Genetics News and Research

Latest Genetics News and Research

Special patch improves heart function after heart attacks

Researchers in the U.S. have developed a special patch which regenerates cardiac cells after a heart attack; when the patch is placed on the damaged area of the heart it improves heart function.

17 Jul 2007

Depression and smoking link

Ever wonder why smoking and depression seem to go together? A Saint Louis University School of Public Health researcher finds the connection is genetic.

17 Jul 2007

Protein km23 - potential target for ovarian cancer treatment

A traffic cop protein in the cell may have an even more important role: transporting a messenger protein that tells components in the nucleus to stop cell growth.

17 Jul 2007

Researchers identify new combination therapy that promotes cancer cell death

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine identified a combination therapy as a way to sensitize resistant human cancer cells to a treatment currently being tested in clinical trials They propose that the therapy may help to selectively eliminate cancer cells while leaving healthy cells intact, providing a cancer treatment with fewer side effects.

17 Jul 2007

Gene analysis and biostatistics

Three-stage procedures offer an optimal relationship between costs and benefits in analysing genetic influences in diseases and therapies, a fact that has major practical importance for the ever growing number of gene analyses.

17 Jul 2007

FDA approves gene test to detect spread of breast cancer into lymph nodes

Veridex, LLC, a Johnson & Johnson company, has announced U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the first intra-operative and gene-based test to detect the spread of breast cancer into the lymph nodes.

17 Jul 2007

New hope for insulin dependent diabetes cure

A diagnosis of type I diabetes means a life sentence of medical follow-up.

17 Jul 2007

Gene detectives discover culprit for type 1 diabetes

Researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and McGill University in Montreal have discovered a gene they believe is the culprit in a person developing type 1 diabetes.

16 Jul 2007

Paint helps surgeons see where a tumor begins and ends

A tumor paint developed by researchers at Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center will help surgeons see where a tumor begins and ends more precisely by illuminating the cancerous cells.

16 Jul 2007

Key mechanism to emergence of deadly strep bacteria discovered

The incidence of serious strep infections has risen dramatically in the last three decades, and this increase is largely attributed to the spread around the globe of a single strain of strep known as the invasive M1T1 clone.

16 Jul 2007

New genomics-based technology

Bruce S. Gillis, M.D., M.P.H., a medical toxicologist and CEO of the research group, The Cytokine Institute, will present a tutorial on a new genomics-based technology, msds1(TM).

16 Jul 2007

New gene found for type 1 diabetes in children

Pediatrics researchers at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and McGill University in Montreal have identified a gene variant that raises a child's risk for type 1 diabetes, formerly called juvenile diabetes.

16 Jul 2007

ACMG recognizes progress made in newborn screening

In support of the latest March of Dimes Newborn Screening Report Card, the American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG) strongly urges every state to require complete testing of all newborns for a 'core panel' of genetic and congenital conditions.

16 Jul 2007

Hope for cure for insulin-dependent diabetes

A diagnosis of type I diabetes means a life sentence of medical follow-up. While treatments have become simpler and less restrictive in recent years, they are still a burden, especially for young patients.

16 Jul 2007

Discovery of one important function of junk DNA

Scientists have only recently begun to speculate that what's referred to as junk DNA , the 96 percent of the human genome that doesn't encode for proteins and previously seemed to have no useful purpose , is present in the genome for an important reason.

13 Jul 2007

New target for muscular dystrophy drug therapy

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine report how the gene for utrophin, which codes for a protein very similar to dystrophin, the defective protein in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), puts the brakes on its own expression in muscle cells, thereby suggesting a new target for treatment.

13 Jul 2007

New DNA sequencing technology at University of Liverpool

Unique technology, that uses the enzymes of fireflies to read the genetic code of DNA, has been installed at the University of Liverpool.

13 Jul 2007

Scientists discover human genes hover between "on"and "off" in any given cell

Biologists have long thought that a simple on/off switch controls most genes in human cells.

13 Jul 2007

Rochester now offers gene test to detect Batten disease

Rochester has become one of only a handful of communities around the world to offer a genetic test to detect Batten disease, a deadly inherited disorder.

12 Jul 2007

New data about the laws governing embryo development in organisms

Research aimed at understanding the mechanisms underlying embryo development has taken a step forward thanks to collaborative work between biologists specialized in the study of the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) and scientists specialized in the design of mathematical models that simulate the functioning of biological systems.

12 Jul 2007