Feature Channels: Genetics

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have made an unexpected finding about the method by which certain genes are activated. Contrary to what researchers have traditionally assumed, genes that work with other genes to build protein structures do not act in a coordinated way but instead are turned on randomly. The surprising discovery, described in the December 5 online edition of Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, may fundamentally change the way scientists think about the way cellular processes are synchronized.

• share
• favorite_border

Male mice born with a genetic mutation that’s believed to make humans more susceptible to schizophrenia develop behaviors that mimic other major psychiatric illnesses when their mothers are exposed to an assault to the immune system while pregnant, according to new Johns Hopkins research.

• share
• favorite_border

Personalized medicine centers on being able to predict the risk of disease or response to a drug based on a person’s genetic makeup. But a study by scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests that, for most common diseases, genes alone only tell part of the story. Their research shows the environment interacts with DNA in ways that are difficult to predict, even in simple organisms like single-celled yeast.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study offers hope for children born with a rare genetic disease, according to a paper published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

• share
• favorite_border

An international team has identified a gene that appears to be an important switch in determining whether the biological program for the development of gender will go according to plan, or if, when mutated, will cause a glitch in the program.

• share
• favorite_border

A large genetic study of people with major depression has found that a duplicated region of DNA on chromosome 5 predisposes people to the disorder. The gene at that site influences nerve cell development.

• share
• favorite_border

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified a gene responsible for a rare disease that results in severe joint stiffness, muscle loss, anemia and panniculitis-induced lipodystrophy, or JMP syndrome.

• share
• favorite_border

So, he or she has cheated on you for the umpteenth time and their only excuse is: “I just can’t help it.” According to researchers at Binghamton University, they may be right. The propensity for infidelity could very well be in their DNA.

• share
• favorite_border

The fragile regions in mammalian genomes that are thought to play a key role in evolution go through a "birth and death" process, according to new bioinformatics research performed at the University of California, San Diego. The new work, published in the journal Genome Biology on November 30, could help researchers identify the current fragile regions in the human genome – information that may reveal how the human genome will evolve in the future.

• share
• favorite_border

Whitehead Institute researchers have shown in mouse models that overexpression of the microRNA 125b (miR-125b) can independently cause leukemia and accelerate the disease’s progression in mice.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers have identified a novel geneon chromosome 15q that, when altered, causes nemaline myopathy with cores, a rare inherited muscle disorder.

• share
• favorite_border

Playing online can mean more than killing time, thanks to a new game developed by a team of bioinformaticians at McGill University. Now, players can contribute in a fun way to genetic research.

• share
• favorite_border

Genomic Standards Consortium (GSC) published new standard for describing marker genes with "Minimum Information about an ENvironmental Sequence (MIENS).

• share
• favorite_border

Vivian G. Cheung, M.D., a geneticist at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, received the Curt Stern Award of the American Society of Human Genetics on Sat., Nov. 6, at the Society’s 60th Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Iowa State University, China Agricultural University and the Beijing Genomics Institute in China recently re-sequenced and compared six elite inbred corn (maize) lines, including the parents of the most productive commercial hybrids in China and found entire genes that were missing from one line to another.

• share
• favorite_border

Binghamton University researchers recently revived ancient bacteria trapped for thousands of years in water droplets embedded in salt crystals. For decades, geologists have looked at these water droplets — called fluid inclusions — and wondered whether microbes could be extracted from them. Fluid inclusions have been found inside salt crystals ranging in age from thousands to hundreds of millions years old.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia have identified both common and rare gene variants associated with the eating disorder anorexia nervosa. It is the largest genetic study of this condition.

• share
• favorite_border

Discovery of a fifth gene defect and the identification of 47 DNA regions linked to thoracic aortic disease are the subject of studies released this month involving researchers at UTHealth.

• share
• favorite_border

A team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and their colleagues describe a molecular pathway that is a key determinant of the aging process.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida have found a clue as to how some people develop a form of dementia that affects the brain areas associated with personality, behavior, and language.