New research from the Stanford University School of Medicine has revealed that if a group of your brain cells suddenly went rogue and decided to become fat cells, it could cloud your decision-making capacity a bit.
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’
In a new breakthrough for the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease, three research groups have separately reported the discovery of new cardiovascular disease (CAD) risk genes. The international Coronary Artery Disease Genome-Wide Replication and Meta-Analysis (CARDIoGRAM) consortium carried out a meta-analysis of 14 prior genome-wide association studies involving some 87,000 individuals of European ancestry. The study has identified 13 new genetic loci, 10 of which reside in gene regions not previously implicated in pathogenesis of the disease. The CARDiOGRAM research also confirmed 10 of 12 gene loci previously associated with CAD.
Continue reading ‘New Risk Loci for Cardiovascular Disease Identified’
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’
New research from the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) has proven that there are very specific changes in the genetic makeup of people suffering from cancer and those who don’t have cancer. The researchers from VBI have developed a new technology that catches these genetic changes, which help in differentiating cancer patients from healthy individuals. The future purpose of this technology could be in creating a cancer predisposition test. The team also included scientists from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
Continue reading ‘Genetic Differences between Cancer and Non-Cancer Patients’
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’
Studying how bacteria incorporate foreign DNA from invading viruses into their own regulatory processes, Thomas Wood, professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, is uncovering the secrets of one of nature’s most primitive immune systems.
Continue reading ‘Bacteria Provide Example of One of Nature’s First Immune Systems’
UCSF researchers have shown for the first time that the human fetal immune system arises from an entirely different source than the adult immune system, and is more likely to tolerate than fight foreign substances in its environment. The finding could lead to a better understanding of how newborns respond to both infections and vaccines, and may explain such conundrums as why many infants of HIV-positive mothers are not infected with the disease before birth, the researchers said.
In a rare victory against AIDS, German scientists say that three years after a unique stem cell transplant was tried on a patient, “cure of HIV has been achieved in this” man. This is the first time anyone has been pronounced cured of the disease. But as New Scientist notes, their radical therapy strategy offers no hope for the tens of millions of people around the world with the lethal virus.
Continue reading ‘First HIV “Cure” Comes with a Very Big Catch’
While it has become clear in recent years that susceptibility to pain has a strong inherited component, very little is known about actual “pain genes” and how they work. In the November 12th issue of Cell, researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston and their collaborators report on a novel human pain gene. People with minor variations in this gene showed clear differences in susceptibility to acute heat pain and chronic back pain. Corroborating mouse studies give some clues as to how the gene controls pain sensitivity. The gene was uncovered in a genome-wide hunt for pain genes in fruit flies, which revealed hundreds of other candidate pain genes that await further study.
Continue reading ‘Researchers Discover Pain Gene Common to Flies, Mice & Humans’
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