Down Syndrome News and Research

Latest Down Syndrome News and Research

Report uncovers how Down syndrome hampers nervous system that plays key role in health, longevity

While most Down syndrome research has focused on the brain, a new report by Johns Hopkins University biologists uncovers how the disorder hampers a separate part of the nervous system that plays a key role in health and longevity.

14 Dec 2015

New biobank initiative may help unlock some of the mysteries linked to Down syndrome

Nationwide Children's Hospital and research advocacy group DownSyndrome Achieves have joined forces to create the first biobank in the country dedicated to collecting and managing blood samples from people with Down syndrome.

12 Dec 2015

Children with cleft lip or palate and spina bifida at increased risk for abuse

Children born with cleft lip or palate and spina bifida are at an increased risk for abuse before the age of 2, according to researchers from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

11 Dec 2015

New method may extend use of noninvasive prenatal testing to detect chromosomal abnormalities

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine developed a method to expand the types of chromosomal abnormalities that noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) can detect. The study, published November 9 by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, uses a semiconductor sequencing platform to identify small chromosomal deletions or duplications, such as occur in Cri du Chat Syndrome and DiGeorge Syndrome, with a simple blood test from the expectant mother.

10 Nov 2015

Two studies explore potential new blood tests for Alzheimer's disease

There is increasing evidence that the brain changes of Alzheimer's disease begin decades before memory and thinking problems occur, prompting the need for better methods of early detection for this progressive, fatal brain disease. Consequently, there is a growing school of thought that the most effective future Alzheimer's drug therapies will be administered to those who are at high risk of the disease before cognitive symptoms appear.

10 Nov 2015

Patients with Down syndrome face additional challenge of early-onset dementia

Individuals with Down syndrome who survive into adulthood face the additional challenge of early-onset dementia, in which toxic amyloid plaques build up in the brain. The condition is strikingly similar to Alzheimer's disease, and as new work led by researchers at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University shows, dementia in Down syndrome involves defects in a regulatory enzyme known as γ-secretase activating protein (GSAP), which also happens to malfunction in Alzheimer's disease.

3 Nov 2015

Divorce rates less among couples who raise children with developmental disabilities

Couples raising a child with developmental disabilities do not face a higher risk of divorce if they have larger families, according to a new study by researchers from the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

31 Oct 2015

Transition Therapeutics Ireland signs agreement for investigator-led TT701 Phase 2 clinical study

Transition Therapeutics Inc. announced today that Transition Therapeutics Ireland Limited has entered into an agreement for an investigator-led clinical study of drug candidate, TT701, with Brigham and Women's Hospital.

30 Oct 2015

Researchers develop new growth charts for U.S. children with Down syndrome

Pediatric researchers have developed the first set of growth charts for U.S. children with Down syndrome since 1988. These new charts provide an important tool for pediatricians to evaluate growth milestones for children and adolescents with this condition. With these new charts, pediatricians will be able to compare each patient's growth patterns with peers of the same age and sex who have Down syndrome.

28 Oct 2015

DNA testing for Down's syndrome could potentially save lives of unborn babies

Offering pregnant women a DNA test for Down's syndrome on the NHS would reduce the dependency on invasive tests and potentially save the lives of unborn babies, a study shows.

27 Oct 2015

UConn researchers sequence RNA of most complicated gene

UConn researchers have sequenced the RNA of the most complicated gene known in nature, using a hand-held sequencer no bigger than a cell phone.

From Oxford Nanopore Technologies 12 Oct 2015

S. Lawrence Zipursky to receive 2015 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University

Columbia University will award the 2015 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize to S. Lawrence Zipursky, PhD, for discovering a molecular identification system that helps neurons to navigate and wire the brain. Zipursky is a professor of biological chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.

23 Sep 2015

Study confirms pathogenic role of beta amyloid in dementia as seen in AD and Down syndrome

More than five million Americans are living with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Of them, 400,000 also have Down syndrome. Both groups have similar looking brains with higher levels of the protein beta amyloid.

18 Sep 2015

Hastings Center receives NSF grant for ethical analysis of next-generation prenatal genetic tests

Prenatal testing is changing dramatically. With greatly expanded low-cost genetic tests - some as simple as a maternal blood test - prospective parents will soon be able to learn far more, far earlier, than ever before about their fetuses' medical conditions and risks, and some nonmedical traits.

