GnuBIO, a new genomics company, will officially launch its new business and unique offering at the Consumer Genetics Conference in Boston on June 2.
Writing the latest pages of an anthropological mystery, scientists propose in this month’s Archives of Neurology that it is highly possible that Auguste Deter, the first identified Alzheimer disease patient, carried the N141I presenilin-2 mutation—the same one as in present-day U.S. families descended from German emigrants who settled near the river Volga in Russia.
To help tomorrow’s cut flowers and potted plants stay fresh longer, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) plant physiologist Cai-Zhong Jiang is investigating the gene-controlled mechanisms of plants' aging.
They might not be known for their big brains, but fruit flies are helping to make scientists and doctors smarter about what causes Huntington’s disease and how to treat it. New research, published in the journal GENETICS describes a laboratory test that allows scientists to evaluate large numbers of fruit fly genes for a possible role in the formation of plaque-like protein aggregates within cells. Those genes often have counterparts in humans, which might then be manipulated to stop or slow the formation of plaque-like protein aggregates, the hallmark of Huntington’s and several other neurodegenerative diseases.
WSU researchers working on developing wheat varieties that grow under severe drought conditions (“desert wheat”) earned a $1.6 million grant from the NSF and the Gates Foundation to help fund WSU scientist Kulvinder Gill’s research on identifying genes that will increase wheat yields under drought stress.
Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are improving strains of microorganisms used to convert cellulosic biomass into ethanol, including a recent modification that could improve the efficiency of the conversion process.
Unbiased forum convened in Boston June 2-4 to provide open dialogue of challenges and potential for DTC genetic testing and personalized medicine from varying perspectives.
Gene therapy has been shown to have positive effects in rat models of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), according to researchers at the University of Adelaide in Australia.
The Genetics Society of America (GSA) will host its biennial GENETICS 2010: Model Organisms to Human Biology Meeting, on June 12‐15, 2010, in Boston, Mass., at the Sheraton Boston. The 2010 MOHB meeting will bring together investigators who study genetic disease models in organisms such as flies, yeast, fungi, and mice, with human genetics researchers. This meeting will feature discussions on how basic genetics research impacts the study of human diseases, including sessions on stem cells, cancer, disease models, personal genomics, and more.
The most comprehensive analysis yet of the genetic imbalances at the heart of childhood brain tumors known as high-grade gliomas (HGGs) identified a cancer gene that is unusually active in some tumors and is now the focus of a St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital clinical trial.
Patients who encounter serious lung diseases in middle age, despite an absence of family history or other predisposing factors, may still have their genes to blame, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.
Being Latino in the Americas can mean very different things – depending upon where your ancestors called home. A new study led by a Cornell researcher shows populations geographically close to former slave trade routes have more African ancestry. More inland Latin Americans show more Native American heritage.
FDA is "right" to require more information on genetic testing kit, says law professor who is also a physician.
In response to recent announcements about consumer genetic tests being made available in retail drugstores, the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) today reiterated its position that these tests should be provided to the public only through the services of appropriate health care professionals that order tests from laboratories that are certified by CLIA for highcomplexity testing.
Journalists covering the recent announcement by Pathway Genomics that it will sell health-related genetic marker tests to consumers—and the subsequent decision by Walgreens to postpone sales of the kits pending clarification of their legal status—are invited to interview Berman Institute experts Joan Scott or Gail Javitt.
Patrick Sullivan, MD has received a 2010 Distinguished Investigator Award from NARSAD for a comparison of genetics in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. His project is one of 15 selected out of 170 proposals submitted by researchers worldwide. Each project will each receive $100,000 annually in support of one year of research.
Tufts University has received a $9.5 million grant to create research space for a Collaborative Cluster in Genome Structure & Developmental Patterning in Health & Disease. Research will focus on genome structure and stability, developmental & regenerative biology & tissue engineering.
By analyzing the genomes of patients with schizophrenia, genetics researchers have discovered numerous copy number variations—deletions or duplications of DNA sequences—that increase the risk of developing schizophrenia. Significantly, many of these variations occur in genes that affect signaling among brain cells.
