DNA News and Research

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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).

Scientists discover vaccine that may rapidly fight cholera-causing bacteria

A tricked-out cholera vaccine starts protecting against the deadly disease within a day, experiments in rabbits suggest.

14 Jun 2018

Extensive lipidomics studies reveal signatures of metabolic health and disease

Scientists from EPFL and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have carried out one of the most extensive lipidomics studies to date, connecting almost 150 different lipid species to their respective genetic regulators, revealing signatures of metabolic health and disease.

13 Jun 2018

New robotic system can diagnose neurodegenerative diseases through eye movements

A new robotic system developed by UPM researchers and AURA Innovative Robotics Company can help diagnose neurodegenerative diseases, such as dementia and Parkinson, through the analysis of eye movements.

13 Jun 2018

Unique project to develop fully-automated technology for faster and effective drug discovery

A unique project to develop technology to drive fast and effective drug discovery was announced today by Business Secretary Greg Clark. Based at the Rosalind Franklin Institute in Harwell, Oxfordshire, this new project will pioneer fully-automated hands-free molecular discovery to produce new drugs up to ten times faster and transform the UK’s pharmaceutical industry.

13 Jun 2018

Novel approach induces cell death via dual targeting of DNA repair mechanism

Proteins commonly known as BRCA - short for BReast CAncer susceptibility gene- serve a critical role in cellular DNA repair, but when mutated they allow genetic errors to replicate, facilitating cancer development.

13 Jun 2018

New discovery could have significant implications in brain aging and cancers

Scientists at the University of Sheffield have discovered what keeps the perfect balance of breaks and repairs in our DNA - something which could help improve the success of chemotherapy and combat neurodegeneration associated with aging.

13 Jun 2018

Scientists develop artificial intelligence platform to diagnose many diseases

A platform that can diagnose several diseases with a high degree of precision using metabolic markers found in patients' blood has been developed by scientists at the University of Campinas in Brazil

13 Jun 2018

Researchers discover genomic characteristics that define testicular germ cell cancer

Testicular germ cell cancer, a disease that is rare but growing in incidence in men in the United States, is considered to be among the most curable of solid tumors. Now researchers from the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and a consortium of institutions have discovered the genetic and genomic characteristics that define the disease.

12 Jun 2018

UNC study provides insight into mechanism of CHD4-related heart defects

Heart defects are the most common type of birth defect, and can be caused by mutations in the gene CHD4. Researchers at the UNC School of Medicine have now revealed key molecular details of how CHD4 mutations lead to heart defects.

12 Jun 2018

IU researchers observe bacteria's 'DNA uptake' process

Indiana University scientists have made the first direct observation of a key step in the process that bacteria use to rapidly evolve new traits, including antibiotic resistance.

12 Jun 2018

Research identifies new genetic variations that could indicate higher prostate cancer risk

As the result of a six-year long research process, Fredrick R. Schumacher, PhD, a cancer epidemiology researcher at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and an international team of more than 100 colleagues have identified 63 new genetic variations that could indicate higher risk of prostate cancer in men of European descent.

12 Jun 2018

New blood test better than having a needle inserted into the eye

People diagnosed with a deadly form of cancer will no longer face the prospect of having a needle inserted into their eye thanks to a new blood test developed by Edith Cowan University researchers.

12 Jun 2018

Study shows how to slow down spread of Ebola virus

Between 2013 and 2016, West Africa suffered the most severe outbreak of Ebola ever recorded. In Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, a total of 29,000 patients were diagnosed with the disease. More than 11,000 people didn't survive.

12 Jun 2018

Scientists find novel tactic with potential for fighting medulloblastoma

Scientists have a new tactic with potential for fighting medulloblastoma, the most common and most aggressive form of brain tumor in children. The results are scheduled for publication in Cancer Cell.

12 Jun 2018

New research explores why minority children have worse cancer outcomes

New research will focus on finding better treatments for minority children with high-risk cancer malignancies - a group whose outcomes and survival rates are worse than other pediatric patients.

11 Jun 2018

Scientists pinpoint potential treatment target for pediatric liver cancer

A protein in the cell nucleus already targeted therapeutically for several types of cancer has now been linked to an aggressive form of pediatric liver cancer called hepatoblastoma (HBL), according to a study published in the Nature journal Communications Biology.

11 Jun 2018

Synthetic gene reveals potential therapeutic target for rare, inherited disease

DNA Repair is essential for a healthy organism. In every day of our lives, tens of thousands of damages occur in the genetic material of our cells. Hence, it is not surprising that a broad variety of repair mechanisms developed in the course of evolution that enables cells to quickly react and patch up the affected DNA strands.

11 Jun 2018

New DNA test identifies men at highest risk of prostate cancer

A major new study of more than 140,000 men has identified 63 new genetic variations in the DNA code that increase the risk of prostate cancer.

11 Jun 2018

CRISPR-Cas9 technique may raise cancer risk

Therapeutic use of gene editing with the so-called CRISPR-Cas9 technique may inadvertently increase the risk of cancer, according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, and the University of Helsinki, Finland, published in Nature Medicine.

11 Jun 2018