11 Sep 2015

Gene ZSCAN4 may help treat Down syndrome

For people with Down syndrome, news from Elixirgen, LLC may brighten their day. The biotechnology company, located in the Science + Technology Park at Johns Hopkins, has outlined one of the best potential therapies yet for people with Down syndrome and other chromosome disorders in a paper entitled, "Correction of Down syndrome and Edwards syndrome aneuploidies in human cell cultures," published in the journal DNA Research.

31 Aug 2015

Promising research aims at finding cure for hydrocephalus

Scientists are focusing in on promising research aimed at finding a cure for hydrocephalus; and a new initiative funded by the Hydrocephalus Association, the largest private funder of hydrocephalus research in the United States, is uniting these researchers to accelerate their progress.

27 Aug 2015

Understanding the workings of error correction mechanism in cell division

Cell biologists led by Thomas Maresca at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, with collaborators elsewhere, report an advance in understanding the workings of an error correction mechanism that helps cells detect and correct mistakes in cell division early enough to prevent chromosome mis-segregation and aneuploidy, that is, having too many or too few chromosomes.

30 Jul 2015

Study suggests potential way to predict autism or psychosis risk in children with genetic abnormality

Doctors and researchers have long known that children who are missing about 60 genes on a certain chromosome are at a significantly elevated risk for developing either a disorder on the autism spectrum or psychosis — that is, any mental disorder characterized by delusions and hallucinations, including schizophrenia. But there has been no way to predict which child with the abnormality might be at risk for which disorder.

28 Jul 2015

Study identifies new culprit in Alzheimer's disease development

A recent study conducted at Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research and NYU Langone Medical Center implicates a new culprit in Alzheimer's disease development. The research reveals that ßCTF -- the precursor of the amyloid beta (Aß) peptide -- acts at the earliest stage of Alzheimer's to initiate a range of abnormalities leading to the loss of groups of neurons critical for memory formation.

22 Jul 2015

Study finds mechanism that identifies cause of intellectual disabilities in autism, Rett syndrome

The term intellectual disability covers a large number of clinical entities, some with known cause and others of uncertain origin. For example Down syndrome is due to an extra copy of chromosome 21 and Rett syndrome is in part caused by a mutation in the control switch gene called MeCP2.

21 Jul 2015

Down Syndrome News and Research

Latest Down Syndrome News and Research

Report uncovers how Down syndrome hampers nervous system that plays key role in health, longevity

New biobank initiative may help unlock some of the mysteries linked to Down syndrome

Children with cleft lip or palate and spina bifida at increased risk for abuse

New method may extend use of noninvasive prenatal testing to detect chromosomal abnormalities

Two studies explore potential new blood tests for Alzheimer's disease

Patients with Down syndrome face additional challenge of early-onset dementia

Divorce rates less among couples who raise children with developmental disabilities

Transition Therapeutics Ireland signs agreement for investigator-led TT701 Phase 2 clinical study

Researchers develop new growth charts for U.S. children with Down syndrome

DNA testing for Down's syndrome could potentially save lives of unborn babies

UConn researchers sequence RNA of most complicated gene

S. Lawrence Zipursky to receive 2015 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University

Study confirms pathogenic role of beta amyloid in dementia as seen in AD and Down syndrome

Hastings Center receives NSF grant for ethical analysis of next-generation prenatal genetic tests

Gene ZSCAN4 may help treat Down syndrome

Promising research aims at finding cure for hydrocephalus

Understanding the workings of error correction mechanism in cell division

Study suggests potential way to predict autism or psychosis risk in children with genetic abnormality

Study identifies new culprit in Alzheimer's disease development

Study finds mechanism that identifies cause of intellectual disabilities in autism, Rett syndrome

Small solutions for big problems in drug discovery and delivery

Professor Nancy Ip: Pioneering New Paths in Neurodegenerative Therapy

Utilizing process Raman in optimizing cultivated meat production

Down Syndrome News and Research

Latest Down Syndrome News and Research

Small solutions for big problems in drug discovery and delivery

Professor Nancy Ip: Pioneering New Paths in Neurodegenerative Therapy

Utilizing process Raman in optimizing cultivated meat production

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