New study from the University of Alberta suggests that diseases such as many cancers, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s have a genetic contribution of 5 to 10 per cent at most UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA In most cases, your genes have less than five per cent to do with your risk of developing a particular disease, according to...
Tag: <span>DNA</span>
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DNA Circuits to Identify Cancer Cells
SIAVASH PARKHIDEH MEDICINE, NANOMEDICINE, ONCOLOGY Researchers from Duke University have developed a new DNA-based tool to identify cancer cells. Their system is a DNA circuit. DNA binding to specific cell markers produces a signal if and only if two specific proteins are present, helping to improve specificity and reduce false positives in cancer cell detection....
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Longevity Linked to Proteins That Calm Overexcited Neurons
New research makes a molecular connection between the brain and aging — and shows that overactive neurons can shorten life span. Athousand seemingly insignificant things change as an organism ages. Beyond the obvious signs like graying hair and memory problems are myriad shifts both subtler and more consequential: Metabolic processes run less smoothly; neurons respond less...
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If you’ve given your DNA to a DNA database, US police may now have access to it
by Jane Tiller, The Conversation In the past week, news has spread of a Florida judge’s decision to grant a warrant allowing police to search one of the world’s largest online DNA databases, for leads in a criminal case. The warrant reportedly approved the search of open source genealogy database GEDMatch. An estimated 1.3 million...
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Advanced cancer drug shrinks and intercalates DNA
Experiments and statistical models reveal that the recently developed cancer drug Pixantrone forces itself inside the double helix structure of DNA molecules, then shrinks their backbones SPRINGER Because of the harmful side-effects of chemotherapy, and the increasing resistance to drugs found in many cancer cells, it is critical for researchers to continually search for new...
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Advanced microscopy reveals unusual DNA structure
Sandia scientist pushes technology’s limits to see fundamental feature of stretched S-DNA An advanced imaging technique reveals new structural details of S-DNA, ladder-like DNA that forms when the molecule experiences extreme tension. This work conducted at Sandia National Laboratories and Vrije University in the Netherlands provides the first experimental evidence that S-DNA contains highly tilted...
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Competitor accuses 23andMe of ‘false negatives’ in cancer-gene testing
By SHARON BEGLEY when 23andMe received government permission in 2017 to sell health-related genetic testing, it came with several conditions, including that the company tell customers that its brand of testing can miss disease-causing variants. Now, in a study presented on Thursday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics, a competitor has analyzed the likelihood of such...
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Clues from DNA could predict growth of prostate cancer
by University of California, Los Angeles Researchers from the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and other institutions in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom and Singapore, have identified 1,178 biomarkers in men’s genomes—the complete set of genetic material inherited from one’s parents—that predict how an individual person’s prostate cancer will grow. The finding suggests that...
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Research discovers inhibitor to reverse toxic DUX4 effects
by University of Minnesota About one in 8,000 people have facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, according to a 2014 study, which is relatively common in the world of genetic diseases. New University of Minnesota Medical School research identifies an inhibitor that protects cells from toxic effects associated with this disease in cells and mice. Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy...
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Cell-free DNA detects pathogens and quantifies damage
This news or article is intended for readers with certain scientific or professional knowledge in the field. A common problem in diagnosing infectious disease is that the presence of a potential pathogen in the body does not necessarily mean the patient is sick. This can be particularly challenging for the treatment of organ transplant recipients,...