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DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms. Nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA. Most DNA is located in the cell nucleus (where it is called nuclear DNA), but a small amount of DNA can also be found in the mitochondria (where it is called mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA).

Researchers explain how ubiquitin function is determined

University of Maryland researchers have explained, for the first time, why the linkage between the cell-regulating protein molecules called ubiquitins determines their function.

10 Jun 2005

Variations in genetic code affect social behavior

Why are some people shy while others are outgoing? A study in the current issue of Science demonstrates for the first time that social behavior may be shaped by differences in the length of seemingly non-functional DNA, sometimes referred to as junk DNA.

9 Jun 2005

Accumulation of genetic changes is not solely determined by natural selection

New data suggest that the accumulation of genetic changes is not solely determined by natural selection. A study by University of Chicago researchers contradicts conventional theory by showing that the percentage of mutations accepted in evolution is also strongly swayed by the speed at which new mutations arrive at a gene: the faster the speed of new mutations, the greater the percentage of those mutations accepted.

9 Jun 2005

Lorus Therapeutics receives patent allowance to protect novel anticancer drug

Lorus Therapeutics today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, GeneSense Technologies Inc. (GeneSense), has received notice from the European Patent Office of its intention to grant GeneSense's application for a patent of its novel antisense drug, GTI-2501.

9 Jun 2005

MicroRNAs play an important role in human cancer

Over the past few years, scientists have discovered that a new class of genetic regulators called "microRNAs" influences normal human growth and development. Now, researchers have found that microRNAs also play an important role in human cancer. The findings are published in today's issue of the journal Nature (June 9).

9 Jun 2005

New study shows tiny RNAs intimately associated with cancer

In discoveries that may open a new chapter in understanding and diagnosing cancer, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigators and their colleagues have established that tiny microRNAs provide a novel genetic route to the initiation of some forms of cancer.

9 Jun 2005

Researchers link aberrant 'microRNA' expression to human cancer

8 Jun 2005

New understanding of microRNAs

Ribonucleic acid, or RNA, has long been thought to be important only to translate a gene's DNA into the proteins that are cells' workhorses. But new evidence shows that tiny bits of RNA not used to make proteins actually play central roles in normal biology and in the development of cancers.

8 Jun 2005

Study is the first to identify involvement of chromosome 21 in developmental regression autism

A new Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center study links regions of two chromosomes to susceptibility for a type of autism characterized by regression in development. Developmental regression can include the loss of previously acquired language, social skills or both.

8 Jun 2005

New bioinformatics technique for systematically analyzing key regions in DNA that help control gene activity

Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the Linnaeus Centre for Bioinformatics (LCB) at Uppsala University in Sweden have developed a new bioinformatics technique for systematically analyzing key regions in DNA that help control gene activity.

8 Jun 2005

Diversity of HLA genotypes in humans is shaped to a significant degree by pathogens

The great physical diversity that evolution has forged in human beings is in evidence wherever we look, but the genes exhibiting the greatest diversity at the DNA level happen to function in a wholly invisible process: immunity. Genes encoding the Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) proteins are among the most diverse in the human genome, and scientists have proposed a number of hypotheses to explain why.

6 Jun 2005

Researchers successfully image delivery and gene expression of DNA nanoparticles into lungs of CF mice

Researchers at the American Society of Gene Therapy Meeting in St. Louis announced that by using imaging technologies, they are able to successfully trace the delivery of DNA nanoparticles and the extent of gene transfer in the lungs of cystic fibrosis (CF) animals.

6 Jun 2005

Computer simulation helps understand DNA transcription process

New York University chemists have employed a computer simulation whose results have enhanced scientific understanding of the DNA transcription process. The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, appears in the June 7 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

5 Jun 2005

Toxic chemicals that poisoned your great-grandparents may also damage your health

New U.S. research is suggesting that chemicals can change the way genes work and that toxic chemicals that poisoned your great-grandparents may also damage your health.

5 Jun 2005

Childhood cancer in relation to distance from high voltage power lines - results may be entirely due to chance

Cancer Research UK comments on the BMJ paper "Childhood cancer in relation to distance from high voltage power lines in England and Wales: a case control study."

3 Jun 2005

Genetics may play a role in the effectiveness of chemotherapy drugs

Today, the most common childhood cancer is cured in about 80 percent of patients; only forty years ago, this number was closer to five percent. In efforts to further increase the survival rate, researchers from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the University of Tennessee, and the University of Chicago studied how an individual's genetics might play a role in the effectiveness of chemotherapy drugs.

3 Jun 2005

Research findings suggest new treatment strategies for patients with cystic fibrosis

Cells sent to fight infections in the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients actually enhance the development of permanent bacterial infections, according to researchers at National Jewish Medical and Research Center.

3 Jun 2005

Research shows how a virus uses the gene silencing machinery for its own infectious purposes

In the latest version of the hide-and-seek game between pathogens and the hosts they infect, researchers have found that a virus appears to cloak itself with a recently discovered gene silencing device to evade detection and destruction by immune cells.

3 Jun 2005

Role of toxins in inherited disease

A disease you are suffering today could be a result of your great-grandmother being exposed to an environmental toxin during pregnancy.

3 Jun 2005

Research explains why Shigella and E. coli are rapidly becoming resistant to fluoroquinolones

Scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine have discovered a novel strategy by which the bacterium that causes tuberculosis may soon be able to resist the effects of antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones.

3 Jun 2005

DNA News and Research

Further Reading

Researchers explain how ubiquitin function is determined

Variations in genetic code affect social behavior

Accumulation of genetic changes is not solely determined by natural selection

Lorus Therapeutics receives patent allowance to protect novel anticancer drug

MicroRNAs play an important role in human cancer

New study shows tiny RNAs intimately associated with cancer

Researchers link aberrant 'microRNA' expression to human cancer

New understanding of microRNAs

Study is the first to identify involvement of chromosome 21 in developmental regression autism

New bioinformatics technique for systematically analyzing key regions in DNA that help control gene activity

Diversity of HLA genotypes in humans is shaped to a significant degree by pathogens

Researchers successfully image delivery and gene expression of DNA nanoparticles into lungs of CF mice

Computer simulation helps understand DNA transcription process

Toxic chemicals that poisoned your great-grandparents may also damage your health

Childhood cancer in relation to distance from high voltage power lines - results may be entirely due to chance

Genetics may play a role in the effectiveness of chemotherapy drugs

Research findings suggest new treatment strategies for patients with cystic fibrosis

Research shows how a virus uses the gene silencing machinery for its own infectious purposes

Role of toxins in inherited disease

Research explains why Shigella and E. coli are rapidly becoming resistant to fluoroquinolones

eBook: Exploring the Cell Cycle and DNA Damage and Repair eBook

How can microdialysis benefit drug development

Global and Local Efforts to Take Action Against Hepatitis

Addressing Important Cardiac Biology Questions with Shotgun Top-Down Proteomics

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