A team of Columbia scientists have discovered two genes that, when simultaneously activated, are responsible for the most aggressive forms of human brain cancer. This finding was made possible by the assembly of the first comprehensive network of molecular interactions that determine the behavior of these cancer cells.
Nationwide Children’s Hospital recently was awarded an initial $5.5 million contract from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to serve as a Biospecimen Core Resource (BCR) for The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), a program co-managed by the NCI and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), both part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
A Chicago research team is one year into a three-year project to collect and analyze the genetic sequence and variations of every gene expressed by 1,000 tumors with a long-term goal of translating genomic discoveries into diagnostic tools and therapeutic strategies.
A group of Norwegian and American researchers have shown that common variations in genes associated with microcephaly – a neuro-developmental disorder in which brain size is dramatically reduced – may explain differences in brain size in healthy individuals as well as in patients with neurological and psychiatric disorders.
Researchers from the UC San Diego, School of Medicine and colleagues have identified a new gene, ETS-1, that is linked to human congenital heart defects. The landmark study, recently published online in the journal of Human Molecular Genetics, provides important insights into some of the most prevalent forms of congenital heart defects in humans.
The most widely used human embryonic stem cell lines lack genetic diversity, a finding that raises social justice questions that must be addressed to ensure that all sectors of society benefit from stem cell advances, according to a University of Michigan research team.
DNA replication is a basic function of living organisms, allowing cells to divide and multiply, all while maintaining the genetic code and proper function of the original cell. The process, or mechanism, by which this is accomplished presents many challenges as the double helical (coil-shaped) DNA divides into two strands that are duplicated by different methods, yet both strands complete the replication at the same time. New research by a team from UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in conjunction with the University of Illinois and published in the Dec. 17 issue of Nature, has addressed this fundamental problem. The study identifies three essential ways the synthesis of the two strands is coordinated by enzymes, settling scientific deliberations on how the two DNA strands are copied in the same time span.
Aided by next-generation DNA sequencing technology, an international team of researchers has gained insights into how more than 60 carcinogens associated with cigarette smoke bind to and chemically modify human DNA, ultimately leading to cancer-causing genetic mutations.
Genes that don’t themselves directly affect the inherited characteristics of an organism but leave them increasingly open to variation may be a significant driving force of evolution, say two Johns Hopkins scientists.
A new study involving data from more than 20,000 individuals has uncovered several DNA sequences linked to impaired pulmonary function. The research, an analysis that combined the results of several smaller studies, provides insight into the mechanisms involved in reaching full lung capacity. The findings may ultimately lead to better understanding of lung function and diseases like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the fourth leading cause of death in the United States.
The sequences of nonsense DNA that interrupt genes could be far more important to the evolution of genomes than previously thought.
Genetic research has shown that the best family medical history includes specific diagnoses and ages of onset for every disease or condition that appears in first- and second-degree relatives and even in some third-degree relatives. A new Web site in development will help.
How do fruit flies get high cholesterol and become obese? The same way as people do – by eating a diet that’s too rich in fats.
A commonly inherited gene deletion can increase the likelihood of immune complications following bone marrow transplantation. When the gene is missing from the donor’s genome but present in the recipient’s, transplants have a greater risk of a serious side-effect known as graft-versus-host disease, in which immune cells from the donor attack tissues in the recipient.
A new study of maize has identified thousands of diverse genes in genetically inaccessible portions of the genome. New techniques may allow breeders and researchers to use this genetic variation to identify desirable traits and create new varieties that were not easily possible before.
This week, scientists are revealing the genetic instructions inside corn, one of the big three cereal crops. Corn, or maize, has one of the most complex sequences of DNA ever analyzed, says University of Wisconsin-Madison genomicist David Schwartz, who was one of more than 100 authors in the article in the journal Science.
In recent years, scientists have decoded the DNA of humans and a menagerie of creatures but none with genes as complex as a stalk of corn, the latest genome to be unraveled. A team of scientists led by The Genome Center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis published the completed corn genome in the Nov. 20 journal Science, an accomplishment that will speed efforts to develop better crop varieties to meet the world’s growing demands for food, livestock feed and fuel.
