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New genetic cause for Joubert syndrome

An international study by researchers at Seattle Children?s Hospital Research Institute, the University of Washington School of Medicine, and Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands has identified a new genetic cause for Joubert syndrome (JS).

15 Jun 2007

Splitting high-dose pills and swallowing half could save cost

Slicing certain pills in half could slice a hefty amount off of America's prescription drug costs. While only some types of pills can be split safely, the practice could be used by millions of Americans – including many of those who take popular cholesterol-lowering drugs.

15 Jun 2007

Explanation for the random selection of X chromosome based on thermodynamics

A University of Warwick physicist has uncovered how female cells are able to choose randomly between their two X chromosomes and why that choice is always lucky.

15 Jun 2007

Should insurance companies have access to genetic test results

There is no good reason to deny insurers access to genetic information, argues a Professor of Ethics in a debate published in the British Medical Journal.

14 Jun 2007

New genetic risk factor for coeliac disease

An international research consortium investigating the genetic causes of intestinal inflammatory conditions has identified a new genetic risk factor for coeliac disease.

14 Jun 2007

Cholesterol causes changes in gene expression

Experts from the University of Granada carried out research on atherosclerosis from its earliest stages to discover the origin of atheromatous plaques, fatty deposits gradually and irregularly formed in the main arteries, causing the narrowing of the blood vessel.

14 Jun 2007

Primary ciliary dyskinesia linked to heterotaxy

The same genetic defect that causes a rare respiratory disease may also lead to some types of congenital heart disease, according to a study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

14 Jun 2007

What makes people susceptible to rheumatoid arthritis?

Peter K. Gregersen, MD, stares at x-rays of hands, searching out the telltale signs of inflamed joints and wrists from his research subjects with rheumatoid arthritis. With these clinical features at his side, he turns to the basic building blocks of life , the human genome , to figure out what makes these people susceptible to the disabling inflammatory condition.

14 Jun 2007

Carotenoids have even deeper health benefits than originally thought

Mom may have been right all along, especially when we were hormone-raging teenagers, eat your veggies and good things will happen.

14 Jun 2007

New genes involved in rheumatoid arthritis discovered

Researchers at the University of Manchester have identified evidence of several new genes behind the chronic inflammatory disease rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which affects 387,000 people in the UK.

From The University of Manchester 8 Jun 2007

Researchers shed light on congenital diaphragmatic hernia

The diaphragm, a shelf of muscle that separates the chest cavity from the abdominal cavity, is critical to sustaining life.

8 Jun 2007

miRNAs shown to be a critical force behind the anti-proliferation potential of p53

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) researchers led by Lin He, Xingyue He, and Professor and Howard Hughes Medical Investigator (HHMI) Greg Hannon have identified a family of micro RNAs (miRNAs) that enable a critical tumor suppressor network, called the p53 pathway, to fight cancer growth.

8 Jun 2007

Gene found that increases risk for Alzheimer's disease

A study comparing more genetic markers in the DNA of people with and without Alzheimer's disease than ever before has enabled researchers to identify a common gene that appears to increase a person's risk for developing Alzheimer's disease.

8 Jun 2007

Embryonic stem cells can be created without eggs

Embryonic stem cells are unique because they can develop into virtually any kind of tissue type, an attribute called pluripotency.

8 Jun 2007

New bacterium discovered, Bartonella rochalimae

A close cousin of the bacterium that debilitated thousands of World War I soldiers has been isolated at UCSF from a patient who had been on an international vacation.

8 Jun 2007

Largest ever genetics study of common diseases

The Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium, the largest ever study of the genetics behind common diseases such as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and coronary heart disease, publishes its results in the journals Nature and Nature Genetics.

8 Jun 2007

New understanding of anti-malarial drug resistance

Researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center say they are moving closer to understanding why the most lethal form of human malaria has become resistant to drug treatment in the past three decades.

8 Jun 2007

In mice, drug protects against diabetes and atherosclerosis

Blocking a single protein with an experimental drug prevented and treated both type 2 diabetes and atherosclerosis in laboratory mice that had been fed unhealthy diets and were genetically predisposed to these common killers, according to an article published online in Nature.

8 Jun 2007

New gene influences susceptibility to late-onset Alzheimer's disease

A new gene that influences susceptibility to late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) has been identified by an international research team that analyzed the genomes of more than a thousand people with and without the disorder.

8 Jun 2007