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New potential strategy for KRAS-mutant colon cancers

Researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center have identified a new potential strategy for treating colon tumors driven by mutations in the KRAS gene, which usually resist both conventional and targeted treatments.

17 Feb 2012

Study describes how multiple RNA binding proteins cooperatively control genetic splicing code

Understanding how RNA binding proteins control the genetic splicing code is fundamental to human biology and disease - much like editing film can change a movie scene. Abnormal variations in splicing are often implicated in cancer and genetic neurodegenerative disorders.

17 Feb 2012

Glial cells inhibit growth of brainstem neurons

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University have discovered that brain cells commonly thought to play a supporting role actually are critically important for the growth of brainstem neurons responsible for cardiorespiratory control. The discovery has profound implications for the prevention and treatment of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), the leading cause of death in children aged one month to one year.

17 Feb 2012

University of Georgia researcher to develop first Chagas vaccine for pets

Chagas disease is the single most common cause of congestive heart failure and sudden death in the world. The devastating parasitic infection affects millions of people throughout Central and South America. But as global travel increases, it's becoming a greater threat in the United States and Europe as well.

17 Feb 2012

Study details how breast tumors may flip TGF-beta signalling switch

Signals can tell cells to act cancerous, surviving, growing and reproducing out of control. And signals can also tell cells with cancerous characteristics to stop growing or to die. In breast cancer, one tricky signal called TGF-beta does both - sometimes promoting tumors and sometimes suppressing them.

17 Feb 2012

Study: 3D organization of chromosomes plays a role in cancer genomics

It is well understood that chromosomal translocation - a process whereby pieces of two chromosomes break off and exchange places - is a hallmark of many cancers including leukemia, thyroid cancer and lymphoma and play an important part in how healthy cells become cancerous. The role spatial proximity plays in why certain chromosomal translocations happen repeatedly, however, has been a long-standing area of debate among scientists.

17 Feb 2012

Researchers sequence genome of Tasmanian devil contagious cancer

Researchers have sequenced the genome of a contagious cancer that is threatening the Tasmanian devil, the world's largest carnivorous marsupial, with extinction. Cataloguing the mutations present in the cancer has led to clues about where the cancer came from and how it became contagious.

17 Feb 2012

Scientists create first 3-D living tissue model of glioma

Brown University scientists have created the first three-dimensional living tissue model, complete with surrounding blood vessels, to analyze the effectiveness of therapeutics to combat brain tumors. The 3-D model gives medical researchers more and better information than Petri dish tissue cultures.

17 Feb 2012

New preclinical data from Regulus' miR-21 study on kidney fibrosis

Regulus Therapeutics Inc., a biopharmaceutical company leading the discovery and development of innovative medicines targeting microRNAs, today announced that new preclinical data investigating the role of microRNA-21 (miR-21) in the treatment of kidney fibrosis has been published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

17 Feb 2012

New genetic resource to accelerate development of novel treatments for diseases

A new genetic resource from an international research consortium is expected to accelerate the development of new cures and treatments for a wide range of human diseases. This project, called the mouse "Collaborative Cross" (CC) resource, will increase the likelihood that experiments conducted in mice will advance our understanding of human biology.

17 Feb 2012

U of A researcher discovers new vaccine against HCV

A University of Alberta researcher and Canada Excellence Research Chair in Virology has made the discovery of a vaccine that will potentially help combat hepatitis C. Michael Houghton, who led the team that discovered the hepatitis C virus in 1989, announced his findings at the Canada Excellence Research Chairs Summit in Vancouver this afternoon. Currently, there are no vaccines against the disease available.

17 Feb 2012

Collaborative Cross can help fast-track key discoveries about genetics and disease

A series of 15 scientific papers published this week in the journals of the Genetics Society of America (Genetics and G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics) put North Carolina at the epicenter of a scientific resource called the Collaborative Cross - a "library" of genetic diversity that scientists believe can help fast-track important discoveries about genetics and disease into new discoveries, tests, and treatments that impact human health.

17 Feb 2012

IKK2 enzyme plays a key role in proliferation of lung cancer cells

Drugs targeting an enzyme involved in inflammation might offer a new avenue for treating certain lung cancers, according to a new study by scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

17 Feb 2012

First accurate predictive model to differentiate between dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch have developed the first accurate predictive model to differentiate between dengue fever (DF) and its more severe form, dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF).

17 Feb 2012

Researchers obtain sequence of 168 complete genomes of fruit fly

Discovering the relation between genetic variation and observable characteristics of individuals belonging to a species, such as a person's height or the manifestation of a hereditary disease is one of today's challenges in biology. Until now only a small part of the variation of these traits - which biologists name phenotypes - were attributed to genetic variations.

17 Feb 2012

New way to improve vaccines against cancer and infectious diseases

Research groups from Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the University of Geneva have discovered a new way of improving vaccines against infectious diseases and for use in cancer therapies. Scientists have shown a basic new mechanism that stimulates the body's own alarm signals in case of viral infection to animate the immune system to maximum performance.

17 Feb 2012