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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).

Key protein involved in epigenetic regulation of gene expression guides skin cell renewal

Approximately once a month, our skin completely renews itself. If this highly coordinated process goes awry, it can lead to a variety of skin diseases, ranging from skin cancer to psoriasis.

19 Feb 2018

Researchers identify fifteen genes that determine our facial features

Researchers from KU Leuven and the universities of Pittsburgh, Stanford, and Penn State have identified fifteen genes that determine our facial features. The findings were published in Nature Genetics.

19 Feb 2018

Liquid biopsies could be used as new predictive marker for metastatic TNBC

A clinically relevant "liquid biopsy" test can be used to profile cancer genomes from blood and predict survival outcomes for patients with metastatic triple negative breast cancer, according to new research published by a multi-institutional team of researchers with The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center -- Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

19 Feb 2018

Resolving Interfacial Protein Dynamics by STReM

STReM stands for Super Time-Resolved Microscopy, and as STORM, PALM, and other methods are designed to improve spatial resolution of optical microscopy, we desire to improve the time resolution. STReM makes use of point spread function engineering to encode fast events into each camera frame.

From Pittcon 16 Feb 2018

Stem cell vaccine helps protect mice against numerous cancers, finds study

Lab mice injected with inactivated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) displayed a significant immune response against lung, breast, and skin cancers. The vaccine also prevented relapses in animals with removed tumors.

16 Feb 2018

Gene editing tool used to detect cancer

Researchers have developed a DNA detection system that can detect the presence of bacterial and viral DNA, which could be a valuable diagnostic tool for a range of disorders.

16 Feb 2018

Fathers maybe passing on ovarian cancer genes to their daughters

According to a team of researchers from the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, a new gene mutation could be responsible for ovarian cancers and this could be passed on from fathers to their daughters.

16 Feb 2018

Texas Biomed and The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio join forces to cure mysterious condition

Texas Biomedical Research Institute and The Children's Hospital of San Antonio have joined forces to cure a mysterious condition called Kawasaki disease.

15 Feb 2018

New medication improves motor function in children with later-onset spinal muscular atrophy

Children with later-onset spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) were more likely to show gains in motor function when treated with a new medication compared to children receiving a sham procedure, according to a study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

15 Feb 2018

CAR-T therapy saves life of cancer researcher

About a dozen years ago, Dr. Woodring Wright, a UT Southwestern Professor of Cell Biology, sneezed. It broke one of his vertebrae, the interlocking bones that make up the spinal column.

14 Feb 2018

Researchers uncover new details about function of enigmatic protein

In a recent study, a research group at MedUni Vienna has published further details about the function of an enigmatic protein. The biological necessity of this protein, which can chemically alter certain building blocks of the genetic information, has been debated for quite a while.

14 Feb 2018

Using Smartphones for Cancer Diagnosis and Management

Dr. Castro is a translational oncologist with experience developing and harnessing nanotechnology and molecular imaging platforms for cancer purposes. His work offers a “less is more” approach — to generate robust cancer analyses using scant amount of specimens. Dr. Castro’s research has included funding from the V Foundation for Cancer Research, National Institutes of Health, Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, and the Department of Defense.

From Pittcon 14 Feb 2018

A new antibiotic Malacidin from soil kills resistant bacteria

Researchers have come up with a new class of antibiotics from soil. This novel antibiotic, called malacidin, is hailed as the next big thing because of its ability to work against many of the multidrug-resistant bacterial strains.

14 Feb 2018

Pioneering research could provide novel insight into how genomic information is read

Pioneering new research could offer a fascinating new insight into how genomic information is read. The human genome contains thousands of genes, but to get the information from a gene requires it to be copied.

13 Feb 2018

Hints to aging lurk in fruit flies’ germline stem cells

Little hints of immortality are lurking in the stem cells of fruit flies. Stem cells that produce sperm use a genetic trick to stay perpetually young across generations, researchers at the University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute have discovered. Certain sections of the fruit fly genome get shorter with age. But remarkably, some reproductive cells can repair the shrinkage, the researchers report in the journal eLife.

13 Feb 2018

Scientists design nanorobots that seek and destroy tumor cells

Scientists have successfully programmed nanorobots to target and shrink tumors by cutting off their blood supply, whilst leaving healthy tissue untouched.

13 Feb 2018

Ground-breaking partnership aims to deliver faster, more accurate diagnoses for genetic epilepsy

New software to deliver faster and more accurate diagnoses in genetic epilepsies is the ambition of a ground-breaking partnership between Congenica, a global provider of clinical genomics interpretation software, and FutureNeuro, the SFI Research Centre for Chronic and Rare Neurological Diseases, supported by Science Foundation Ireland.

13 Feb 2018

Scientists use novel epigenetic-centered techniques to inhibit cancer metastases

In one of the first successes of its kind, researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and six other institutions have inhibited the spreading of cancer cells from one part of the body to another.

12 Feb 2018

Scientists program nanorobots to shrink tumors

In a major advancement in nanomedicine, Arizona State University scientists, in collaboration with researchers from the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, have successfully programmed nanorobots to shrink tumors by cutting off their blood supply.

12 Feb 2018

Patients with Huntington's have lesser cancer than general population

Patients with Huntington's disease, a fatal genetic illness that causes the breakdown of nerve cells in the brain, have up to 80 percent less cancer than the general population.

12 Feb 2018