Research recently funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 aims to develop computational tools that will utilize next-generation petascale computers to understand genomic evolution.
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles, found in everything from cosmetics to sunscreen to paint to vitamins, caused systemic genetic damage in mice, according to a comprehensive study conducted by researchers at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.
In the largest, most comprehensive genetic analysis of childhood-onset inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), an international research team has identified five new gene regions, including one involved in a biological pathway that helps drive the painful inflammation of the digestive tract that characterizes the disease.
After testing behavior of mice lacking the gene, pharmacy researchers at the University of Maryland, Baltimore say it may play an important role in mood regulation.
The seeming invincibility of cancerous tumors may be crumbling, thanks to a promising new gene therapy that eliminates the ability of certain cells to repair themselves. Researchers at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine have discovered that inactivation of a DNA repair gene called Hus1 efficiently kills cells lacking p53 -- a gene mutated in the majority of human cancers.
Investigators at Burnham have identified a novel mouse gene that reduces the accumulation of two toxic proteins that are major players in Alzheimer’s disease: amyloid beta and tau. Amyloid beta is responsible for the plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. Tau causes the tangles found within patients’ brain cells.
Four macaque monkeys that received injections of genes for a protein called follistatin into upper leg muscles experienced pronounced and durable increases in muscle size and strength and no adverse effects, the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) announced today. The findings could have implications particularly for injured and aging people worldwide; and for tens of millions experiencing muscle loss associated with cancer, AIDs and muscle diseases.
A team led by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University has found a clear link between living to 100 and inheriting a hyperactive version of an enzyme that rebuilds telomeres – the tip ends of chromosomes. The findings appear in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
If humans are genetically related to chimps, why did our brains develop the innate ability for language and speech while theirs did not? Scientists suspect that part of the answer to the mystery lies in a gene called FOXP2. When mutated, FOXP2 can disrupt speech and language in humans. Now, a UCLA/Emory study reveals major differences between how the human and chimp versions of FOXP2 work, perhaps explaining why language is unique to humans.
Some melanoma patients can live for years with cancer that has spread beyond the skin to other organs. Now it may be possible to identify which patients are more likely to survive, according to researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center.
Researchers have transplanted genetically modified hematopoietic stem cells into mice so that their developing red blood cells produce a critical lysosomal enzyme – preventing or reducing organ and central nervous system damage from the often-fatal genetic disorder Hurler’s syndrome.
While progress has been made in identifying 39 genes potentially associated with asthma, the disease is complex, and its development is likely dependent upon both genetics and environmental exposures.
An international team of researchers has decoded the genome of the domestic horse Equus caballus, revealing a genome structure with remarkable similarities to humans and more than one million genetic differences across a variety of horse breeds. In addition to shedding light on a key part of the mammalian branch of the evolutionary tree, the work also provides a critical starting point for mapping disease genes in horses.
Results of a long QT syndrome (LQTS) study published in the current issue of Circulation play an important role in understanding genetic testing’s role in diagnosing disease, according to the senior author, Michael Ackerman, M.D., Ph.D. A pediatric cardiologist at Mayo Clinic, Dr. Ackerman directs Mayo’s Long QT Syndrome Clinic and is the director of the Mayo Clinic Windland Smith Rice Sudden Death Genomics Laboratory.
The same genes that are chemically altered during normal cell differentiation, as well as when normal cells become cancer cells, are also changed in stem cells that scientists derive from adult cells, according to new research from Johns Hopkins and Harvard.
In the most comprehensive study of animal evolution ever attempted, an international consortium of scientists plans to assemble a genomic zoo--a collection of DNA sequences for 10,000 vertebrate species, approximately one for every vertebrate genus.
Researchers at the University of Maryland are using the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, as a model system to unravel what genes and gene pathways are involved in the metabolic changes that lead to insulin resistance and full-blown diabetes in humans.
