Gene News and Research

Latest Gene News and Research

FDA approves Dey, L.P.'s NDA for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease inhalation solution

Dey, L.P. has announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved its New Drug Application (NDA) for Perforomist (formoterol fumarate) Inhalation Solution for long-term, twice-daily maintenance treatment of bronchoconstriction for emphysema and chronic bronchitis, also known as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

15 May 2007

Scientists find new proteins involved in Huntington's disease

Researchers in the United States have identified more than 200 new proteins that are involved in Huntington's disease.

14 May 2007

Researchers find a peptide that encourages HIV infection

UCLA AIDS Institute researchers have discovered that when a crucial portion of a peptide structure in monkeys that defends against viruses, bacteria and other foreign invaders is reversed, the peptide actually encourages infection with HIV.

11 May 2007

Researchers identify human genes targeted by a virus believed to cause Kaposi's sarcoma

University of Florida researchers have identified specific human genes targeted by a virus believed to cause Kaposi's sarcoma, a rare form of cancer associated with AIDS and with organ transplants that causes patches of red or purple tissue to grow under people's skin.

11 May 2007

Identification of 200 new proteins that interact with the mutated protein that causes Huntington's disease

The identification of more than 200 new proteins that interact with the mutated protein that causes Huntington's disease opens the door to developing treatments for the fatal neurodegenerative disorder, said a Baylor College of Medicine researcher who took part in the work that appears online today in the journal Public Library of Science Genetics.

11 May 2007

Study finds large number of new proteins implicated in Huntington's disease

Researchers from four organizations have identified more than 200 new proteins that bind to normal and mutant forms of the protein that causes Huntington's disease (HD).

11 May 2007

Adult bone marrow stem cells may help cure certain genetic eye diseases

Scientists have completed a study using mice which showed that bone marrow stem cells can switch roles and produce keratocan, a natural protein involved in the growth of the cornea, the transparent, outer layer of the eyeball.

11 May 2007

New understanding of ubiquitylation

It turns out there's more than one way to skin a gene. New research from Rockefeller University suggests that two closely related DNA unpackaging mechanisms may not work the way scientists thought.

10 May 2007

Opossum DNA provides new insight into natural selection

Study of the DNA of a South American marsupial called the opossum has revealed that a gene's location influences whether or not it is likely to gather changes that could lead to disease.

10 May 2007

Researchers discover genetic 'shut down' trigger in healthy immune cells

A fundamental genetic mechanism that shuts down an important gene in healthy immune system cells has been discovered that could one day lead to new therapies against infections, leukemia and other cancers.

10 May 2007

Genetic component to autism

Using an innovative statistical approach, a research team from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of California, Los Angeles, has identified two regions of DNA linked to autism.

10 May 2007

Researchers map genome for mite-borne typhus

Researches at Uppsala University, in collaboration with a Korean research team, have mapped and analyzed the genome for mite-borne typhus.

10 May 2007

FluForecast trial predicted high human H5N1 mortality in Indonesia

When H5N1 was thought to be quiescent in 2006, in a prospective open trial, FluForecast, a software program which measures virus gene proteins, predicted high human mortality H5N1 outbreaks to come.

10 May 2007

Cornell University establishes Center for Reproductive Genomics

Cornell University has established the Center for Reproductive Genomics, which will combine basic research in reproductive sciences on Cornell's Ithaca campus with one of the country's leading fertility clinics at Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC) in New York City.

10 May 2007

Structural variation in the human genome

A major new effort to uncover the medium- and large-scale genetic differences between humans may soon reveal DNA sequences that contribute to a wide range of diseases, according to a paper by Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Evan Eichler and 17 colleagues published in the May 10, 2007, Nature.

10 May 2007

Bipolar disorder - the clue may be in the genes

The first scan of the entire human genetic code has revealed that developing bipolar disorder may to some extent depend on the combined effects of variations in many different genes in the brain, none of which is powerful enough to cause the disease by itself.

9 May 2007

Study implicates protein as a trigger of advanced prostate cancer recurrence

Scientists with the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have for the first time implicated a growth-promoting cellular protein as one trigger of the inevitable recurrence of advanced prostate cancer in men who are undergoing drug treatment to shut down their sex hormones, or androgens.

9 May 2007

Sigma-Aldrich acquires Molecular Medicine BioServices

Sigma-Aldrich Corporation has announced that it has acquired Molecular Medicine BioServices Inc. (MMB), a biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing organization (CMO) located in Carlsbad, California, to further enhance the biologics capabilities within its SAFC Pharma business segment.

9 May 2007

Researchers develop first antibody that detects gene mutations that cause amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Researchers at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Medicine have developed the first antibody that detects the only known cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also called Lou Gehrig's disease.

9 May 2007

Global heartbeat control suggests therapy for beating heart failure

Keeping a healthy heart beating requires the production of a constant supply of energy, a feat depending on the coordination of several genetic programs.

9 May 2007