Cold sores are the most common recurrent viral infection that people get-and University of Utah medical researchers say there's a good chance that a predisposition to them is inherited through one of six genes.
Children who possess a gene that allows them to produce high levels of nitric oxide are protected from two of the deadliest forms of malaria, according to a report published today.
An international consortium of researchers has identified the mutated gene that causes hyperparathyroidism-jaw tumor syndrome, a rare condition that leads to benign tumors of the parathyroid glands, jaw bones, and kidney. Affected people are also at risk of developing parathyroid cancer.
Mario R. Capecchi, Ph.D., University of Utah distinguished professor of genetics and biology, has won the 2002/2003 Wolf Prize and the 2003 Pezcoller-AACR Award for his pioneering research in gene targeting.
As people age, their telomeres-the ends of their chromosomes--get shorter, which holds major implications for people over 60 because shortened telomeres in blood are associated with increased risks of dying from heart disease or infectious diseases.
University of Utah School of Medicine infectious diseases specialists have made important findings regarding the production of nitric oxide and the ability of the human body to prevent or fight malaria, a major killer of children in tropical countries.
University of Utah researchers have developed a rapid direct sequence gene test that detects the most common form of muscular dystrophy in at least 95 percent of cases-a far higher success rate than the currently available test-and at a feasible cost.
A form of the hormone progesterone called hydroxyprogesterone caproate, or 17P, can reduce preterm births by up to one-third, according to a study due out in the June 12 New England Journal of Medicine.
University of Utah researchers have identified genes that help explain why mice, people and other mammals evolved with modern rib cages instead of having snake-like ribs that extend from the neck to the tailbone. By disabling the genes, geneticists bred mice with extra ribs that start below the chest's normal rib cage and continue down through the lower back and to the tail.
Previous estimates of the amount of neutron dose received by Hiroshima atomic-bomb survivors are essentially accurate and the existing standards for estimating risk for radiation-induced cancer need not be changed.
Utah and New York researchers have discovered how a gene in the AIDS virus hijacks the human gene and turns it into a weapon that prevents reproduction of immune-system white blood cells, leaving AIDS patients vulnerable to deadly infections and cancer.
University of Utah researchers have identified genes that ensure nerves develop in the correct part of the brain so mice can roll their eyeballs sideways, wiggle their whiskers, pull their ears back and blink their eyelids. The genes likely help control human facial expressions.
Stillbirth occurs an estimated 30,000 times a year in the United States, yet it remains one of the least understood areas of pregnancy loss. An associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology hopes knowledge gained through a five-year nationwide study will help lower the number of stillbirths.
University of Utah biochemists have discovered that the ability to smell foods is regulated by ADAR enzymes' interaction with the RNA interference pathway. Research with C. elegans, a tiny worm suggests that behavioral defects associated with ADAR genes are caused by abberant RNAi, not codon changes.
Two faculty members will lead an international effort to search the diverse plant life of Papua New Guinea for drugs to treat tuberculosis, malaria, HIV/AIDS, and other diseases. The project also aims to encourage the people of that island-nation to conserve the fast-disappearing rainforest.
Using chicken embryos and colorful fluorescent dyes, scientists have demonstrated for the first time in a higher animal that it is possible to simultaneously show three genes working within an embryo, body tissue, or even a single cell.
Ground was broken Monday on the new $53 million John A. Moran Eye Center. Construction is expected to be finished by the summer of 2006 on the 200,000 square-foot facility, which replaces the 82,500 square foot John A. Moran Eye Center that opened in 1993.
Anesthesiologists have developed a way to determine precisely how much medication is needed to relieve pain in major surgery patients who've become tolerant to opioids, the primary drugs used to relieve post-operative pain.
In what may be the cellular equivalent of watching the Grim Reaper in action, University of Utah School of Medicine researchers have shown that two "death activator" genes are essential for cell death when Drosophila (fruit flies) metamorphose from larvae to adults.
A genetic variation seen worldwide in which people either taste or do not taste a bitter, synthetic compound called PTC has been preserved by natural selection.
The University of Utah's John A. Moran Eye Center has received a $100,000 grant from the Stephen A. and Elaine Wynn Charitable Foundation to fund continued research into retinal cell transplantation.
A protein important to nerve development serves the dual purpose of stimulating the growth of blood vessels, researchers from the University of Utah School of Medicine and Stanford University have discovered.
Gene mutations responsible for causing cataracts in children have been identified by a team of vision researchers. The study identified mutations in the PITX3 gene as a significant cause for congenital posterior polar cataracts in four unrelated families from three ethnic groups.
Vision researchers at the University of Utah's John A. Moran Eye Center have discovered a gene mutation responsible for causing a rare disease in four generations of a single Utah family.
Gene mutations that impair the ability of photoreceptor cells to properly dispose of waste - and as a result cause the blinding eye disease retinitis pigmentosa - have been identified by vision researchers at the University of Utah's Moran Eye Center.
Neural tube defects (birth defects affecting the brain and spine) have declined by more than 50 percent in Utah since 1992, according to a recent study by the Utah Department of Health. The UDOH and a University of Utah professor attribute the decline to more women taking folic acid.
