Genetic News and Research

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Charting the path of the deadly Zaire strain of Ebola virus (ZEBOV) in central Africa

Over the past ten years, separate outbreaks of the deadly Zaire strain of Ebola virus (ZEBOV) have killed hundreds of humans and tens of thousands of great apes in Gabon and the Republic of Congo - which harbor roughly 80% of the last remaining wild gorilla and chimpanzee populations.

25 Oct 2005

Maximum longevity inherited from the father

The parts of the genetic make-up that are thought to determine an individual’s maximum possible longevity, so-called telomeres, are inherited from the father but not the mother. This is shown by a research team at Umea University in the coming issue of the U.S. scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

24 Oct 2005

Lack of gene expression associated with ovarian cancer

The expression of two specific genes is almost completely downregulated in ovarian cancer tumours. An extensive analysis of gene expression in ovarian cancer tumour cells has revealed this important finding, which should be an aid to early diagnosis.

24 Oct 2005

Scientists gain better understanding of how repetitive stretching of endothelial cells that line arteries can make them healthy and resistant to vascular diseases

UCSD researchers stretched cells in a workout chamber the size of a credit card to gain a better understanding of how repetitive stretching of endothelial cells that line arteries can make them healthy and resistant to vascular diseases.

24 Oct 2005

Faulty gene may identify those at risk of schizophrenia

Scientists believe they have discovered a genetic defect which could help explain the biological basis of schizophrenia.

24 Oct 2005

FDA approves first transplant of fetal stem cells into human brains

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first transplant of fetal stem cells into human brains, a procedure that if successful could pave the way to treating a host of neural disorders.

24 Oct 2005

Possible new directions for treatments for addiction to cocaine

Cocaine causes specific alterations in the brain's circuitry at a genetic level, including short-term changes that result in a high from the cocaine, as well as long-term changes seen in addiction, researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.

23 Oct 2005

C. elegans, free-living soil nematodes, pave way for better anesthetics

Ten genes that may make patients more or less susceptible to a common anesthetic agent have been identified by researchers using tiny worms and sophisticated technology that eliminates the activity of individual genes.

23 Oct 2005

Teens with missing part of a chromosome confirm genetic role in schizophrenia

A study in youth who are missing part of a chromosome is further implicating a suspect gene in schizophrenia.

23 Oct 2005

Dopamine link to psychiatric and neurological disorders

A gene that regulates dopamine levels in the brain is involved in the development of schizophrenia in children at high risk for the disorder, say researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and the University of Geneva.

23 Oct 2005

Protein Oct-6 is not a biological marker for schizophrenia

The protein Oct-6 is not a biological marker for schizophrenia. The results of a study published today in the open access journal BMC Psychiatry contradict previous findings and show that Oct-6, a protein involved in neurodevelopment, is normally expressed in the adult brain and cannot be used to identify patients with schizophrenia.

23 Oct 2005

Study shows cystic fibrosis gene mutation a risk factor for young-onset pancreatic cancer disease

Mayo Clinic researchers have found the risk of developing pancreatic cancer at a young age (under 60) to be twice as high for people who carry a mutation of the gene that causes cystic fibrosis, compared to noncarriers. Results of a pilot and follow-up study were reported Oct. 14, 2005, online in the journal Gut.

23 Oct 2005

Researchers discover the presence of functional ion channels in human embryonic stem cells

These ion channels act like electrical wires and permit ESCs, versatile cells that possess the unique ability to become all cell types of the body, to conduct and pass along electric currents.

20 Oct 2005

Spliceosome crucial for processing non-coding RNA

The discovery in 1977 that the coding regions of a gene could appear in separate segments along the DNA won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for Richard J. Roberts and Phillip A. Sharp. The active segments of a gene were termed exons, separated from each other within the gene by inactive introns.

20 Oct 2005

Screening test would give hope to childless couples

According to new research thousands of childless British couples could greatly improve their chances of having a baby if a test that weeds out faulty embryos were carried out.

20 Oct 2005

Award for genetic study that revolutionised thinking on epilepsy

Melbourne researcher, Professor Sam Berkovic, has been awarded the prestigious Zulch Prize from the Max Planck Society in Germany in recognition of his groundbreaking investigations into the genetic foundations of epilepsy.

19 Oct 2005

"Junk" DNA not important to an organism's evolutionary survival

Genetic material derisively called "junk" DNA because it does not contain the instructions for protein-coding genes and appears to have little or no function is actually critically important to an organism's evolutionary survival, according to a study conducted by a biologist at the University of California, San Diego.

19 Oct 2005

Identification of a single chromosome region linked to specific language impairment

Researchers at the University of Toronto (U of T), Capital Health's Stollery Children's Hospital in Edmonton, Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children and their international collaborators have discovered a genetic abnormality that causes a type of language impairment in children

19 Oct 2005

South Korea opens controversial international stem cell bank

South Korea has opened a bank in Seoul that will create and supply new lines of embryonic stem cells for research around the world.

19 Oct 2005

Access to genetic counseling and testing are an important part of cancer control

Ten years after the identification of the first breast cancer susceptibility genes so few high-risk minority women have received genetic counseling or testing that the standard methods of calculating risk have not been validated in these groups and the results of genetic testing can still produce surprises.

18 Oct 2005