Genetics News and Research

Latest Genetics News and Research

Researchers improve accuracy of breast cancer prognoses

One of the many unknowns facing women who are diagnosed with breast cancer is predicting the likelihood that the cancer will spread to other parts of the body – metastasize.

17 Oct 2007

The genetics of MLL leukemogenesis

In the November 1st issue of G&D, Dr. Michael Cleary (Stanford University School of Medicine) and colleagues identify the gene Meis1 as a critical player in the establishment of leukemia stem cells, and the development of MLL leukemia.

17 Oct 2007

Existing drugs may be useful in treating brain tumors

Scientists have shown how developing brain tumors can turn an encounter with a signaling molecule from a fatal experience for the tumor cells into a cue for their own growth and multiplication.

17 Oct 2007

Study identifies pathway required for normal reproductive development

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) clinical researchers, in collaboration with basic scientists from the University of California, Irvine (UC Irvine) have identified a new molecular pathway required for normal development of the reproductive, olfactory and circadian systems in both humans and mice.

17 Oct 2007

Genetics play a key role in obesity

New evidence that genetics plays a key role in obesity is published today in the International Journal of Bioinformatics Research and Applications.

17 Oct 2007

New technique to probe the dynamics of the Holliday junction

The Holliday junction is a four-stranded DNA structure that forms during a process known as homologous recombination, which occurs when damaged DNA is repaired. Understanding how DNA repairs itself is an essential step in ultimately developing therapies for genetic disorders.

17 Oct 2007

Discovery of new area for exploration of schizophrenia

Schizophrenia may occur, in part, because of a problem in an intermittent on/off switch for a gene involved in making a key chemical messenger in the brain, scientists have found in a study of human brain tissue.

17 Oct 2007

Genetic contributions to human brain morphology and intelligence

While showing an impressive growth prenatally, the human brain is not completed at birth.

17 Oct 2007

Comparative genome analysis of fungi brings new knowledge to develop protein production

VTT's Research Scientist Mikko Arvas presents his doctoral thesis on 19 October at 12 at the University of Helsinki, Finland.

17 Oct 2007

Contraceptive pill with no side-effects in the pipeline

Scientists in the United States are developing a new contraceptive pill with no side-effects.

17 Oct 2007

Dmp1 gene and lung cancer

The first research to show the involvement of a gene known as Dmp1 in human lung cancer will hopefully lead to an increased understanding on what goes wrong at the cellular level to cause the disease, according to researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine reporting in Cancer Cell .

16 Oct 2007

Researchers specifically manipulate tumor angiogenesis gene

Angiogenesis is a common process that is essential for tumor growth beyond 2 mm. Although numerous growth factors are involved, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), particularly VEGF-A, has been shown to play an important role in tumor angiogenesis.

16 Oct 2007

Insomniac fish help understand the genetics behind sleep disorders

Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have hooked a fish that suffers from insomnia in their quest to understand the genetics behind sleep disorders.

16 Oct 2007

Newly solved structure reveals how cells resist oxygen damage

The sun's rays give life, but also take it away. Singlet oxygen, a byproduct of the photosynthetic process by which certain cells convert sunlight into energy, is a highly toxic and reactive substance that tears cells apart.

16 Oct 2007

New active compound for the treatment of malaria

Malaria is caused by Plasmodium parasites and it is the female Anopheles mosquito that acts as a vector for these malarial parasites in to the human body.

16 Oct 2007

Researchers working on the development of drugs to limit neuronal death

Neurons die en masse when the spinal cord is injured or when a person suffers a stroke. Researchers of the Max Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, Germany, and of Aarhus University, Denmark, have unraveled the molecular mechanism which causes the death not only of damaged neurons, but also of healthy nerve cells.

16 Oct 2007

New insight into Herceptin resistance in breast cancer

A new study provides important insight into the mechanisms involved in resistance to treatment of breast cancer patients with trastuzumab (Herceptin). The research, published by Cell Press in the October issue of the journal Cancer Cell , identifies markers that may help to identify patients who are unlikely to respond to trastuzumab treatment and provides a potential strategy for treating these patients.

16 Oct 2007