Researchers at the University of Utah have developed genetically engineered mice that closely mimic what happens to humans who suffer from the juvenile, or dry, form of age-related macular degeneration.
In the first major study of its kind, University of Utah School of Medicine researchers found the likelihood of tearing the meniscus, the cartilage that bears much of the load on the knee joint, increases dramatically with body mass index.
University of Utah researchers -- feeding microscopic pills of RNA to quarter-inch long worms called planarians -- have identified many genes essential to understanding a biological mystery that has captivated scientists for hundreds of years: regeneration.
University of Utah researchers showed that a fruit fly gene is crucial for determining when juveniles begin to mature into adults, and how the transformation initially proceeds. Understanding this process in humans may help explain how adorable children become surly teenagers.
In related discoveries with far-reaching implications for treating diabetes and understanding hypertension, researchers have learned why thiazolidinediones, a major anti-diabetes drug, cause edema and also have found a new pathway critical to fluid metabolism.
In a discovery that upends a longstanding tenet of human biology, University of Utah School of Medicine researchers have shown that a key process in gene regulation can occur in human platelets, unique cells that are unusual because they don't have a nucleus (anucleate).
A $22.5 million gift to the University of Utah School of Medicine will help the school recruit and retain top researchers and clinicians in a variety of fields. The donation is from the estate of the late Arthur E. Benning and is in honor of his parents, H.A. and Edna Benning.
A hydrogel developed by University of Utah medicinal chemist Glenn D. Prestwich, Ph.D., will play an integral role in a $5 million National Science Foundation-funded (NSF) study that includes a component for organ "printing."
Researchers have discovered that when a gene called smedwi-2 is silenced in the adult stem cells of planarians, the quarter-inch long worm is unable to carry out a biological process that has mystified scientists for centuries: regeneration.
Humans and chimpanzees share the ability to taste, or not taste, a bitter synthetic compound called PTC"”as well as numerous other toxic substances"”but contrary to longstanding scientific thought, they developed that ability through separate genetic mutations, according to new research led by University of Utah and University of Washington geneticists Stephen Wooding, Ph.D., and Michael Bamshad, M.D.
Every year children are seriously injured and killed when they're hit by a vehicle backing out of a driveway. But a child is up to 2 and a half times more likely to be backed over by a minivan or truck than by a car, according to a University of Utah study.
University of Utah scientists have shown how evolution works by reversing the process, reconstructing a 530-million-year-old gene by combining key portions of two modern mouse genes that descended from the archaic gene.
Two human blood cells that help fight blood loss, infection, and inflammation are responsible as well for starting a series of molecular events that results in overproduction of Cox-2, an enzyme involved in heart attack, stroke, atherosclerosis, and other inflammatory diseases.
Researchers at the John A. Moran Eye Center at the University of Utah have identified a gene called HTRA1 that contributes to a major risk of Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), the most common cause of irreversible vision loss in the developed world.
A new treatment for psoriasis that targets its key inflammatory mediators (IL-12 and IL-23) is highly effective, according to a study by University of Utah researchers to be published in the Feb. 8 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
New research published in The New England Journal of Medicine shows steroid treatment no better than placebo for infants suffering from bronchiolitis. The findings resolve controversy and are expected to help guide treatment for the most common cause of infant hospitalization.
Antioxidants are widely considered an important defense against heart disease, but University of Utah researchers have found excessive levels of one antioxidant"”reduced glutathione"”actually may contribute to the disease. The findings, published in the Aug. 10 issue of Cell, indicate a new class of drugs can be developed to treat or even prevent heart disease caused by "reductive stress."
Severely obese patients who undergo gastric bypass surgery significantly reduce their risk of death from coronary heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, according to research published in the Aug. 23, 2007, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. The study was led by a team of researchers from the University of Utah School of Medicine and LDS Hospital.
University of Utah biochemist Wesley I. Sundquist, Ph.D., has been awarded a five-year, $19.2 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to establish an HIV research center to study the structural biology of the AIDS-causing virus.
Mario R. Capecchi, Ph.D., distinguished professor of human genetics and biology at the University of Utah's Eccles Institute of Human Genetics and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, has won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
A PET scan (positron emission tomography) that measures uptake of sugar in the brain significantly improves the accuracy of diagnosing a type of dementia often mistaken for Alzheimer's disease, a study led by a University of Utah dementia expert has found.
Lung transplantation rarely helps children with Cystic Fibrosis live longer and, in fact, often increases their risk of dying, University of Utah researchers conclude in the most extensive study of the issue to date. Researchers say it's time to reassess how young patients are chosen to get new lungs. The study appears in the Nov. 22 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
A new program at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah now provides a treatment option that offers hope to multiple myeloma patients"”a chance to live 10 or more years following diagnosis. The program is led by Guido Tricot, M.D., Ph.D.
A married couple who sailed from England to America around 1630 may be the ancestors of hundreds of people alive today who are at risk for a hereditary form of colon cancer, researchers from Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah report.
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