Gene News and Research

Latest Gene News and Research

Repetition of DRD4 genotype may increase risk for extensive alcohol use

Your friend walks into a bar to meet you for happy hour. He sidles up to the bar and orders a drink - does that make you more likely to get a drink yourself? According to new findings reported in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, genetics may determine the extent to which you are influenced by social drinking cues - signals such as advertisements, drinks placed on a bar, and seeing other people around you drinking.

23 Jul 2010

Lack of SIRT1 protein exhibits impaired memory and learning: Study

A protein implicated in many biological processes also may play a role in memory, according to a study led by the University of Southern California and the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health.The findings, published this week in the Journal of Neuroscience, agree with research by a different team published online by Nature on July 11. Both studies found that mice lacking the protein SIRT1 exhibited impaired memory and learning, suggesting SIRT1's importance to those functions.

23 Jul 2010

Bullied children are at risk for developing emotional problems

Bullying victimization is common among children of school age, although its consequences are often anything but benign. The recent death of a Massachusetts teen by suicide prompted state lawmakers to pass one of the most far-reaching anti-bullying laws within the U.S. Whether such legislative actions result in measurable decreases in physical or emotional distress among school peers remains to be seen.

23 Jul 2010

Gene expression profiling may provide molecular diagnostic tool to diagnose depression

Blood tests have been extremely important tools aiding doctors in making medical diagnoses and in guiding the treatment of many diseases. However, psychiatry is one area of medicine where there are few diagnostic blood tests.New scientific fields may someday generate blood tests that can be used for these purposes. Some of the areas under increasingly intensive study are genetics, the study of variations in the genes that can be extracted from blood cells, and genomics like proteomics, the measurement of the levels of specific proteins in the blood, and gene expression profiling, which measures the levels of RNA produced from DNA as an indication of the level of the "activity" of particular genes.

23 Jul 2010

African ancestry associated with triple-negative breast cancer: Study

A new study finds that African ancestry is linked to triple-negative breast cancer, a more aggressive type of cancer that has fewer treatment options.Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center found that, among women with breast cancer, 82 percent of African women were triple negative, 26 percent of African-Americans were and 16 percent of white Americans were.

23 Jul 2010

Drugs that activate SIRT1 hold potential to combat Alzheimer's: Study

MIT biologists report that they have discovered the first link between the amyloid plaques that form in the brains of Alzheimer's patients and a gene previously implicated in the aging process, SIRT1.

23 Jul 2010

BioTime announces 21 new stem cell products for sale

BioTime, Inc. announced today that on August 1, 2010 the Company will be offering for sale 21 new stem cell products for research use only. These products will include the novel stem cell lines: E120 expressing the gene LGR5 useful in colon cancer drug discovery, EN16, T43, RAD20.5, RA-SKEL8, SM22, and Z1, full properties of which will be disclosed on product launch, along with differentiation kits and media for the culture of each line.

22 Jul 2010

New understanding on insulin resistance, action of diabetes drugs may lead to safer medication

A new understanding of insulin resistance and the action of diabetes drugs such as Avandia and Actos could pave the way for improved medications that are more selective and safer, say scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and The Scripps Research Institute.Our findings strongly suggest that good and bad effects of these drugs can be separated by designing second-generation drugs that focus on the newly uncovered mechanism, said Bruce Spiegelman, PhD, of Dana-Farber, senior author on a report appearing in the July 22 issue of Nature.

22 Jul 2010

Genomics researchers study role of protein in metabolic disorders, heart disease

Studying a protein already known to play an important role in type 2 diabetes and cancer, genomics researchers have discovered that it may have an even broader role in disease, particularly in other metabolic disorders and heart disease. In finding unsuspected links to other disease-related genes, the scientists may have identified future targets for drug treatments.

22 Jul 2010

Scientists uncover new mechanism that reduces risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease

In a joint study, scientists from The Scripps Research Institute and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard University have uncovered a novel mechanism that dramatically increases insulin sensitivity and reduces the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

22 Jul 2010

Affymetrix launches QuantiGene ViewRNA Assay formats

Affymetrix, Inc. today announced the launch of QuantiGene® ViewRNA Assay formats, which enable a new era of "in situ multiplex gene expression analysis" by allowing drug screening of native cells and advancing the pace of biomarker disease research and stem cell studies. These in situ assays enable researchers to visualize gene expression in individual cells at an unprecedented level of sensitivity and speed.