Thomas Vaughan, M.D., head of the Epidemiology Program in the Public Health Sciences Division of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, has received a three-year, $7.9 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to study genetic susceptibility for Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma, a rapidly fatal cancer whose incidence has increased more than 500 percent in the past 30 years, faster than any other cancer in the United States.
Like all tissues in the body, the eye needs a healthy blood supply to function properly. Poorly developed blood vessels can lead to visual impairment or even blindness. While many of the molecules involved in guiding the development of the intricate blood vessel architecture are known, only now are we learning how these molecules work and how they might affect sight. Reporting in the Oct. 16 issue of Cell, researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine find that when some cells in the mouse retina are not properly fed by blood vessels, they can remain alive for many months and can later recover some or all of their normal function, suggesting that similar conditions in people may also be reversible.
Since the completion of the human genome sequence, a question has baffled researchers studying gene control: How is it that humans, being far more complex than the lowly yeast, do not proportionally contain in our genome significantly more gene-control proteins?
Scientists have identified how the motions of an enzyme are related to correctly copying genetic instructions, setting the stage for studies that can uncover what happens when DNA copying mistakes are made.
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) researchers are close to unraveling intricate cellular pathways that control molting in blue crabs. The discoveries could revolutionize the soft-shell crab industry, generating new jobs and additional profits for the U.S. fishing industry along the coastal Southeast.
An expert in cancer proteomics at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has received $4.8 million in federal stimulus funding from the National Cancer Institute to co-lead a pilot study to assess the feasibility and scalability of a project that aims to measure all of the proteins in the human body.
Spend a little time people-watching at the beach and you're bound to notice differences in the amount, thickness and color of people's body hair. Then head to the zoo and compare people to chimps, our closest living relatives.
Columbia University will award the 2009 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize to longtime collaborators Victor R. Ambros, Ph.D. and Gary Ruvkun, Ph.D., for their discovery of microRNAs (miRNAs) – small molecules that are critical to gene regulation.
Research, led by St. Jude, has identified a new chromosomal abnormality in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that appears to work in concert with another mutation to give rise to cancer.
A genetic mutation found in four children born with multiple abnormalities may provide insight into potential treatments for newborn lung distress and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
UNC's Morgan Giddings, Ph.D. and Xian Chen, Ph.D., have been awarded a $1.6 million 2-year “Grand Opportunities” (GO) grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute to accelerate this research. Their effort will be part of a consortium of investigators studying the human genome blueprint, titled the “ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements” (ENCODE). The consortium’s overall goal is to assemble a comprehensive catalog of functional elements in the human genome.
A study conducted at St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, the University of Toronto, and Imperial College London, Toronto, shows that a link between a breast cancer gene mutation and heart disease could be a key in the creation of new heart disease treatments and in the treatment of patients currently undergoing treatment for cancer.
Although the human genome sequence faithfully lists (almost) every single DNA base of the roughly 3 billion bases that make up a human genome, it doesn’t tell biologists much about how its function is regulated. Now, researchers at the Salk Institute provide the first detailed map of the human epigenome, the layer of genetic control beyond the regulation inherent in the sequence of the genes themselves.
The Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) provided comments at the SACGHS meeting on Oct. 8. AMP opposes the patenting of all naturally occurring genetic material and has signed on as a lead plaintiff in the ACLU case challenging Myriad Genetics’ patents on the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes.
Researchers are working to determine if marker genes may help determine the possible effectiveness of GIST-targeted molecular treatment, according to a study presented at the 2009 Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons.
An international coalition of physicians and scientists, led by Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah, has proposed guidelines for the first time concerning genetic testing for melanoma patients.
RSS
Medicine keyboard_arrow_right
Sciencekeyboard_arrow_right
Life keyboard_arrow_right
Business keyboard_arrow_right
Journal News keyboard_arrow_right
By Location keyboard_arrow_right
Meetings, Grants, and Events keyboard_arrow_right