Genetics News and Research

Latest Genetics News and Research

Researchers have discovered a genetic mutation associated with an inherited form of motor neuron disease

Researchers have discovered a genetic mutation associated with an inherited form of motor neuron disease in which symptoms first appear in childhood or young adulthood. The finding is slated for publication in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

20 Apr 2004

Link between iron regulation and the immune system

Patients with chronic inflammatory disorders, including infections, inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis and cancer, commonly become anemic. The anemia can make them sicker, is sometimes severe enough to require a blood transfusion, and responds only partially to current treatments.

20 Apr 2004

Pfizer donates £1 million Brighton and Sussex Medical School

Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) is pleased to announce that it has received a £1 million donation from pharmaceutical company, Pfizer (UK).

20 Apr 2004

Functional genomics provide improved drug discovery

Functional genomics and proteomics have been quite successful in identifying functions of potential therapeutic targets such as encoded proteins.

20 Apr 2004

Myriad Genetics advances drug for chemotherapy-induced nausea

Myriad Genetics, Inc. today released new data on MPC-4505, its Neurokinin-1 (NK1) receptor antagonist, a drug candidate for chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (emesis). MPC-4505 is a potent, orally bioavailable, CNS-penetrating, highly selective NK1 antagonist.

20 Apr 2004

Poultry litter harbors agents that generate antibiotic multi-resistance

They found that poultry litter – a ubiquitous part of large broiler operations – harbors a vastly larger number of microbial agents that collect and express resistance genes than was previously known.

19 Apr 2004

More useful plants may blossom from gene discoveries

It may be possible to alter plants so they are more nutritious and easier to process without weakening them so much they fall over, according to Purdue University researchers who found a new twist in a plant formation biochemical pathway.

19 Apr 2004

An experimental vaccine based on a critical piece of the SARS virus

An experimental vaccine based on a critical piece of the SARS virus protects mice from SARS infection, researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, have found.

19 Apr 2004

New evidence that brain circuits involved in drug addiction are also activated by the desire for food

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have produced new evidence that brain circuits involved in drug addiction are also activated by the desire for food.

19 Apr 2004

Estrogen–like drugs may help postmenopausal women

Scientists may debate whether weight gain is a side effect of menopause, but the numbers are clear: On average, women may experience a gain of approximately 10-15 pounds in the years surrounding menopause.

19 Apr 2004

Researchers find drug that may suppress genetic mutation using a novel screening approach

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have developed a way of identifying promising new drugs that may get around a major challenge in drug discovery.

18 Apr 2004

Gene discovery could improve anemia treatment in patients

Patients with inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, chronic infections and some types of cancer, often become anemic – a condition called anemia of chronic disease (ACD). While ACD rarely kills patients, it can make their lives miserable.

18 Apr 2004

New method that will revolutionize the search for genes

Medical researchers know that most common human diseases, such as hypertension and diabetes, have a large genetic component. Many genes, interacting with the environment, contribute to these diseases. For researchers, a major challenge is finding all the genes involved with a particular disease.

18 Apr 2004

Bladder cancer is the fourth most common cancer in men and the eighth most common in women

Bladder cancer is the fourth most common cancer in men and the eighth most common in women, according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI). It is expected to be diagnosed in 38,000 men and 15,000 women in the United States in 2003. Treatment is most successful when the disease is caught early.

18 Apr 2004

New information on genetic shuffling before egg or sperm formation rewrites genetic theory

Key decisions in the genetic shuffling that occurs before eggs or sperm are formed are made earlier than thought, rewriting textbook genetics, according to recent papers from researchers at UC Davis, Harvard University and UC San Diego.

16 Apr 2004

Extensive gene traffic, the process of genes leaving and arriving on the chromosome

Researchers at the University of Chicago have discovered there is extensive gene “traffic”—the process of genes leaving and arriving on the chromosome—on the mammalian X chromosome. They also have overturned a conventional theory about how genes evolved on the sex chromosome.

16 Apr 2004

New gene presents a potent new target for breast cancer therapy

A gene known to promote longevity in animals has now been discovered to encode a tumor suppressor – a protein that helps prevent cancer, according to a study by a team of scientists from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. The new gene, which was inactivated in two-thirds of patients studied, presents a potent new target for breast cancer therapy, the researchers say.

16 Apr 2004

Microbiologists have characterised the DNA in bacteria responsible for vomiting

James Cook University microbiologists have characterised the DNA in bacteria responsible for one of the world's most common forms of food poisoning.

16 Apr 2004

New forensic tool to detect infectious diseases

Tests for the detection of infectious diseases in North Queensland will be faster and cheaper, thanks to the purchase of new equipment in James Cook University's School of Biomedical Sciences.

16 Apr 2004

Computer technology helps to make sense of human brain

Through the HBP, federal agencies fund a system of web-based databases and research tools that help brain scientists share and integrate their raw, primary research data. At the conference, eminent neuroscientists and neuroinformatics specialists will recap the field's achievements and forecast its future technological, scientific and social challenges and opportunities.

16 Apr 2004