Gene News and Research

Latest Gene News and Research

Scientists find that collagen 'cross-links' can determine tumor's ability to grow and spread

When skyscrapers go up, contractors rely on an infrastructure of steel beams and braces. Some cancers grow the same way, using a biological matrix from which the tumor can thrive and spread.

10 Feb 2015

Researchers discover inherited genetic variations associated with treatment-related hearing loss

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators have discovered inherited genetic variations that are associated with rapid hearing loss in young cancer patients treated with the drug cisplatin. The research appears in the current online issue of the scientific journal Nature Genetics.

10 Feb 2015

Study links previously unknown genetic anomalies to breast cancer in African American family members

The "Jewels in our Genes" study, led by University at Buffalo researcher Heather Ochs-Balcom, has uncovered previously unknown segments of DNA shared by African American family members who have breast cancer. "The discovery of these regions supports our hypothesis that there are still undiscovered breast cancer genes that may be unique to African Americans," says Ochs-Balcom, PhD, a genetic epidemiologist in the UB Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health.

10 Feb 2015

Combination therapies may overcome resistance to targeted cancer drugs

A protein called YAP, which drives the growth of organs during development and regulates their size in adulthood, plays a key role in the emergence of resistance to targeted cancer therapies, according to a new study led by UC San Francisco researchers.

10 Feb 2015

Duke University researchers devise new method to activate genes with light

Duke University researchers have devised a method to activate genes in any specific location or pattern in a lab dish with the flip of a light switch by crossing a bacterium's viral defense system with a flower's response to sunlight.

9 Feb 2015

Researchers develop quality assurance tool for genome editing

A research team at Boston Children's Hospital's Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine has developed a quality assurance tool for scientists using genome-editing technologies like the increasingly popular CRISPR. The assay, called high throughput genome translocation sequencing (HTGTS), rapidly gauges—for any given gene—these technologies' accuracy and their risk for causing potentially dangerous genomic collateral damage.

9 Feb 2015

Regulus Therapeutics reports top-line results from RG-101 clinical study for HCV treatment

Regulus Therapeutics Inc., a biopharmaceutical company leading the discovery and development of innovative medicines targeting microRNAs, today announced top-line results from the 4 mg/kg cohort and additional results from the 2 mg/kg cohort in a completed clinical study evaluating RG-101, a wholly-owned, GalNac-conjugated anti-miR targeting microRNA-122 ("miR-122"), for the treatment of hepatitis C virus infection ("HCV").

9 Feb 2015

Preclinical testing of anti-Ebola antibodies can lead to universal flu vaccine

Does the blood of Ebola virus disease survivors contain antibodies and immune cells that could help doctors fight Ebola infections in other people?

9 Feb 2015

Study explores cost-effectiveness of targeted treatment for cancer

Health economics helps insurers, health care systems and providers make treatment decisions based on the cost of extra "units" of health arising from a specific treatment.

9 Feb 2015

New study sheds light on anorexia nervosa

A study led by Howard Steiger, PhD, head of the Douglas Mental Health University Institute Eating Disorders Program, in Montreal, in collaboration with Linda Booij, a researcher with Sainte-Justine Hospital and an assistant professor at Queen's University, is the first to observe effects suggesting that the longer one suffers from active anorexia nervosa (AN), the more likely they are to show disorder-relevant alterations in DNA methylation.

9 Feb 2015

DNA strands predict life expectancy

BYU biologist Jonathan Alder has a startling secret he doesn't freely share: he knows when most of us are going to die.

9 Feb 2015

New study heightens concerns over the detrimental impact of APOE ε4 in urban children

A new study by researchers at the Universities of Montana, Carleton, and North Carolina, and the Centro de Ciencias de la Atmósfera, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, heightens concerns over the detrimental impact of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 allele -- the most prevalent genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease -- upon cognition, olfaction, and metabolic brain indices in healthy urban children and teens.

