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.
Ten years of meticulous mouse breeding, screening, and record-keeping have finally paid off for Alan Attie and his lab members.
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.
An x-ray of the abnormally large clitoris of a French bulldog revealed that it contained a baculum (or penile bone).
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.
Findings represent a significant advance in understanding the causes of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
1) Differences could explain the higher rates of prostate cancer and mortality. 2) Understanding differences could lead to specialized treatment.
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 unique study shows the progress of soybean breeding for improved animal nutrition.
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.
A "hidden" code linked to the DNA of plants allows them to develop and pass down new biological traits far more rapidly than previously thought, according to the findings of a groundbreaking study by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
A new paper, building on recent advances in sequencing capability, now reports the complete genomes of 17 different strains of mice, creating an unparalleled genetic resource that will aid studies ranging from human disease to evolution.
Scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have uncovered a previously unknown fail-safe (compensatory) pathway that potentially protects the brain and other organs from genetic and environmental threats. The discovery could provide new ways to diminish the negative consequences of genetic mutations and environmental toxins that cause neurological diseases and other maladies.
In the quest to understand genomes—how they’re built, how they’re organized and what makes them work—a team of Johns Hopkins researchers has engineered from scratch a computer-designed yeast chromosome and incorporated into their creation a new system that lets scientists intentionally rearrange the yeast’s genetic material. A report of their work appears September 14 as an Advance Online Publication in the journal Nature.
Scientists have deciphered the genome of a bacterium implicated as a key player in regulating the immune system of mice. The genomic analysis provides the first glimpse of its unusually sparse genetic blueprint and offers hints about how it may activate a powerful immune response that protects mice from infection but also spurs harmful inflammation.
An enzyme that appears to play a role in controlling the brain's response to nicotine and alcohol in mice might be a promising target for a drug that simultaneously would treat nicotine addiction and alcohol abuse in people, according to a study by researchers at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center, affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco.
Toxin proteins are genetically engineered into our food because they kill insects by perforating body cell walls, and Professor Rikard Blunck of the University of Montreal’s Group for the study of membrane proteins (GÉPROM) has detected the molecular mechanism involved.
Dana-Farber researchers successfully disrupted the function of the gene MYC by tampering with the gene's "on" switch and growth signals in multiple myeloma cells, offering promising strategy for treating myeloma and other cancers driven by the MYC gene.
A large team of international researchers have identified a new genetic cause of inherited Parkinson’s disease that they say may be related to the inability of brain cells to handle biological stress.
Thousands of scientists around the world are working on AMPK but the McMaster team is the first to demonstrate its essential role in exercise. Their research appears in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University report in the September 4 online edition of Nature Medicine that they have developed a tuberculosis (TB) vaccine candidate that proved both potent and safe in animal studies. According to the World Health Organization, TB kills an estimated 1.7 million people each year and infects one out of three people around the globe. With drug-resistant strains spreading, a vaccine for preventing TB is urgently needed.
Although several genes have been linked to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), it is still unknown how they cause this progressive neurodegenerative disease. In a new study, Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers have demonstrated that two ALS-associated genes work in tandem to support the long-term survival of motor neurons. The findings were published in the September 1 online edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Two Kansas State University researchers have been collaborating on an international project involving genomes of Arabidopsis thaliana, a model plant species that can offer insights into other plants. Their collaborative work, titled "Multiple reference genomes and transcriptomes for Arabidopsis thaliana," appears online in the journal Nature.
A new saliva test can measure the amount of potential carcinogens stuck to a person’s DNA — interfering with the action of genes involved in health and disease — and could lead to a commercial test to help determine risks for cancer and other diseases, scientists reported here today during the 242nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
It's all about the grandkids! That's what a team led by an Indiana University biologist has learned about promiscuous female birds and why they mate outside their social pair.
An international team of researchers led by neuroscientists at Mayo Clinic in Florida has found a genetic variation they say protects against Parkinson’s disease.
Employing technology that reads the entire DNA code, researchers led by the Translational Genomics Research Institute and the Technical University of Denmark have pinpointed the source of a cholera outbreak in Haiti that killed more than 6,000 people and sickened 300,000.
An international team of researchers believes it has identified the wild yeast that, in the age of sail, apparently traveled more than 7,000 miles to make a fortuitous microbial match that today underpins the $250 billion a year lager beer industry.
Researchers at NYU School of Medicine have discovered the cellular mechanisms that normally generate chromosomal breaks in bacteria such as E. coli. The study’s findings are published in the August 18 issue of the journal Cell.
Leaders in biomedical education at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine are calling for a radical new approach to post-graduate training in the life sciences to address significant challenges, including an avalanche of new discoveries in the last decade and the need to transcend traditional departmental boundaries to understand biological processes at multiple levels.
New genetic evidence presented by a team led by Indiana University biology doctoral graduate Benjamin Blackman confirms the eastern United States as the single geographic domestication site of modern sunflowers.
Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have devised a gene therapy cocktail that has the potential to treat some inherited diseases associated with “misfolded” proteins.
In a new study published in the August 16th issue of Developmental Cell, researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center identified a molecular mechanism that guarantees that new blood vessels form in the right place and with the proper abundance.
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