Fish cannot display symptoms of autism, schizophrenia, or other human brain disorders. However, a team of Whitehead Institute and MIT scientists has shown that zebrafish can be a useful tool for studying the genes that contribute to such disorders.
Scientists are racing to sequence DNA faster and cheaper than ever by passing strands of the genetic material through molecule-sized pores. Now, University of Utah scientists have adapted this “nanopore” method to find DNA damage that can lead to mutations and disease.
Genetics Society of America’s Model Organism to Human Biology: Cancer Genetics meeting, occurring now in Washington, D.C., focuses on cancer research commonalities among species.
Zebrafish, a transparent member of the minnow family, are providing insight into human melanoma – a form of skin cancer – that may lead to new or repurposed drug treatments, for skin and other cancers. This will be reported at the Genetics Society of America’s “Model Organisms to Human Biology: Cancer Genetics” Meeting, June 17-20, 2012, in Washington, D.C.
• JAK3 mutations detected in 35 percent of NK/T-cell lymphoma patients tested. • Mutations increased growth of cultured NK/T-cell lymphoma cell lines. • JAK inhibitor increased cell death, suggesting a new therapeutic approach.
Loyola University Chicago researchers are taking advantage of a quirk in the evolution of fruit fly genes to help develop new weapons against cancer.
The first U.S. population prevalence study of mutations in the gene that causes fragile X syndrome, the most common inherited form of intellectual disability, suggests the mutation in the gene – and its associated health risks – may be more common than previously believed.
Research published in the Genetics Society of America’s June 2012 issue of the journal GENETICS suggests a gene related to Alzheimer’s disease is also involved in the insulin pathway, which may explain the link between Alzheimer’s and diabetes.
In the June 13 issue of Science Translational Medicine, an international team led by researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine reports that the new technology of exome sequencing is not only a promising method for identifying disease-causing genes, but may also improve diagnoses and guide individual patient care.
An Indiana University team of researchers has conducted the most in-depth and diverse genetic analysis of the defense systems that trillions of micro-organisms in the human body use to fend off viruses. The work is among a collection of 16 research papers released today by the Human Microbiome Project Consortium, a National Institutes of Health-led effort to map the normal microbial make-up of healthy humans.
Many of the top scientists in the model organism and human cancer fields will be meeting to discuss their research at the Genetics Society of America’s (GSA’s) Model Organisms to Human Biology (MOHB): Cancer Genetics Meeting on June 17-20, 2012 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Scientists have found new genetic information that shows how harmful bacteria cause the acute diarrheal disease shigellosis, which kills more than a million people worldwide each year.
A study led by Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) investigators has identified a gene expression pattern that may explain why chemotherapy prior to surgery isn’t effective against some tumors and suggests new therapy options for patients with specific subtypes of breast cancer.
Decoding the DNA of patients with advanced breast cancer has allowed scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis to identify distinct cancer “signatures” that could help predict which women are most likely to benefit from estrogen-lowering therapy, while sparing others from unnecessary treatment.
In exploring the genetics of mitochondria – the powerhouse of the cell – researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have stumbled upon a finding that challenges previously held beliefs about the role of mutations in cancer development. For the first time, researchers have found that the number of new mutations are significantly lower in cancers than in normal cells.
Using a new and powerful approach to understand the origins of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, researchers at Mayo Clinic in Florida are building the case that these diseases are primarily caused by genes that are too active or not active enough, rather than by harmful gene mutations.
In exploring how proteins interact with crucial DNA sequences to regulate gene activity, researchers have shed light on chromatin looping, key biological events that may eventually be manipulated to provide new disease treatments.
An Indiana University biologist has shown that natural variation in measures of the brain's ability to process steroid hormones predicts functional variation in aggressive behavior.
New research proposes novel therapeutic targets for treating Huntington’s disease. A new study found the toxic effects of the huntingtin protein on cells may not be driven exclusively by the length of the protein’s expansion, but also by which other proteins are present in the cell.
With the 2012 Summer Olympics fast approaching, two Mayo Clinic researchers have penned a timely and thought-provoking editorial in the June issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings that explores genetic variation and how it plays out in professional athletic competition.
Technion researchers have identified a biomarker shown to predict Parkinson's disease with high accuracy. It could ID at-risk individuals before symptoms develop, when prevention treatment efforts might have the greatest impact to slow disease progression.
Researchers studying rare genetic disorders have uncovered insights into those diseases in biological structures that regulate chromosomes when cells divide.
The St. Jude Children's Research Hospital – Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project today announced the largest-ever release of comprehensive human cancer genome data for free access by the global scientific community.
UCLA geneticists have identified the mutation responsible for IMAGe syndrome, a rare disorder that stunts infants’ growth. The twist? The mutation occurs on the same gene for a disease that makes cells grow too fast, leading to extra-large children.
