DNA taxi

Despite few successes to date, gene therapy is a highly promising approach for medical therapy in the future.

1 May 2006

New approach to treating breast cancer uses existing chemo drug

British scientists say women who develop breast cancer because of two common genetic mutations could have their treatment transformed by a chemotherapy drug which already exists.

1 May 2006

Method by which Caspase-12 shuts down the body's immune system discovered

Caspase-12 is a molecule with a death-wish. Found only in people of African descent, this protein shuts down our body's immune system, opening the door to potentially lethal infections. In a groundbreaking new study published in the prestigious journal Nature this week, the team that first discovered the role of caspase-12 in humans has now uncovered the mechanism by which it sabotages us, allowing researchers to develop methods to counter its damaging effects.

28 Apr 2006

Tumour specific drugs may render therapies based on a tumor's anatomical location obsolete

The results of a new study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis could eventually have oncologists removing their specialties from their shingles by making therapy based on a tumor's anatomical location obsolete.

28 Apr 2006

Amyloid protein content in the brain linked to Alzheimer's disease risk

Researchers from the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) connected to the University of Antwerp are the first to show that the quantity of amyloid protein in brain cells is a major risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. Amyloid protein has already been known to be the primary component of the senile plaques in the brains of patients. The new discovery demonstrates that the greater the quantity of the protein that is produced, the younger the dementia patient is.

28 Apr 2006