More than 450 world experts from 60 countries will converge on Adelaide, Australia this week to discuss the importance of DNA "barcoding" - a rapidly growing international initiative to develop a genetic identity tool for all plants and animals on Earth.
Cells often multi-task when synthesizing and splicing RNA. But when unconventional splicing is required, they synthesize first and splice later, according to a study led by researchers at the Public Health Research Institute at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School and published in Cell .
A University of Utah biologist and an international research team decoded the genetic blueprint of the two-spotted spider mite, raising hope for new ways to attack the major pest, which resists pesticides and destroys crops and ornamental plants worldwide.
Research at Iowa State University has led to discovery of a genetic method that can increase biomass in algae by 50 to 80 percent. The breakthrough comes from turning on certain genes in algae that increase the amount of photosynthesis in the plant, which leads to more biomass.
An international team of scientists has created super-strong, high-endurance mice and worms by suppressing a natural muscle-growth inhibitor, suggesting treatments for age-related or genetics-related muscle degeneration are within reach.
Each time a cell divides—and it takes millions of cell divisions to create a fully grown human body from a single fertilized cell—its chromosomes have to be accurately divvied up between both daughter cells. Researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research used, ironically enough, the single-celled organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae—commonly known as baker’s yeast—to gain new insight into the process by which chromosomes are physically segregated during cell division.
Research published in Science today reveals that the first individuals settling on new land are more successful at passing on their genes than those who did not migrate.
Summary of a study being published online October 31, 2011, in the Journal of Clinical Oncology finding that close relatives of women who carry mutations in a BRCA gene – but who themselves do not have such genetic mutations ¬– do not have an increased risk of developing breast cancer compared to relatives of women with breast cancer who do not have such mutations. These results run counter to a previous study showing a higher risk for these women, and suggest they may not need extra cancer screening and other preventive measures
Scientists at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute and Yale University have identified a new target area in the human genome that appears to harbor genes with a major role in the onset of depression.
Researchers are exploring a novel therapeutic approach intended to modify the genetic make-up of radioiodine-refractory forms of thyroid cancer to make them more susceptible to the anti-cancer effects of radioiodine therapy.
The Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) submitted comments to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in which the Association voiced concerns about the proposed Genetic Testing Registry (GTR) as currently designed, and requested that NIH take clarity and cost into consideration when designing a test registry.
– Individuals with advanced papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) that are associated with the BRAFV600E gene mutation have a higher risk of recurrent disease and progression to more advanced, poorly differentiated thyroid cancer, according to data presented today at the 81st Annual Meeting of the American Thyroid Association (ATA).
Whitehead Institute scientists have determined that master transcription factors determine the genes regulated by key signaling pathways. By manipulating these pathways, scientists may find new ways to treat cancer and other diseases.
Michael Kanost, distinguished professor and head of the department of biochemistry at Kansas State University, heads one of the premier laboratories conducting research on insect immunity.
Nir Barzilai, M.D., director of the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, will help lead a newly formed centenarian consortium for the Archon Genomics X PRIZE presented by Medco. The $10 million dollar incentivized prize competition, which was announced today, challenges teams of scientists and entrepreneurs to sequence the complete genomes of 100 healthy centenarians in 30 days. Intended to help usher in an era of personalized medicine and learn from the genetic advantages of the exceptionally long-lived, the competition tasks teams with delivering medical quality genome sequencing results for $1,000 per centenarian.
In what is so far the largest investigation of its kind, researchers uncovered a wide range of new insights about common diseases and how they are affected by differences between two persons' genes. The results from this study could lead to highly targeted, individualized therapies.
DNA sequences for human and chimpanzees are nearly indentical, despite vast phenotypical differences between the two species. Georgia Tech researchers have determined that the insertion and deletion of large pieces of DNA near genes are highly variable between humans and chimpanzees and may account for these major differences.
A new study provides evidence that changes in gene regulation may contribute to the development of bipolar disorder. Researchers found low levels of a transcription factor in the brain’s prefrontal cortex and cerebellum in postmortem samples from patients with bipolar disorder, suggesting a new target for drug therapy.
1) Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease affects 12.5 million people worldwide; some patients develop severe disease during early childhood
2) Certain genetic mutations aggravate the disease and cause early symptoms
3) Genetic tests could identify who’s at risk for early disease.
Dana-Farber and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have launched a research program to scan adult cancer patients’ tumor tissue for nearly 500 cancer mutations in 41 genes. The goal is to build a comprehensive database for research into the genetic makeup of different cancer types and, ultimately, the development of more treatments.
Young genes that appeared since the primates split from other mammal species are expressed in unique structures of the developing human brain, a new analysis finds. The correlation suggests that scientists studying the evolution of the human brain should look to genes considered recent by evolutionary standards and early stages of brain development.
Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) and two other institutions have uncovered a vast new gene regulatory network in mammalian cells that could explain genetic variability in cancer and other diseases. The studies appear in today’s online edition of Cell.
An international team—led by researchers at McMaster University and the University of Tubingen in Germany—has sequenced the entire genome of the Black Death, one of the most devastating epidemics in human history.
A Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine study could lead to improved gene therapies for conditions such as heart disease and cancer as well as more effective vaccines for tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases.
Among women with a certain type of high-grade ovarian cancer, having BRCA2 genetic mutations, but not BRCA1, was associated with improved overall survival and improved response to chemotherapy, compared to women with BRCA wild-type (genetic type used as a reference to compare genetic mutations), according to a study in the October 12 issue of JAMA.
Chromosomal microarray (CMA)—a powerful test for diagnosing the genetic abnormalities causing some types of developmental delay and birth defects—can be used in an evidence-based manner to provide important information for patient treatment, according to a pair of studies in the September issue of Genetics in Medicine, the official peer-reviewed journal of The American College of Medical Genetics. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine say that losing the ability to make a particular kind of sugar molecule boosted disease protection in early hominids, and may have directed the evolutionary emergence of our ancestors, the genus Homo.
Genetic information transferred within cells plays an essential role both in the healthy function of the human body and in changes within cells that can trigger serious disease. New research led by Dmitry Temiakov, Ph.D., of UMDNJ-School of Osteopathic Medicine, has identified important mechanisms of this genetic transfer process for the first time. These new findings, published in the journal Nature, open the door to developing potential therapies for several serious diseases including cancers. They also add to basic knowledge of the functioning of the healthy human body.
Among the latest health care trends seeking to advance “individualized medicine” are private companies marketing genetic testing directly to patients. The mail-in kits, with price tags as high as $2,500, use a saliva specimen to identify small variations in the human genome (called “single nucleotide polymorphisms” or “SNPs”) associated with heightened risk for diseases such as diabetes and prostate cancer.
The largest-ever analysis of genetic data related to type 1 diabetes has uncovered new genes associated with the common metabolic disease, which affects 200 million people. The findings shed light on gene networks in the disorder.
Ever wondered why you wake up in the morning ---- even when the alarm clock isn't making jarring noises? Wonder no more. Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified a new component of the biological clock, a gene responsible for starting the clock from its restful state every morning.
Put up your dukes. A North Carolina State University study of aggression in fruit flies aims to provide a framework for how complex gene interactions affect behavior. And these clues in flies could translate to a better understanding of human genes and behavior.
A team of researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington has conducted the first comprehensive assessment of every gene in the genome of advanced, lethal prostate cancer. Until now, the genetic composition of such tumors had been poorly defined.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists tie low levels of a key DNA repair protein to loss of regulatory genes in a study that offers new clues about why acute lymphoblastic leukemia sometimes returns.
In seeking to better understand how teosinte gave rise to corn, a scientific team has pinpointed one of the key genetic changes that paved the way for corn’s domestication.
Researchers at Mayo Clinic are hacking the genetic code that controls the human response to disease vaccination, and they are using this new cipher to answer many of the deep-seated questions that plague vaccinology, including why patients respond so differently to identical vaccines and how to minimize the side effects to vaccination.
Frontotemporal dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease -- two fatal neurodegenerative disease with distinct but sometimes overlapping symptoms -- are triggered by a common mutation in many cases, according to researchers who say they have identified the mutated gene.
Cornell University researchers are utilizing the complete genome sequences of people alive today to shed light on events at the dawn of human history, such as the times of divergence of early human populations and of the “out of Africa” migration of the ancestors of modern Europeans, Asians, and other non-African groups.
Results of a new study at the University of Massachusetts Amherst suggest that people in midlife who are at genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease might show subtle differences in the speed at which they process information compared to those who do not have particular genetic risk.
Researchers have developed a new method to sequence and analyze the dark matter of life—the genomes of thousands of bacteria species previously beyond scientists’ reach, from microorganisms that produce antibiotics and biofuels to microbes living in the human body.
A new study found that genes involved in creating different sexes, life stages and castes of fire ants and honeybees evolved more rapidly than genes not involved in these processes. The fast-evolving genes also exhibited elevated rates of evolution before they were recruited for development.
This study of more than 50,000 adults ages 18 and older provides new molecular evidence that 11 DNA regions in the human genome have strong association with these diseases, including six regions not previously observed.
A study by epidemiologists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and colleagues suggests that a high intake of calcium causes prostate cancer among African-American men who are genetically good absorbers of the mineral.