9 Feb 2015

Investigators develop microbiome map of New York City subway system

The microbes that call the New York City subway system home are mostly harmless, but include samples of disease-causing bacteria that are resistant to drugs -- and even DNA fragments associated with anthrax and Bubonic plague -- according to a citywide microbiome map published today by Weill Cornell Medical College investigators.

9 Feb 2015

Two researchers receive Pioneer Award from Human Gene Therapy

Recognized for their pioneering work in the development of gene transfer technology using retroviral vectors to deliver therapeutic genes into cells, Richard C. Mulligan, PhD, Director of the Harvard Gene Therapy Initiative, Harvard Institutes of Medicine, Boston, MA, and A. Dusty Miller, PhD, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, received the Pioneer Award from Human Gene Therapy, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.

9 Feb 2015

Abiraterone drug improves survival in prostate cancer patients when given before chemotherapy

Pioneering prostate cancer drug abiraterone significantly extends the lives of men with advanced prostate cancer if given before chemotherapy, the results of a major phase III clinical trial have shown.

9 Feb 2015

Personalized prevention, treatments of cancer now accessible through Stanford University's new genetics course

Instrumental research that aims to enhance how we predict, diagnose and design personalized prevention and treatments of cancer is now accessible through Stanford University's latest professional education course, Understanding Cancer at the Genetic Level.

9 Feb 2015

UI Children's Hospital named Certified Duchenne Care Center by PPMD

The University of Iowa Children's Hospital was named a Certified Duchenne Care Center by Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy, a nonprofit organization leading the fight to end Duchenne muscular dystrophy (Duchenne) and demanding optimal care for all people with Duchenne.

7 Feb 2015

CLL aggressiveness linked to genetic variability

The genetic variability of a tumour could be a predictor for its aggressiveness: the greater the variability in gene expression, the more aggressive the tumour is likely to be. This is the hypothesis that the CNIO Structural Biology and Biocomputing Programme, led by Alfonso Valencia, is testing, after their findings on chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), now published in the journal Genome Medicine.

6 Feb 2015

Vanderbilt researchers find link between the biological clock and Angelman syndrome

Monitoring participants' biological clocks may be the quickest way to determine the effectiveness of experimental drugs currently under development to treat Angelman syndrome: a debilitating genetic disorder that occurs in more than one in every 15,000 live births.

6 Feb 2015

ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group opens clinical trial for women with newly diagnosed DCIS

In direct response to recommendations made by a National Institutes of Health scientific consensus panel, the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group announced today the opening of E4112, a clinical trial for women with newly diagnosed ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) of the breast who, together with their doctors, will use the results of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exam to determine whether to undergo a lumpectomy or a mastectomy.

6 Feb 2015

Gene News and Research

Latest Gene News and Research

Scientists find that collagen 'cross-links' can determine tumor's ability to grow and spread

Researchers discover inherited genetic variations associated with treatment-related hearing loss

Study links previously unknown genetic anomalies to breast cancer in African American family members

Combination therapies may overcome resistance to targeted cancer drugs

Duke University researchers devise new method to activate genes with light

Researchers develop quality assurance tool for genome editing

Regulus Therapeutics reports top-line results from RG-101 clinical study for HCV treatment

Preclinical testing of anti-Ebola antibodies can lead to universal flu vaccine

Study explores cost-effectiveness of targeted treatment for cancer

New study sheds light on anorexia nervosa

DNA strands predict life expectancy

New study heightens concerns over the detrimental impact of APOE ε4 in urban children

Investigators develop microbiome map of New York City subway system

Two researchers receive Pioneer Award from Human Gene Therapy

Abiraterone drug improves survival in prostate cancer patients when given before chemotherapy

Personalized prevention, treatments of cancer now accessible through Stanford University's new genetics course

UI Children's Hospital named Certified Duchenne Care Center by PPMD

CLL aggressiveness linked to genetic variability

Vanderbilt researchers find link between the biological clock and Angelman syndrome

ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group opens clinical trial for women with newly diagnosed DCIS

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