The genes are composed of DNA and are carried on the chromosomes. Genes direct the production of all the molecules that form the structures that of a cell. Genes determine the inherited characteristics that distinguish one individual from another. Each human has an estimated 90,000 genes.
Prenatal intervention reduces learning deficit in mice — NIH study shows improvements in animals with Down syndrome characteristics – Mice with a condition that serves as a laboratory model for Down syndrome perform better on memory and learning tasks as adults if they were treated before birth with neuroprotective peptides, according to researchers at the National Institutes of Health.
Scientists to study the role genes play in treating TB – The University of Liverpool has been awarded funding to determine whether differences in our genes determine how patients respond to drugs used to treat Tuberculosis (TB) in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Scientists develop a blood test that detects aggressive prostate cancers — Spanish and British scientists design a precision blood test that uses blood cells to detect aggressive prostate cancer – Scientists have developed a test that studies genetic patterns in blood cells to detect advanced?stage prostate cancer. The study shows that gene patterns in blood cells act as a barcode and could be used together with the current PSA test to select those patients with the worst prognosis in need of immediate treatment.
UNC Lineberger scientists lead cancer genome analysis of breast cancer — Team identifies genetic causes and similarity to ovarian cancer – The researchers, including a large group from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, reported their study about genetic characterization of 800 breast tumors, finding some of the genetic causes of the most common forms of breast cancer, providing clues for new therapeutic targets, and identifying a molecular similarity between one sub-type of breast cancer and ovarian cancer.
Can’t smell anything? This discovery may give you hope – Gene therapy in mice restores sense of smell, may also aid research into other diseases caused by cilia defects, U-M researchers say – Scientists have restored the sense of smell in mice through gene therapy for the first time — a hopeful sign for people who can’t smell anything from birth or lose it due to disease. The achievement in curing congenital anosmia — the medical term for lifelong inability to detect odors — may also aid research on other conditions that also stem from problems with the cilia.
Lack of sleep found to be a new risk factor for aggressive breast cancers — First-of-its-kind study published in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment – Lack of sleep is linked to more aggressive breast cancers, according to new findings published in the August issue of Breast Cancer Research and Treatment by physician-scientists from University Hospitals Case Medical Center’s Seidman Cancer Center and Case Comprehensive Cancer Center at Case Western Reserve University.
deCODE Genetics Study Finds Father?s Age?Not Mother?s Critical to New Mutations Passed to Offspring — Nature Published Study Signals Rise in Autism Spectrum Disorder May Be Partially Tied to Increasing Age of Fathers at Time When Children are Conceived – deCODE Genetics, a global leader in analyzing and understanding the human genome, in collaboration with Illumina, a global leader in the making of instruments to analyze the genome, reported in the journal Nature that a father?s age, not a mother?s, at the time a child is conceived is the single largest contributor to the passing of new hereditary mutations to offspring.
FDA approves Zaltrap for metastatic colorectal cancer – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Zaltrap (ziv-aflibercept) for use in combination with a FOLFIRI (folinic acid, fluorouracil and irinotecan) chemotherapy regimen to treat adults with colorectal cancer.
Researchers discover new mechanism behind resistance to cancer treatment — Finding could lead to development of better therapies to cure cancer – Developing resistance to chemotherapy is a nearly universal, ultimately lethal consequence for cancer patients with solid tumors ? such as those of the breast, prostate, lung and colon ? that have metastasized, or spread, throughout the body.
Study shows colon and rectal tumors constitute a single type of cancer — The Cancer Genome Atlas generates genomic data for colon and rectal cancers that point to potential targets for treatment – The pattern of genomic alterations in colon and rectal tissues is the same regardless of anatomic location or origin within the colon or the rectum, leading researchers to conclude that these two cancer types can be grouped as one, according to The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project’s large-scale study of colon and rectal cancer tissue specimens.
Ordinary chickens may be extraordinary in fighting cancer, says Texas A&M researcher – The common barnyard chicken could provide some very un-common clues for fighting off diseases and might even offer new ways to attack cancer. James Womack, Distinguished Professor of Veterinary Pathobiology in the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, is co-author of a paper detailing the team’s work that appears in the current issue of PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences).
Agent reduces autism-like behaviors in mice — Boosts sociability, quells repetitiveness ? NIH study – National Institutes of Health researchers have reversed behaviors in mice resembling two of the three core symptoms of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). An experimental compound, called GRN-529, increased social interactions and lessened repetitive self-grooming behavior in a strain of mice that normally display such autism-like behaviors, the researchers say.
