Researchers have found that a common genetic deletion increases the risk of schizophrenia by 30-fold. Generating nerve cells with the deletion has showed the researchers why that is. When nerve cells aren’t busy exchanging information, they’re supposed to keep quiet. If they’re just popping off at random, like in a noisy classroom, it obscures the signals they’re supposed...
Category: <span>Genetics</span>
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Transposons could be rewiring our brains
by University of Oxford A new study by neuroscientists at the University of Oxford shows that mobile genetic elements that were active in the genomes of our ancestors could be closely linked to important functions in our brain and might help diversify our behavior, cognition and emotions. The human genome contains the instructions to build and maintain all...
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Researchers use precision medicine to reverse severe lymphatic disorder
CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA Philadelphia, October 5, 2020–Through genetic sequencing and targeted treatment, researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have resolved a severe lymphatic disorder in a young woman with kaposiform lymphangiomatosis (KLA), a complex and rare disorder that causes lymphatic vessels around the heart and lung to leak fluid, causing breathing difficulties, infections, and often...
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Microneedles for therapeutic gene delivery
TERASAKI INSTITUTE FOR BIOMEDICAL INNOVATION IMAGE: MICRONEEDLES FOR THERAPEUTIC GENE DELIVERY (LOS ANGELES) – There is great potential in gene therapy for treating certain types of cancer and genetic defects, immunological diseases, wounds and infections. The therapies work by delivering genes into the patients’ cells, which then produce therapeutic proteins to treat the affliction. When...
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Genetic study reveals ancestry-specific risk factors for coronary artery disease
by Bob Yirka , Medical Xpress A large team of researchers affiliated with a host of institutions across Japan has identified multiple loci associated with ancestry-specific risk factors for coronary artery disease. In their paper published in the journal Nature Genetics, the group describes their analysis of genetic information from several publicly available databases and its results. Coronary...
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DAMAGED DNA
All life depends upon DNA repair and replication. In every human cell the essential ability to replicate and repair genomes depends upon the coordinated actions of the genome sequence. Flaws or mistakes in repair and cell cycle regulation can lead to defects in the structure of the DNA and can prevent the replication from functioning...
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Treating cystic fibrosis with mRNA therapy or CRISPR
MARY ANN LIEBERT, INC./GENETIC ENGINEERING NEWS IMAGE: FIELD AND PROVIDES ALL-INCLUSIVE ACCESS TO THE CRITICAL PILLARS OF HUMAN GENE THERAPY: RESEARCH, METHODS, AND CLINICAL APPLICATIONS. New Rochelle, NY, October 8, 2020–The potential for treating cystic fibrosis (CF) using mRNA therapies or CRISPR gene editing is possible regardless of the causative mutation. CF clinical trials showing...
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NEW INJECTION CAN GENE-EDIT SPECIFIC PARTS OF THE BRAIN, SCIENTISTS SAY
IT’S THE FIRST GENE-HACKING TOOL THAT TARGETS SPECIFIC CELLS. BY DAN ROBITZSKI A team of scientists have developed a new gene-editing tool that, for the first time, can target the specific cells or organs that doctors want edited — including specific areas of the brain. While testing on lab mice, the Tufts University biomedical engineers...
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Terahertz zaps alter gene activity in stem cells
A new apparatus improves how we study the effects of aiming high-field terahertz radiation at cells, with implications for regenerative medicine Terahertz light pulses change gene expression in stem cells, report researchers from Kyoto University’s Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) and Tokai University in Japan in the journal Optics Letters. The findings come thanks to a new...
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How genetic differences in fat tissue shape men and women’s health risks
by Josh Barney, University of Virginia New University of Virginia research is revealing how genetic differences in the fat in men’s and women’s bodies affect the diseases each sex is likely to get. Researchers Mete Civelek, Warren Anderson and their collaborators have determined that differences in fat storage and formation in men and women strongly affect the activity of 162 different genes found...