Gene News and Research

Latest Gene News and Research

Researchers discover that Merkel cells originate in the skin

Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine assistant professor of pediatrics, neurosciences and otolaryngology, Stephen M. Maricich, M.D., Ph.D., and his team found that Merkel cells originate in the skin, not the neural crest lineage, as previously speculated.

3 Oct 2009

Research study reveals primary chemotherapy benefits

Initial chemotherapy alone after surgery is just as successful as initial radiation therapy for patients from whom a very malignant brain tumor (anaplastic glioma) was removed. With this treatment, the patients survive on average > 30 months without a recurrence. A study conducted by the Neurooncology Working Group of the German Cancer Society led by researchers from Heidelberg and Z-rich showed that patients in primary therapy benefit to the same extent from chemotherapy alone as from radiation alone.

3 Oct 2009

NEDD9 protein stimulates aggressive metastatic breast cancer

Researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center have demonstrated that a protein called NEDD9 may be required for some of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer to grow. Their findings, based on the study of a mouse model of breast cancer, are presented in a recent issue of Cancer Research, available on-line now.

3 Oct 2009

Researchers screen decades-old frozen infant stool samples to detect norovirus

A search through decades-old frozen infant stool samples has yielded rich dividends for scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

3 Oct 2009

Enzyme that helps make tuberculosis resistant to a human's natural defense system identified

Researchers at Iowa State University have identified an enzyme that helps make tuberculosis resistant to a human's natural defense system. Researchers have also found a method to possibly neutralize that enzyme, which may someday lead to a cure for tuberculosis.

3 Oct 2009

61 institutions awarded grants for cancer research from American Cancer Society

The American Cancer Society, the largest non-government, not-for-profit funding source of cancer research in the United States, has awarded 94 new national research and training grants totaling $45,097,000 to 61 institutions nationwide in the second of two grants cycles for 2009. The grants go into effect beginning January 1, 2010.

3 Oct 2009

People with rare mutations of gene MUTYH at increased risk of bowel cancer

CANCER RESEARCH UK funded scientists have found that people who carry rare mutations within both copies of a gene called MUTYH are 28 times more likely to develop bowel cancer compared to the general population, according to a study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

1 Oct 2009

Screening and diagnostic tests contribute to health care value across spectrum of care

Amidst ongoing debate in Congress over reforming the nation's health care system, a new report from the Lewin Group finds that screening and diagnostic laboratory tests are central to achieving some of the most important goals of health care reform.

1 Oct 2009

Doris Duke Innovations award for sickle cell disease research

Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. announced today that research led by Donald B. Kohn, M.D., Professor of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics (MIMG) and Pediatrics, the Director of the UCLA Human Gene Medicine Program and member of the Broad Stem Cell Research Center, and Philip Gregory, D. Phil., Sangamo's chief scientific officer and vice president, research, has been selected to receive a $486,000 Doris Duke Innovations in Clinical Research Award from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

1 Oct 2009

Grand Opportunity grant to pursue "whole-genome" sequencing of patients with autism

Children's Hospital Boston, with the Broad Institute and Harvard Medical School, has been awarded a Grand Opportunity grant from the National Institute of Mental Health as part of the federal stimulus package, to pursue "whole-genome" sequencing of patients with autism, using new technologies for rapid DNA sequencing to better understand autism's causes.

1 Oct 2009

Effect of healthcare reform on treating cardiovascular disease patients

The Ninth Annual Controversies and Advances in Treatment of Cardiovascular Disease continuing medical education conference will feature several discussions and presentations on how healthcare reform could affect cardiovascular disease patients' diagnosis, treatment and outcome.

1 Oct 2009

Social environment plays vital role in breast cancer

Social environment can play an important role in the biology of disease, including breast cancer, and lead to significant differences in health outcome, according to results of a study published in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

1 Oct 2009

NCI and NHGRI collaborate to characterize genetic and genomic changes that occur in cancers

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is one of twelve centers announced today by President Obama as part of an unprecedented large-scale, collaborative effort by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) to systematically characterize the genomic changes that occur in cancer.

1 Oct 2009

Latest optical and laser technology in medicine displayed at FiO meeting

From scopes that help premature babies breathe to techniques for imaging live neurons and beating hearts as they develop, the latest optical and laser technology being deployed in medicine and the biosciences will be on display at the Optical Society's (OSA) Annual Meeting, Frontiers in Optics (FiO), which takes place Oct. 11-15 at the Fairmont San Jose Hotel and the Sainte Claire Hotel in San Jose, Calif.

1 Oct 2009

Respiragene test for lung cancer motivates smokers to quit smoking

Smokers who learn their personal risk of lung cancer through gene-based risk assessment are more likely to be motivated to quit their habit, according to Dr. W. Jeffrey Allard, clinical affairs director of Synergenz Bioscience Ltd.

1 Oct 2009

U.S. patent for Idaho Technology’s high resolution nucleic acid melting techniques

Idaho Technology’s patent portfolio continues to grow as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted the company U.S. Patent No. 7,582,429 relating to methods of performing genetic analysis in the presence of a double-stranded nucleic acid binding dye.

30 Sep 2009

The Replikin Count of H1N1 virus’s infectivity gene shows continued elevation

The latest H1N1 genomic data shows a 50% drop in the Replikin CountTM of the virus’s replikins lethality gene since its recorded highs in April 2009. In contrast, the Replikin Count of the virus’s infectivity gene showed a continued elevation.

30 Sep 2009

Immunocellular Therapeutics' pilot study can help in early cancer detection

ImmunoCellular Therapeutics, Ltd. (OTCBB: IMUC), a clinical-stage biotechnology company that is developing immune-based therapies for the treatment of brain and other cancers, announced today results from its pilot study evaluating the cancer detection abilities of one of its lead monoclonal antibody product candidates, ICT-109. Data from this study demonstrated that ICT-109 had a statistically significant ability to discriminate between cancerous and non-cancerous samples, suggesting the potential to detect pancreatic and lung cancer in plasma and serum study sets.

30 Sep 2009

SBIR grant from NIH to GenVec for metastatic cancer research

GenVec, Inc. announced today that it has received a Phase I Small Business Innovation and Research (SBIR) grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support the research of a new approach to treating metastatic cancer. Under this grant, valued at over $300,000, GenVec will investigate the hypothesis that the delivery of a specific gene will stimulate an antitumor response that could control cancer metastases.

30 Sep 2009

Genetic factors play an important role in the development of type 1 diabetes

Under the direction of Prof. Dr. Anette Ziegler, scientists of the Diabetes Research Group at Helmholtz Zentrum München and Technische Universität München investigated the formation of antibodies to a zinc transporter in children with elevated risk for type 1 diabetes. The study provided indications of an early onset of the disease when specific antibodies in the blood and specific variants of the associated zinc transporter are present in the genome.

30 Sep 2009