Gene News and Research

Latest Gene News and Research

Novel drug discovery tool could bring new therapies for Parkinson’s

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have turned simple baker?s yeast into a virtual army of medicinal chemists capable of rapidly searching for drugs to treat Parkinson's disease.

13 Jul 2009

Results from trials of DHA in Alzheimer's and age-related cognitive decline

Results from two large studies using DHA, an omega 3 fatty acid, were reported today at the Alzheimer's Association 2009 International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease (ICAD 2009) in Vienna.

12 Jul 2009

One secret to how tuberculosis resists the host immune system

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is arguably the world's most successful infectious agent because it knows how to avoid elimination by slowing its own growth to a crawl. Now, a report in the July 10 issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, offers new insight into the bugs' talent for meager living.

9 Jul 2009

Innovative study brings us closer to an explanation for Crohn's disease

Twenty-five per cent of Crohn's disease patients have a mutation in what is called the NOD2 gene, but it is not precisely known how this mutation influences the disease.

9 Jul 2009

Discovery of key gene for bone development that when mutated lead to dwarfism

Scientists have just discovered the gene behind Recessive Omodysplasia, a rare skeletal disease characterised by short-limbed dwarfism and craniofacial anomalies.

9 Jul 2009

Research may hold key to maintaining embryonic stem cells in lab

In a new study that could transform embryonic stem cell (ES cell) research, scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered why mouse ES cells can be easily grown in a laboratory while other mammalian ES cells are difficult, if not impossible, to maintain.

9 Jul 2009

Researchers profile genes in acutely ill idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients

The first findings from a one-of-a-kind, patient-driven effort to provide lung tissue for research might help doctors predict when patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) are becoming dangerously ill and also could point the way to interventions that could sustain them until life-saving transplants can be performed.

7 Jul 2009

Future of organ transplantation - microscopic beads that create "designer " immune cells

The future of organ transplantation could include microscopic beads that create "designer" immune cells to help patients tolerate their new organ, Medical College of Georgia researchers say.

6 Jul 2009

Discovery of genetic key to breast cancer's ability to survive and spread

New research led by investigators at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) sheds light on a genetic function that gives breast cancer cells the ability to survive and spread to the bone years after treatment has been administered.

6 Jul 2009

Discovery of genes that cause melanoma

Scientists from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR) have found two new genes that together double a person's risk of developing melanoma.

6 Jul 2009

MicroRNAs hold promise for treating diseases in blood vessels

A newly discovered mechanism controls whether muscle cells in blood vessels hasten the development of both atherosclerosis and Alzheimer's disease, according to an article published online today in the journal Nature.

5 Jul 2009

The single life can increase some people's dementia risk

The researchers from the Karolinska Institute suggest that people who have a particular gene variation and live alone in middle-age, have a higher risk of developing dementia.

5 Jul 2009

Swine flu different from ordinary flu in a number of ways

Scientists say new research has shown that the new H1N1 influenza strain (swine flu) is somewhat less contagious than seasonal flu, but appears to be more able to cause stomach upsets.

5 Jul 2009

Discovery of new gene associated with diabetes

Research led by the German Institute of Human Nutrition (DIfE) has identified a new gene associated with diabetes, together with a mechanism that makes obese mice less susceptible to diabetes.

5 Jul 2009

Newly discovered gene regulates balance of 'bad' cholesterol

In an article in Science, Noam Zelcer from the LACDR describes a previously unknown mechanism for regulating the amount of LDL cholesterol. This offers opportunities for supplementing and improving the effect of so-called statins: medicines that remove 'bad' cholesterol from the bloodstream.

30 Jun 2009

New test detects genetic and chromosomal abnormalities in embryos - ready for clinical trials

One-step screening for both genetic and chromosomal abnormalities has come a stage closer as scientists announced that an embryo test they have been developing has successfully screened cells taken from spare embryos that were known to have cystic fibrosis.

30 Jun 2009

Women with cystic fibrosis can have safe and successful fertility treatment

Women with cystic fibrosis can have fertility treatment to help them have babies without any long-term adverse effects on either themselves or their children, according to new research presented at the 25th annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Amsterdam today (Tuesday).

30 Jun 2009

New pieces in the autism inheritance puzzle

Pieces in the complex autism inheritance puzzle are emerging in the latest study from a research team including geneticists from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). The study identified 27 different genetic regions where rare copy number variations - missing or extra copies of DNA segments - were found in the genes of children with autism spectrum disorders, but not in the healthy controls. The findings are published June 26 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics.

30 Jun 2009

Discovery of a genetic link to risk of kidney stones and osteoporosis

A discovery by scientists at deCODE genetics and academic colleagues from Iceland, the Netherlands and Denmark has pointed to a common biological mechanism contributing to both kidney stones and decreased bone mineral density (BMD).

30 Jun 2009

Epigenetic modulation at birth - altered DNA-methylation in white blood cells after Caesarean section

Swedish researchers have discovered that babies born by Caesarean section experience changes to the DNA pool in their white blood cells, which could be connected to altered stress levels during this method of delivery, according to the July issue of Acta Paediatrica.

30 Jun 2009