Archive for the 'Bioinformatics' Category
April 22nd, 2011 by admin
If you thought that you are a person who craves coffee more than others, then now is the time to explore your genetics, as scientist have proven that caffeine addiction is part of our DNA. According to a report, there are differences in two genes which cause people to consume more or less caffeine. Individuals who have a “high-consumption” variation of either gene appear to drink more coffee, as compared to those who have a “low-consumption” variant.
Continue reading ‘Coffee Addiction Linked to Genetics’
March 30th, 2011 by admin
Researchers at the University of Liverpool and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland have discovered a gene that has the potential to indicate if epilepsy patients starting drug treatment are likely to experience side-effects resulting in blistering of the skin.
Continue reading ‘Researchers Identify Gene Responsible for Severe Skin Condition in Epilepsy Patients’
March 28th, 2011 by admin
In a breakthrough for modern medicine, researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have come up with a novel procedure called Gromit for studying gene regulation. The method employs a transposon, or a jumping gene.
Continue reading ‘New Method Developed for Studying Gene Regulation’
March 23rd, 2011 by admin
Researchers have always know that many diseases resulting from problems in the brain are a direct result of the misfolding of vital proteins in our body. New studies have now indicated that if researchers could see the actual folding happen, they might be able to design treatments for some of these diseases or even keep them from occurring. However, most of the most critical proteins found in our body are folded, hidden from sight, inside tiny molecular chambers.
Continue reading ‘Visual of Protein Folding Used to Develop Brain Disease Therapies’
March 11th, 2011 by admin
After many years of research, the reason behind what causes schizophrenia has finally come forward. Scientists, working in an international team, have finally discovered a gene mutation that is very strongly linked to causing schizophrenia. According to the researchers, the mutations in the VIPR2 gene increased the signaling in the vasoactive intestinal peptide pathway, which can be controlled by synthetic peptides. However, the therapeutic effect of this is yet to be discovered.
Continue reading ‘Link Discovered between Schizophrenia and Gene Mutation’
March 4th, 2011 by admin
Fast Company has surveyed the biotech world and come up with its list of the Top 10 companies in the industry. Amyris makes the list for its work combating the malaria parasite, while Galapagos and Fate Therapeutics get nods for pipeline innovation.
Continue reading ‘Fast Company Highlights 10 Top Innovators in Biotech’
March 3rd, 2011 by admin
U.S. medical researchers are using modified printers to produce skin for burn victims, the project’s leader says. “We started out by taking a typical desktop inkjet cartridge. Instead of ink we use cells, which are placed in the cartridge,” Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C., told CNN.
Continue reading ‘Printers Used to Produce Human Skin?’
February 23rd, 2011 by admin
Researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have shown that they can deliver the cancer drug cisplatin much more effectively and safely in a form that has been encapsulated in a nanoparticle targeted to prostate tumor cells and is activated once it reaches its target. Using the new particles, the researchers were able to successfully shrink tumors in mice, using only one-third the amount of conventional cisplatin needed to achieve the same effect. That could help reduce cisplatin’s potentially severe side effects, which include kidney damage and nerve damage.
Continue reading ‘Delivering a Potent Cancer Drug with Nanoparticles can Lessen Side Effects’
February 22nd, 2011 by admin
Exocytosis, the fundamental process by which cells secrete hormones such as insulin and other useful biological substances, is regulated far differently in life than in laboratory tissue cultures and explanted organs, according to research presented at the American Society of Cell Biology’s 50th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. The unexpected findings that exocytosis regulation “in vivo” is not the same as the process long studied “in vitro” is a reminder of the gap between laboratory glassware experiments and the cell biology of living animals ⎯ and humans, said Roberto Weigert, Ph.D., of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR).
Continue reading ‘Small Details between ‘In Vivo’ and ‘In Vitro’ Studies Make for Big Differences’
February 7th, 2011 by admin
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. Their just released study will be published in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics.
Continue reading ‘Gene ‘Relocation’ Key to Most Evolutionary Change in Bacteria’
