by Sara Hussein A massive, decade-long study sequencing the genomes of dozens of cancers has revealed the secrets of how tumours form and may pave the way for better and more targeted treatment. The Pan-Cancer Project brought together over 1,300 researchers globally to tackle the mammoth task of sequencing the genomes of 38 types of...
by Washington University School of Medicine Dementia is one of the most debilitating consequences of Parkinson’s disease, a progressive neurological condition characterized by tremors, stiffness, slow movement and impaired balance. Eighty percent of people with Parkinson’s develop dementia within 20 years of the diagnosis, and patients who carry a particular variant of the gene APOE...
Long understood as source of novel genetic traits, jumping genes also provide genomic stability WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE “Jumping genes” — bits of DNA that can move from one spot in the genome to another — are well-known for increasing genetic diversity over the long course of evolution. Now, new research at Washington University...
Using a type of genetic screen that had previously been impossible in the mammalian brain, MIT neuroscientists have identified hundreds of genes that are necessary for neuron survival. They also used the same approach to identify genes that protect against the toxic effects of a mutant protein that causes Huntington’s disease. These efforts yielded at...
by University of Liverpool The new approach could speed up diagnosis times for many serious conditions including pneumonia, tuberculosis, sepsis, meningitis, and inflammatory and immune diseases, to under two hours. The University of Liverpool is part of the landmark project, which is being led by Imperial College London and has been awarded a major EU...
Studies that started in zebrafish have now pointed to a role for collagen secretion in a wide variety of clinical symptoms — and in a newly identified genetic syndrome. Ela Knapik, MD, associate professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and her colleagues discovered the syndrome caused by mutation of a single gene and...
An organism’s genome contains all of the information necessary for each of its cells and tissues to develop and function properly. Written in DNA, each individual gene encodes for something, whether it is a structural protein that helps define a tissue’s shape, an enzyme that catalyzes the chemical reactions of life, or a signaling protein...
How anti-CRISPR proteins and other molecules could bolster biosecurity and improve medical treatments. Illustration by Sébastien Thibault It started out as “sort of a stupid thing to do”, recalls Joe Bondy-Denomy, a microbiologist at the University of California, San Francisco. As a graduate student in the early 2010s, he tried to infect bacteria with viruses...
Study holds promise for ALS treatments The enzyme Gemin3 was identified as the molecular ‘bridge’ between genes whose mutation or disruption causes amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), according to a new study in Nature’s Scientific Reports from scientists at the University of Malta. ALS robs patients of their ability to walk, eat or breathe. The late-onset...
by IOS Press Overview of the currently included countries in the IPDGC and IPDGC-affiliated efforts. IPDGC = International Parkinson Disease Genomics Consortium, LARGE-PD = Latin American Research Consortium on the Genetics of Parkinson Disease, Lux GIANT = Luxembourg-German-Indian Alliance on Neurodegenerative diseases and Therapeutics. Credit: Laboratory of Neurogenetics, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of...
