Having charted the occurrence of a common chemical change that takes place while stem cells decide their fates and progress from precursor to progeny, a Johns Hopkins-led team of scientists has produced the first-ever epigenetic landscape map for tissue differentiation…
Researchers at Rice University have won federal support to develop a genomic test that can quickly determine whether a disease outbreak is caused by a natural pathogen or one that was grown in a lab by terrorists…
In experiments with potentially broad health care implications, a research team led by a University of Washington physicist has devised a method that works at a very small scale to sequence DNA quickly and relatively inexpensively…
Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have uncovered the genes that regulate MDM2, an oncogene that, in turn, regulates the tumor suppressor protein p53. But instead of an on-off switch for MDM2, the team found what looks like a dimmer switch, suggesting a more complicated signaling pathway that is sensitive to a changing environment. Reported in the Aug…
In a discovery that has implications for developing treatments against cancer and potentially deadly viruses, researchers at SUNY Downstate Medical Center have discovered the function of proteins that can enhance the progression of certain viruses and cancer cells. Their findings were published in the journal Genes and Development…
It is now clear that RNA plays a major role in cell biology, ranging from regulation to catalysis and structural organization, while also serving as an important tool in functional genomics…
Together with colleagues from an international research group, autism researcher Christopher Gillberg of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, has found in a new study that autism can be partially explained by abnormalities in certain genes. The group’s results could, in the long run, pave the way for more appropriate treatments for autism…
Researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have for the first time identified 12 genes that could be associated with aggressive breast tumours. The discovery could result in more reliable prognoses and better treatment strategies for patients. The results, published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, are based on analyses of breast tumours from 97 female breast cancer patients…
Researchers at Tufts University School of Medicine and Tufts Medical Center have identified an RNA sequence that promotes increased numbers of specific microRNAs (miRNAs), molecules that regulate cell growth, development, and stress response. The discovery helps researchers understand the links between miRNA expression and disease, including heart disease and cancer…
The cloning of animals may have come from agriculture, but its real promise may be in the lucrative field of medicine rather than as food.
A link between the level of active DNA repair genes in melanoma tumours and the effectiveness of chemotherapy for skin cancer patients has been established for the first time by a team of scientists…
A team of researchers has discovered new evidence that Parkinson’s disease may have an infectious or autoimmune origin. “Common genetic variation in the HLA region is associated with late-onset sporadic Parkinson’s disease” appears online in Nature Genetics…
A regulatory protein best known for its role in a rare genetic brain disorder also may play a critical role in cocaine addiction, according to a recent study in rats, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), a component of the National Institutes of Health. The study was published in the journal Nature Neuroscience. Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Fla…
Advanced Cell Diagnostics, Inc. (ACD), announces the launch and immediate availability of RNAscope™ FFPE Assay Kit, a line of RUO (Research-Use-Only) products designed to detect RNA biomarkers in routine Formalin-Fixed, Paraffin-Embedded (FFPE) tissue specimens with single molecule sensitivity…
An international team of researchers conducting a genome-wide association study (GWAS) has discovered that common variants in immune system genes are linked to Parkinson’s disease…
Using a new, rapid and less expensive DNA sequencing strategy, scientists have discovered genetic alterations that account for most cases of Kabuki syndrome, a rare disorder that causes multiple birth defects and mental retardation. Instead of sequencing the entire human genome, the new approach sequences just the exome, the 1-2 percent of the human genome that contains protein-coding genes…
When a certain protein is mutated or missing, symptoms of the neurodevelopmental disorder Rett syndrome arise, causing a gradual loss of brain function during early development…
The easy accessibility of the eye and the established link between specific genetic defects and ocular disorders offer hope for using gene therapy to provide long-term therapeutic benefit. Two reports in the current issue of Human Gene Therapy, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc…
Scientists are turning to a decades-old technique to better understand the physical effects of compression on macromolecules and how it might impact their research in proteomics, mass spectrometry, protein extraction, and tissue investigations, reports Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN)…
Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University has been named one of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Nathan Shock Centers of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging. The select group of five centers nationwide provides leadership in the pursuit of basic research into the biology of aging. Einstein’s designation includes a $3.1 million, five-year grant from the NIH’s …
An opinion piece by a legal scholar from the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics in this week’s issue of Nature calls for the Food and Drug Administration to regulate all health-related genetic tests whether available directly to consumers or through a health care provider using an approach that imposes requirements proportionate to a test’s level of risk…
A Cox Business light-speed computer connection coupled with advanced, military-grade technology now provides Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) with the nation’s fastest supercomputer link among life-sciences facilities…
A novel mutation found in a mouse gene might provide new insights into the genetic roots of alcoholism in humans, according to a study led by researchers at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center and the University of California, San Francisco. The study is published August 12th in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics…
Within a dangerous stomach bacterium, Yale University researchers have discovered an ancient but functioning genetic remnant from a time before DNA existed, they report in the August 13 issue of the journal Science…
A team of investigators led by a physician-scientist at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has shown for the first time that the small protein SUMO can team up with the replication protein A (RPA) complex to facilitate DNA repair. The study is published in the Aug. 13 edition of the journal Molecular Cell…