Scientists believe they've pinpointed the last crucial piece of the 80-year-old puzzle of how plants "know" when to flower.
Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology of Yeshiva University have found that personality traits like being extroverted, enjoying laughter and staying engaged may also be part of the longevity genes mix that allows some people to reach age 100 and beyond. The findings published online May 21 in the journal Aging.
Iowa State University researchers are using nanoparticles originally developed by the late Victor Lin to simultaneously deliver proteins and DNA into plant cells. The technology could allow more sophisticated and targeted editing of plant genomes.
Researchers at NYU School of Medicine have, for the first time, identified a single gene that simultaneously controls inflammation, accelerated aging and cancer.
The Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) today announced that it is close to finalizing a framework proposal for CPT coding of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) assays.
Clinicians and researchers gathered at Ohio State’s Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) Third Annual Scientific Meeting to showcase how they are deciphering the Human Genome Projects code using genomics, proteomics, metabolomics and other ‘omics’ to make predictive, preventative and precision medicine a reality in the 21st century.
An inexpensive “orphan drug” used to treat sleep disorders appears to be a potent inhibitor of cancer cells, according to a new study led by scientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Their novel approach, using groundbreaking technology that allows rapid analysis of the genome, has broad implications for the development of safer, more-effective cancer therapies.
A collaborative expedition into the deep genetics of prostate cancer has uncovered a distinct subtype of the disease, one that appears to account for up to 15 percent of all cases, say researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
A multi-institutional research team has used a new technique to map 5-methylcytosine and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine in DNA from human and mouse embryonic stem cells, revealing new information about their patterns of distribution. These DNA modifications play major roles in fundamental life processes.
Over the past decade, research in the field of epigenetics has revealed that chemically modified bases are abundant components of the human genome and has forced us to abandon the notion we've had since high school genetics that DNA consists of only four bases.
An international consortium of researchers, including Boston University Assistant Professor of Biology Sean Mullen, has discovered promiscuous sharing of large regions of DNA code among species by sequencing the genome of a South American butterfly.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed a genetic test that can accurately predict whether the most common form of eye cancer will spread to other parts of the body, particularly the liver. The test successfully classified tumors more than 97 percent of the time.
New research findings show that embryonic stem cells unable to fully compact the DNA inside them cannot complete their primary task: differentiation into specific cell types that give rise to the various types of tissues and structures in the body.
Patients see potential benefits from direct-to-consumer genetic testing, but are also concerned about how test results will be used, and generally are unwilling to pay more than $10 or $20 for them.
Melanoma - the deadliest and most aggressive form of skin cancer - has long been linked to time spent in the sun. Now a team led by scientists from the Broad Institute and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has sequenced the whole genomes of 25 metastatic melanoma tumors, confirming the role of chronic sun exposure and revealing new genetic changes important in tumor formation.
C5ORF42 was identified as the gene that causes Joubert Syndrome in a number of families in the Lower St. Lawrence region of Quebec where the causal gene had remained unknown since the initial description of the syndrome in 1969.
By comparing the testosterone levels of five-month old pairs of twins, both identical and non-identical, University of Montreal researchers were able to establish that testosterone levels in infancy are not inherited genetically but rather determined by environmental factors.
Researchers from the University of Adelaide are hoping to better understand why the mutated genes for breast and ovarian cancer are not passed on more frequently from one generation of women to the next.
Scientists at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna discover and elucidate the function of conserved cell division proteins in yeast.
New discovery of a genetic mutation in congenital asplenia may lead to genetic prenatal screening in patients with the rare, but deadly, disorder.
Two distinct mutations cause “question mark ears syndrome,” study finds.
Women who smoke and carry specific variations in the genes that impact their metabolism are at higher risk of developing hot flashes in comparison with smokers who do not carry these gene variants, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (JCEM).
When you buy a racehorse, you pays your money and you takes your chances. Top yearlings at Keeneland’s 2011 Thoroughbred auction, for instance, averaged nearly $350,000 and hadn’t yet raced a step. Odds are that some of them never will. Now, thanks to a Binghamton University biologist, it’s possible to boost the odds of getting a winner with a simple genetic test.
A team of Stowers scientists defines biochemical crosstalk between DNA interacting proteins and their modifications.
Whitehead Institute researchers have created a three-step algorithm, lobSTR, that in one day accurately and simultaneously profiles more than 100,000 short tandem repeats (STRs) in one human genome sequence—a feat that previous systems could never complete.
NYU biologists have discovered new mechanisms that control how proteins are expressed in different regions of embryos, while also shedding additional insight into how physical traits are arranged in body plans. Their findings call for reconsideration of a decades-old biological theory.
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