22 Jul 2010

TCF7L2 protein may play important role in heart disease, other metabolic disorders: Researchers

22 Jul 2010

Smoking cessation effectively alter subgingival microbiome in patients on periodontal therapy: Study

Patients with chronic gum disease who quit smoking in addition to undergoing nonsurgical therapy not only demonstrated a lower abundance of harmful oral pathogens, but also an increase in health-associated bacteria. The researchers from The Ohio State University, Columbus Ohio, and Newcastle University, United Kingdom report their findings in the July 2010 issue of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.

22 Jul 2010

Valproic acid halts vision loss in patients with retinitis pigmentosa

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School believe they may have found a new treatment for retinitis pigmentosa, a severe neurodegenerative disease of the retina that ultimately results in blindness. One of the more common retinal degenerative diseases, RP is caused by the death of photoreceptor cells and affects 1 in 4,000 people in the United States. RP typically manifests in young adulthood as night blindness or a loss of peripheral vision and in many cases progresses to legal blindness by age 40.

22 Jul 2010

Survey links autism with digestive problems, intestinal inflammation

Autism is the fastest growing developmental disorder in the world. With 1 child in 91 facing the disorder, the diagnosis is more common than pediatric cancer, diabetes, and AIDS combined.

22 Jul 2010

Affymetrix second-quarter total revenue decreases to $71.7 million

Affymetrix, Inc., today reported its operating results for the second quarter of 2010. Total revenue for the quarter was $71.7 million, in line with previously announced expectations, as compared to total revenue of $81.6 million in the second quarter of 2009.

22 Jul 2010

Buffer among metbolism pathways induces cancer suppressing gene mutation: Research

Eighty years ago, the medical establishment believed cancer was caused by a dysfunction of metabolism, but the idea went out of vogue. Now, scientists are again looking at metabolism and its role in cancer and other common diseases. Metabolism is a highly connected network of reactions that are arranged in parallel and interacting pathways. Such parallelism can mask how genes are linked with disease traits and make it difficult to treat conditions.

22 Jul 2010

New findings suggest link between increased cholesterol, depression

Most people know that high cholesterol levels place them at increased risk for heart disease and stroke. Prior research has shown that particular types of strokes contribute to one's risk for depression, and that abnormal blood lipid levels can increase the risk of depression in the elderly.

21 Jul 2010

Quest Diagnostics income from continuing operations increases to $195 million in second-quarter 2010

Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, the world's leading provider of diagnostic testing, information and services, announced that for the second quarter ended June 30, 2010, income from continuing operations increased to $195 million, or $1.07 per diluted share, compared to $188 million, or $1.00 per diluted share, in the second quarter of 2009. Results for 2009 included a benefit associated with an insurance recovery of $0.05 per share, offset by charges of $0.04 per share associated with the company's debt repurchase and an investment writeoff.

From Quest Diagnostics 21 Jul 2010

Gene essential for respiration and survival at birth identified

How do mammals prepare themselves in utero for a radical modification to their respiration at the time of birth, when they move abruptly from an aquatic medium to air? CNRS researchers, working in collaboration with teams from the Universities of the Méditerranée, Paris-Sud 11 and Paul Cézanne have identified a gene in the mouse that is essential to respiration and consequently to survival at birth.

21 Jul 2010

Gene News and Research

Latest Gene News and Research

Repetition of DRD4 genotype may increase risk for extensive alcohol use

Lack of SIRT1 protein exhibits impaired memory and learning: Study

Bullied children are at risk for developing emotional problems

Gene expression profiling may provide molecular diagnostic tool to diagnose depression

African ancestry associated with triple-negative breast cancer: Study

Drugs that activate SIRT1 hold potential to combat Alzheimer's: Study

BioTime announces 21 new stem cell products for sale

New understanding on insulin resistance, action of diabetes drugs may lead to safer medication

Genomics researchers study role of protein in metabolic disorders, heart disease

Scientists uncover new mechanism that reduces risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease

Affymetrix launches QuantiGene ViewRNA Assay formats

TCF7L2 protein may play important role in heart disease, other metabolic disorders: Researchers

Smoking cessation effectively alter subgingival microbiome in patients on periodontal therapy: Study

Valproic acid halts vision loss in patients with retinitis pigmentosa

Survey links autism with digestive problems, intestinal inflammation

Affymetrix second-quarter total revenue decreases to $71.7 million

Buffer among metbolism pathways induces cancer suppressing gene mutation: Research

New findings suggest link between increased cholesterol, depression

Quest Diagnostics income from continuing operations increases to $195 million in second-quarter 2010

Gene essential for respiration and survival at birth identified

eBook: Using iPSCs models for human disease research and drug discovery eBook

Innovating for impact: Jordi Labs on aligning methodologies with FDA expectation

Exploring the role of confocal-based high-content imaging in advancing core facilities

Transforming Cardiovascular Care: Insights from Mina Makar at AstraZeneca