For 30 years, two General Electric facilities released about 1.3 million pounds of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into New York’s Hudson River, devastating and contaminating fish populations. Some 50 years later, one type of fish—the Atlantic tomcod—has not only survived but appears to be thriving in the hostile Hudson environment.
The most popular model used by geneticists for the last 35 years to detect the footprints of human evolution may overlook more common subtle changes, a new international study finds.
Scientists discover a genetic variant that allows a fish in the Hudson River to live in waters heavily polluted by PCBs.
George Washington University researcher, Dr. Valerie Hu, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and her team at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, have found that male and female sex hormones regulate expression of an important gene in neuronal cell culture through a mechanism that could explain not only higher levels of testosterone observed in some individuals with autism, but also why males have a higher incidence of autism than females.
Examining people across the spectrum of type 2 diabetes—from healthy to the full-blown disease—Joslin Diabetes Center scientists have found a molecular pathway that offers novel targets for drugs.
Evolution is not a steady march towards ever more sophisticated beings and therefore the search for the living "missing links" is pointless, according to findings published by a team of researchers led by Dr. Hervé Philippe of the Université de Montréal's Department of Biochemistry.
In the wake of a recent FDA statement linking breast implants to a rare cancer called anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL), a newly updated algorithm provides plastic surgeons with guidance in managing women with breast lumps or swelling after breast augmentation. The algorithm appears in an article published on the website of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). The article will be published in the June 2011 print issue of the journal.
Leafcutter ants, signature denizens of New World tropical forests, are unique in their ability to harvest fresh leaves to cultivate a nutrient-rich fungus as food.
The University at Buffalo is a key partner in a $7.3 million collaboration to explore the origins of all flowers by sequencing the genome of Amborella, a unique species that one researcher has nicknamed the “platypus of flowering plants.”
Two strategies to control mosquito-borne diseases, such as malaria and dengue fever, are reducing mosquito population sizes or replacing populations with disease-refractory varieties. Scientists have modeled a genetic system that may be used for both, without the use of pesticides. This research was published in the February 2011 issue of Genetics.
Genetic testing for inherited blood-clotting abnormalities is not routinely recommended for patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE) of unknown cause, according to a new expert panel statement in a recent issue of Genetics in Medicine, the official peer-reviewed journal of The American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG).
The discovery that a “gene desert” on chromosome 9 was a hotspot for coronary artery disease (CAD) risk was among the highlights of findings produced recently by genome-wide association studies, which compare the genomes of many people for genetic variations and have been broadly used in the past few years to study hundreds of diseases and complex traits. Gene deserts are large genomic segments devoid of genes.
For the first time, researchers have laid bare the full genetic blueprint of multiple prostate tumors, uncovering alterations that have never before been detected and offering a deep view of the genetic missteps that underlie the disease. The study, made possible by key advances in whole genome sequencing and analysis, points to several new prostate cancer genes and a critical category of genomic changes as important drivers of prostate cancer growth. The work was led by researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College, the Broad Institute, and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and appears in the Feb. 10th issue of the journal Nature.
Washington University School of Medicine researchers report they have identified a gene that limits damage to the lung during acute stress from illness, trauma or transplant.
Crop yields from India’s first genetically modified crop may have been overemphasized, as modest rises in crop yields may come at the expense of sustainable farm management, says a new study by a Washington University in St. Louis anthropologist.
People who produce lower levels of the brain molecule neuropeptide Y appear to be at increased risk of developing a major depressive disorder, U-M study finds.
In a paper published online Feb. 7 in the UK Institute of Physics journal Physical Biology, Paul Davies at Arizona State University and Charles Lineweaver from the Australian National University draw on their backgrounds in astrobiology to explain why cancer cells deploy so many clever tricks in such a coherent and organized way.
New research from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the Children’s Oncology Group ties the genetic variation characteristic of Native American ancestry to higher odds cancer will return and highlights a strategy to ease the racial disparities in survival.
The discovery that a large cluster of genes appears to have jumped directly from one species of fungus to another significantly strengthens the argument that a different metaphor, such as a mosaic, may be more appropriate to describe the process of evolution than the traditional tree of life.
An ambitious hunt by Johns Hopkins scientists for actively “jumping genes” in humans has yielded compelling new evidence that the genome, anything but static, contains numerous pesky mobile elements that may help to explain why people have such a variety of physical traits and disease risks.
Complexity ever in the eye of its beholders, the animal with the most genes -- about 31,000 -- is the near-microscopic freshwater crustacean Daphnia pulex, or water flea. By comparison, humans have about 23,000 genes. Daphnia is the first crustacean to have its genome sequenced.
In a major advance for schizophrenia research, an international team of scientists, led by Jonathan Sebat, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry and cellular and molecular medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, has identified a gene mutation strongly linked to the brain disorder – and a signaling pathway that may be treatable with existing compounds.
The Genetics Society of America invites journalists who reported on model organism research (flies, worms, mice, yeast, fungi and bacteria) in 2010 to submit original articles or broadcast pieces for recognition of outstanding coverage in promoting public understanding of genetics.
A distributed, yet coordinated scientific effort has led to the publication of four ant genomes in the online edition of PNAS. These publications are expected to accelerate discoveries and genomics-based approaches to understanding social behavior and developing pest management.
Research from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine provides new clues for the compulsive behavior and cognitive defects associated with a rare childhood neurological disease called Lesch-Nyhan Disease (LND). Two pathways found to be defective in LND are known to be associated with other neurodegenerative disease, such as Alzheimer’s and Parknson’s diseases, suggesting common causes of cognitive and behavioral defects in these neurological disorders.
DNA, that marvelous, twisty molecule of life, has an alter ego, research at the University of Michigan and the University of California, Irvine reveals.
