Genetics News and Research

Latest Genetics News and Research

Target identified for therapeutic drugs to fight adult brain cancer

A research team at UT Southwestern Medical Center has discovered a cell-signaling mechanism instrumental in the most common brain cancer in adults.

16 Jan 2006

Identification of gene in childhood kidney disease

An international research collaboration led by Mayo Clinic has identified a new gene involved in causing the inherited kidney disorder, Meckel-Gruber syndrome (MKS). Children with MKS have central nervous system deformities as well as abnormal cysts in their kidneys, and usually die shortly after birth.

16 Jan 2006

Diabetes gene found in 40% of population

Researchers in Iceland say they have identified a single genetic change which could predispose close to 40 percent of the population to type-2 diabetes.

16 Jan 2006

Sickle cell corrected with gene copy

Scientists in the U.S. say they have found a way to use embryonic stem cells to correct the mutation that causes sickle cell disease in mice.

16 Jan 2006

DinB DNA polymerase is a key player in DNA repair

A quarter century after they discovered it, researchers have identified the job of one of the most common DNA-damage response proteins. The enzyme has puzzled scientists because it is present in nearly every organism, which suggests that it is crucial to life, and yet, in laboratory experiments, its function has remained a mystery.

11 Jan 2006

St. Jude projects 90 percent cure rate for acute lymphoblastic leukemia

The cure rate for the once almost universally fatal childhood cancer acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) could reach 90 percent in the near future, thanks to improvements in diagnosis and treatment over the past four decades, according to investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

11 Jan 2006

Protein finding could lead to new topical treatment for inflammatory diseases

A protein that undesirably shields a skin poxvirus from the immune system may become the key ingredient in a new topical treatment for inflammatory diseases, say medical researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

11 Jan 2006

New disability website launched

Med Services Europe has announced the launch of " New Disability", a website dedicated to products for the disabled community. According to Dr. Gene Emmer, President of Med Services Europe, the goal of New Disability is to be a platform to advance the commercialization of assistive technology.

11 Jan 2006

Hedgehog protein plays a role in regulating fat and bone

A protein that guides the early development of creatures as diverse as fruit flies and humans also plays a role in regulating fat and bone formation in adult organisms, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered.

10 Jan 2006

Tobacco plant-derived vaccines safeguard against Yersinia pestis

Through an innovative feat of plant biotechnology and vaccine design, researchers in the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University have successfully turned tobacco plants into vaccine production factories to combat the deadliest form

10 Jan 2006

Gene that increases risk for Alzheimer's disease

An international team of researchers, led by investigators at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, are zeroing in on a gene that increases risk for Alzheimer's disease. They have identified a region of chromosome 10 that appears to be involved in risk for the disease that currently affects an estimated 4.5 million Americans.

10 Jan 2006

Brain plays a major role in the ability of insulin therapy to lower blood sugar in animals with diabetes

"Our findings suggest that, in individuals with diabetes, the ability of insulin to lower blood sugar involves the brain," said senior author of the study, Michael Schwartz of the University of Washington at Seattle. "This effect is not trivial; the brain makes a substantial contribution to insulin response."

10 Jan 2006

Evidence for impaired retroviral defense genes in humans

Researchers Harmit Malik and Michael Emerman and colleagues at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have found that a surprisingly large fraction of humans may be impaired in the function of a recently discovered arm of the body's defense against invading retroviruses such as HIV.

10 Jan 2006

Detecting MRSA outbreaks

German researchers have proposed an automated DNA sequence-based early warning system to detect methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) outbreaks in hospitals, which they say could replace traditional slower techniques.

10 Jan 2006

Risk for depression similar in men and women

Men and women may share more similarities than previously thought when it comes to the risk factors for major depression, according to a new study by Virginia Commonwealth University researchers.

10 Jan 2006

Psychiatric patients who smoke

An editorial in the January 2006 issue of the Psychiatric Bulletin reviews the evidence for the effectiveness of gene-based smoking cessation packages, and asks whether they are appropriate for psychiatric patients.

10 Jan 2006

Human Genome Sciences announces license agreement with Amgen

Human Genome Sciences has announced a license agreement with Amgen under which Amgen has acquired exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize therapeutic biological products for human use based on a human gene discovered by Human Genome Sciences that may have potential applications in autoimmune diseases, immune deficiencies or suppression, and cancer.

10 Jan 2006

Slow human evolution revealed by worm genome

Humans have retained genomic characteristics of a very ancient ancestor that have been lost in simpler animals such as the fly, indicating that humans are one of the most slowly evolving species. This is the finding of an international team of scientists including Dr David Ferrier of Oxford’s Department of Zoology published in a recent edition of the journal Science.

10 Jan 2006

Genetic mutation that protects against HIV increases the risk of West Nile Virus infection

A genetic mutation that protects against HIV increases the risk of developing clinical West Nile Virus infection, according to a new study appearing online on January 9th in The Journal of Experimental Medicine.

9 Jan 2006

AIDS drugs from sunflowers

Sunflowers can produce a substance which prevents the AIDS pathogen HIV from reproducing, at least in cell cultures. This is the result of research carried out by scientists at the University of Bonn in cooperation with the caesar research centre.

9 Jan 2006