Chronic pain severely limits patients’ quality of life and is among the cost drivers in U.S. health care.
In the not too distant future, it may be possible to discern an individual’s genetic predisposition to chronic pain conditions and treat them proactively to prevent lifetime afflictions, according to research presented today at the American Pain Society’s (www.ampainsoc.org) annual scientific meeting.
Policies allowing genes to be patented can make it more difficult for patients to access testing for important disease-causing gene mutations, according to a series of papers in a special online supplement published by Genetics in Medicine, the official peer-reviewed journal of The American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG). The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health, a leading provider of information and business intelligence for students, professionals, and institutions in medicine, nursing, allied health, and pharmacy.
Most people associate serotonin with brain neurology, but over 95 percent of the body’s serotonin occurs in the gastrointestinal tract, which has a complex neuronal circuit that has been called “the second brain” of the body.
A new study from researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center found that the imprint of European colonialism and imperialism is evident in the genetic makeup of today’s Hispanic/Latino American populations. Scientists discovered that Europeans, Native Americans, as well as West Africans brought to the U.S. and Latin America by the trans-Atlantic slave trade, have influenced the genes of the current Hispanic/Latino populations. However, a large variation in genes among individuals within each population were still found to exist.
An international consortium of scientists has identified two genes that when altered are closely associated with cleft lip and/or cleft palate. Cleft lip and cleft palate are among the world’s most common congenital malformations and occur in one in every 700 births. The study identified four different regions of the human genome likely to contain genes controlling risk for cleft lip and/or cleft palate.
Plant breeders look to genetic markers to protect their research investments and unique plant varieties.
New research led by McGill Biochemist Dr. William Muller helps explain why breast-milk cells lose their structure, causing them to clump up in strange ways (see photos) and sometimes become cancer tumors.
Scientists evaluated a man’s entire genome sequence for disease risks and unusual drug responses. The analysis incorporated the man’s medical and family history and statistical disease risks. The work demonstrates that whole-genome sequencing might one day play a clinical role, advancing the concept of personalized medicine.
In findings that may speed the search for disease-causing genes, a new study challenges the prevailing view that common diseases are usually caused by common gene variants (mutations). Instead, the culprits may be numerous rare variants, located in DNA sequences farther than expected from the original genetic “hot spots.”
Genetic mutation can disrupt the way human cells make proteins, which in turn leads to inherited disease. According to one researcher, scientists are closer than ever to producing drugs that fix this disrupted-protein pathway and drastically improving treatment of genetic disease.
A new study links progression of a lethal type of brain tumor with reduced expression of more than 600 immune system genes, suggesting how complex the immune response is to the cancer and the difficulty in designing an effective treatment.
Researchers at the Ansary Stem Cell Institute and the Department of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College discovered that mice missing a single gene developed repetitive obsessive-compulsive-like behaviors. The genetically altered mice, which behaved much like people with a certain type of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), could help scientists design new therapies for this debilitating condition.
A renowned researcher on a select group of genetic alterations called nonsense mutations says scientists are now closer to producing drugs that will fix this disruption. UAB’s David Bedwell, Ph.D., says, “When you treat a genetic disease, the bottom line is how much of the missing protein do you need to restore to have a therapeutic benefit?” He presented data on an experimental drug that holds promise.
Knocking genes out of action allows researchers to learn what genes do. University of Utah biologists pioneered the field. Mario Capecchi won a Nobel Prize for knockout mice. Kent Golic crippled fruit fly genes. Now, Erik Jorgensen and colleagues have deleted genes in nematode worms.
A Johns Hopkins team has identified a protein in sensory cells on the “tongues” of fruit flies that allows them to detect a noxious chemical and, ultimately, influences their decision about what to eat and what to avoid.
Researchers from NYU Langone Medical Center have discovered and characterized a general mechanism that controls transcription elongation in bacteria. The mechanism, described in the April 23 issue of Science, relies on physical cooperation between a moving ribosome and RNA polymerase (RNAP) that allows for a precise adjustment of the transcriptional yield in response to translational needs. The study could lead to the development of new ways to interfere with bacterial gene expression and serve as a new target for antimicrobial therapy.