In a new study, scientists at the University of Maryland and the Institut Pasteur show that bacteria evolve new abilities, such as antibiotic resistance, predominantly by acquiring genes from other bacteria. The researchers new insights into the evolution of bacteria partly contradict the widely accepted theory that new biological functions in bacteria and other microbes arise primarily through the process of gene duplication within the same organism.
A team of scientists at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere has discovered that a single alteration in the genetic code of about a fourth of African-Americans helps protect them from coronary artery disease, the leading cause of death in Americans of all races.
An international team of scientists, led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has decoded the DNA of a Sumatran and Bornean orangutans. The research, published in Nature, reveals intriguing clues about the evolution of great apes, including humans, and provides opportunities to aid conservation efforts in the wild, where the orangutans are endangered.
Loyola University Chicago Strtich School of Medicine Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics and Public Health to host conference on genetic testing.
The first rough draft of a “genetic road map” of the biomass crop, prairie cordgrass, is giving scientists an inside look at the genes of one of the crops that may help produce the next generation of biofuels.
In an important study that may shed light on human ability to adapt to hypoxia, or inadequate levels of oxygen, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have proven that the genome of flies exposed to long-term hypoxia are changed to permanently affect gene expression.
Genetics in Medicine, the official journal of the American College of Medical Genetics, published this month a paper by Tufts University faculty calling for a moderate, strategic approach to teaching personalized genomic testing in medical school curricula.
To understand the emerging science of epigenetics—a field that describes how genes may be regulated without altering the underlying DNA itself—scientists are deciphering the many ways in which enzymes act on the proteins surrounding DNA within cells.
Scientists at Johns Hopkins have deciphered the genetic code for a type of pancreatic cancer, called neuroendocrine or islet cell tumors. The work, described online in the Jan. 20 issue of Science Express, shows that patients whose tumors have certain coding “mistakes” live twice as long as those without them.
Using a new experimental test structure, biophysicists at JILA have unraveled part of a 15-year mystery in the mechanics of DNA--just how the molecule manages to suddenly extend to almost twice its normal length.
New research has identified a common genetic risk factor for heart failure in Caucasians that is also linked to kidney function.
A research team that includes scientists from the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research (SFBR) reported today that inadequate nutrition during early pregnancy impairs fetal brain development. The researchers found decreased formation of cell-to-cell connections, cell division and amounts of growth factors in the fetuses of mothers fed a reduced diet during the first half of pregnancy, in baboons located at SFBR’s Southwest National Primate Research Center.
Scientists have identified the first DNA sequence variant common in the population that is not only associated with an increased risk of heart failure, but appears to play a role in causing it. The variant, a change in a single letter of the DNA sequence, impairs channels that control kidney function.
In a technique that could eventually shed light on how gene expression influences human disease, scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have for the first time ever successfully visualized single molecules of naturally-occurring messenger RNA (mRNA) transcribed in living mammalian cells. The scientific achievement is detailed in the January 16 online edition of Nature Methods. Gene expression involves transcribing a gene’s DNA into molecules of mRNA. These molecules then migrate from a cell’s nucleus into the cytoplasm, where they serve as blueprints for protein construction.
In research described as “a stark warning” to those tempted to start smoking, scientists are reporting that cigarette smoke begins to cause genetic damage within minutes — not years — after inhalation into the lungs. Their report, the first human study to detail the way certain substances in tobacco cause DNA damage linked to cancer, appears in ACS’ Chemical Research in Toxicology, a monthly journal.
Scientists from Texas have made an important step toward understanding human mating behavior by showing that certain genes become activated in fruit flies when they interact with the opposite sex. This research shows that courtship behaviors may be more influenced by genetics than previously thought. Understanding why and how these genes become activated may also lead to insight into disorders such as autism.
Scientists have identified the genes related to leaf angle in corn (maize) – a key trait for planting crops closer together, which has led to an eight-fold increase in yield since the early 1900s.
A researcher at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University has helped to develop the first genetic blood test for predicting the chances that in vitro fertilization (IVF) will lead to a successful pregnancy. The test, reported in the online medical journal PLoS One, is based on the finding that different subtypes of the FMR1 gene (also known as the fragile X mental retardation gene) in potential mothers are associated with significantly different chances of conceiving with IVF.
A SCUBA expedition in Australia and New Zealand to find the rare embryos of an unusual shark cousin enabled American and British researchers to confirm new developmental similarities between fish and mammals. The study confirms that organisms separated by hundreds of millions of years of evolution share similar genetic programs for body formation.
An international team of researchers have completed the first DNA sequence of any strawberry plant, giving breeders much-needed tools to create tastier, healthier strawberries. UNH’s Tom Davis was a significant contributor to the genome sequence of the woodland strawberry, which was published in the journal Nature Genetics.
Growing up poor can suppress a child’s genetic potential to excel cognitively even before the age of 2. Half of the gains that wealthier children show between 10 months and 2 years of age can be attributed to their genes. But children from poorer families show almost no improvements that are driven by their genetic makeup.
Medical researchers who crave a means of exploring the genetic culprits behind a host of neuromuscular disorders may have just had their wish granted by a NIST team that has performed surgery on single cells to extract and examine their mitochondria.
Women who have multiple sclerosis (MS) are more likely to have a gene associated with multiple sclerosis than men with the disease and it is this gene region where environment interacts with the genetics, according to a study published in the January 5, 2011, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
The Jackson Laboratory, Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts, and Tufts University School of Medicine announce a new track for PhD students in mammalian genetics. The joint track offers students in-depth research and training at both JAX and Tufts and is expected to help address the growing international need for expertise in mammalian genetics.
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