Genetic News and Research

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Diet may regulate obesity health risks, but genes decide, says new research

The risk of obese people developing the metabolic syndrome that leads to diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease, can not be solved by a one-size-fits-all diet programme, according to new scientific findings.

1 Dec 2008

Liver disease tackled with dedicated unit at Imperial College London

Liver disease death rates are rising in the UK, in contrast to other common diseases such as heart disease and cancer, and the new Robert Hesketh Hepatology Clinical Research Facility aims to provide care and develop new therapies to reverse this trend.

1 Dec 2008

Genes influence how well you deal with an illness

Australian scientists have discovered that a person's genetic makeup can influence how they are affected by illness - they say a certain genetic vulnerability can amplify an illness.

1 Dec 2008

Fast food diet a suspect in Alzheimer's disease

The research by scientists at the Karolinska Institutet has revealed that mice fed a diet of junk food for a nine month period developed the abnormal brain tangles which are seen in the preliminary stages of Alzheimer's disease - they say a diet rich in fat, sugar and cholesterol could increase the risk of the most common type of dementia.

1 Dec 2008

Genetic variation in metabolism identified

Metabolic diseases - in particular the increasingly prevalent type 2 diabetes - are caused by a complex interaction between genetic disposition and unfavorable lifestyle, above all unbalanced diet and too little physical exercise.

30 Nov 2008

Diet rich in fat, sugar and cholesterol a potential risk factor for Alzheimer's disease

Mice that were fed a diet rich in fat, sugar and cholesterol for nine months developed a preliminary stage of the morbid irregularities that form in the brains of Alzheimer's patients.

30 Nov 2008

Study identifies genetic variants giving rise to differences in metabolism

Common genetic polymorphisms induce major differentiations in the metabolic make-up of the human population, according to a paper published November 28 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics.

28 Nov 2008

Researchers discover genomic causes of acute lymphoblastic leukemia relapse

Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have identified distinctive genetic changes in the cancer cells of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that cause relapse.

28 Nov 2008

Protein-misfolding accelerates yeast evolution

Under stress, yeast cells can unleash a remarkable mechanism based on protein-misfolding that gives them new characteristics without requiring genetic mutations.

28 Nov 2008

Condensin II proteins found to keep chromosomes apart when necessary

If chromosomes snuggle up too closely at the wrong times, the results can be genetic disaster.

28 Nov 2008

Discovery of new way in which epigenetic information is inherited

Hereditary information flows from parents to offspring not just through DNA but also through the millions of proteins and other molecules that cling to it.

28 Nov 2008

Researchers provide new evidence that aging can be slowed

New evidence may explain why it is that we lose not only our youthful looks, but also our youthful pattern of gene activity with age.

26 Nov 2008

Scientists uncover new RNA processing mechanism and a new class of small RNAs

A very small fraction of our genetic material - about 2% - performs the crucial task scientists once thought was the sole purpose of the genome: to serve as a blueprint for the production of proteins, the molecules that make cells work and sustain life.

26 Nov 2008

Discovery of mechanism linking serotonin with regulation of food intake

Genetic mouse models have provided surprising insight into mechanisms linking serotoninergic compounds with the regulation of feeding behavior and body weight.

26 Nov 2008

Genomics and bioinformatics could be the future in battle against malaria

Malaria, one of the oldest diseases known to man, has shown no signs of slowing down as it ages.

26 Nov 2008

Mouse model of prion disease mimics diverse symptoms of human disorder

A comprehensive mouse model of inherited prion disease exhibits cognitive, motor, and neurophysiological deficits that bear a striking resemblance to the symptoms experienced by patients with the human version of "mad cow disease," Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD).

26 Nov 2008

EpiVax receives grant for $390,000 to optimize HIV vaccine delivery

EpiVax, Inc., a leader in the field of computational immunology, announced today that it has received a grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to optimize delivery of an HIV vaccine.

26 Nov 2008