In a new study, researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have taken a major step toward the ability to predict adverse drug reactions, using genetic, cellular, and clinical information to learn why some medicines cause heart arrhythmias in patients.
In a major step toward predicting adverse drug reactions, systems biologists at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have integrated genetic, cellular and clinical information to find out why certain medicines can trigger fatal heart arrhythmias. The new framework could be used to study other cardiac disorders and certain neurological diseases, including epilepsy and autism, and could aid the advance of personalized medicine.
Anxiety disorders and depression, as well as metabolic disorders such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and arteriosclerosis, have all been linked to stress. But how? Weizmann Institute scientists have discovered that changes in the activity of a single gene not only cause mice to exhibit anxious behavior, but also lead to metabolic changes.
Virginia Commonwealth University researchers have identified a new tumor-promoting gene that may play a key role in the development of liver cancer. Levels of the gene’s expression are significantly higher in more than 90 percent of patients with the disease compared to their healthy counterparts.
Investigators from New Jersey’s only NCI-Comprehensive Cancer Center are sharing their findings on how a common genetic variation can impact diagnosis of breast cancer in postmenopausal women. At focus is a tumor suppressor gene and how a genetic change in DNA sequence can delay disease onset for this population.
A team of investigators from Columbia, Rockefeller and Stanford Universities has identified a new gene involved in hair growth, as reported in a paper in the April 15 issue of Nature. This discovery may affect future research and treatments for male pattern baldness and other forms of hair loss.
Researchers have identified a gene that appears to increase a person’s risk of developing late-onset Alzheimer’s disease, the most common type of Alzheimer’s disease. The research will be presented as part of the late-breaking science program at the American Academy of Neurology’s 62nd Annual Meeting in Toronto, April 10 – 17, 2010. The gene, abbreviated MTHFD1L, is located on chromosome six.
A team of researchers from the United States and Europe has identified more than a dozen genes that may play a role in the etiology of common forms of kidney disease. They examined common variations in DNA sequences in more than 65,000 individuals of European descent. Common variations in several genes were found to be more frequent among people with poor kidney function or chronic kidney disease than in those with normal kidney function.
NYU Langone Medical Center researchers have developed a powerful new method to investigate the discrete steps necessary to turn on individual genes and examine how the process goes wrong in cancer and other diseases. The finding, based on seven years of research and described in the April 9 issue of Molecular Cell, allows scientists to investigate the unfolding of DNA, a process required for gene activation.
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researchers have identified a major indicator of two deadly diseases of the heart and blood vessels: heart failure and aortic aneurysm. The absence of the Kruppel-like Factor 15 (KLF15), when combined with stress, leads to both heart failure and aortic aneurysms.
A large international group of researchers, including Weizmann Institute scientists, recently produced the full zebra finch genome, the report on which is significant for what it reveals about learning processes for language and speech. For the Weizmann researchers, the findings provide an interesting twist on the evolution of the sense of smell.
More than 1600 genetics researchers who use Drosophila melanogaster (the fruit fly) as the workhorse to study basic aspects of biology ranging from memory to cancer, will be gathering in Washington, DC, for the 51st Annual Drosophila Research Conference, sponsored by the Genetics Society of America, and beginning this evening at the Marriott Wardman Park. Scientists will present their research at plenary, platform, and poster sessions during this four-day meeting.
New information about early Native Americans' horticultural practices comes not from hieroglyphs or other artifacts, but from a suite of four gene duplicates found in wild and domesticated sunflowers. Indiana University Bloomington scientists learned duplications of the gene FLOWERING LOCUS T, or FT, could have evolved and interacted to prolong a flower's time to grow. A longer flower growth period means a bigger sunflower -- presumably an attribute of value to the plant's first breeders.
The EU-funded project MitoCheck, which started in 2004, has now been successfully rounded off. Eleven European research teams and companies, coordinated by the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna, studied the genetic basis of cell division. The findings are published today in the scientific journals Science and Nature.
AMP applauds US District Judge Robert Sweet’s ruling in favor of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Association for Molecular Pathology, et al. v. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, et al.
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