The Nowgen Centre, the new multi-million pound, Manchester-based centre for genetics in healthcare and home of the North West Genetics Knowledge Park, will be officially opened on 25 April by Dr John Stageman, Vice President for Global Sciences and Information at AstraZeneca.
The Centre, which cost £4 million, has been jointly funded by the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The Nowgen project is a collaboration betw
The researchers at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and University Hospital of Bonn, Germany, have coined the novel term “Bioportfolio” to describe viral genomic material remaining in the human body after infection. Using human erythrovirus as the example, the authors have demonstrated that viral genomic material persisting in the human body yields valuable information on viral phylogeny and on molecular epidemiology of infection.
Although these results are of greatest interest to th
Animal study shows promise for treatment of Alport syndrome
The discovery that bone-marrow derived stem cells can regenerate damaged renal cells in an animal model of Alport syndrome provides a potential new strategy for managing this inherited kidney disease and offers the first example of how stem cells may be useful in repairing basement membrane matrix defects and restoring organ function.
Led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), the findi
Developed at the University of Southern California, test based on genomic data avoids pitfalls of older methods
Biologists seeking elusive proof of natural selection at the single-gene level have a powerful new tool at their disposal. Chris Toomajian, postdoctoral researcher in molecular and computational biology in the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, led a group that sought to replace the standard neutral model, a common but unrealistic test for natural selection, wit
Although the odds that DNA evidence found at a crime scene will match by chance the DNA of a person who was not there are infinitesimal, controversy continues about DNA identification and its use in criminal investigations, says Carnegie Mellon University Statistics Professor Kathryn Roeder. Roeder will present a historical overview of the use of DNA identification on Tuesday, April 25, during the Annual Symposia of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C.
Almost 28,000 cases na
A rare gene variant in humans helps to protect against two of the country’s top killers — type 2 diabetes and heart disease — as well as against hypertriglyceridemia, a condition that increases the risk of heart disease, obesity, and pancreatitis. A team of researchers from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the Channing Laboratory published their findings in this week’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Individuals who had the gene
Find is first to identify specific mechanism by which invasive plants harm native species
An invasive weed that has spread across much of the U.S. harms native maples, ashes, and other hardwood trees by releasing chemicals harmful to a soil fungus the trees depend on for growth and survival, scientists report this week in the Public Library of Science. The tree-stifling alien, garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), first introduced into the U.S. in the 1860s, has since spread to Can
MIT bioengineers have devised a new technique that makes it possible to learn more about how cells are organized in tissues and potentially even to regrow cells for repairing areas of the body damaged by disease, accidents or aging. The method gives them unprecedented control over organizing cells outside the body in three dimensions, which is how they exist inside the body. It uses electricity to move cells into a desired position, followed by light to lock them into place within a gel th
Coding for arthropods—what’s so special about insects and spiders?
The central dogma of molecular biology is that DNA makes RNA makes protein. This relies on a specific underlying code which relates given triplets of RNA nucleotides into specific amino acids. Each of the 20 amino acids is represented by one or more RNA triplets, or codons: UAC is decoded as tyrosine, for example, and UGC as cysteine. (U is the RNA nucleotide containing uracil, A is adenine, C is cytosine, and G is g
It seems intuitive that genes are affected by selection as a result of environment. In fact there is little evidence thus far that such genetic effects impact year-to-year population dynamics. Of course to provide such evidence the right gene (that causes a specific genetic effect) needs to be studied and a detailed knowledge of the complex and powerful environmental factors against which this effect plays out is necessary.
In a new study published online in the open-access journal PLoS Bi
Men become more jealous of dominant males when their female partner is near ovulation, researchers at the University of Liverpool have found.
Previous studies have found that women’s preferences for male physical appearance vary according to their fertility status. During ovulation women tend to find masculine looking men more attractive and prefer their voices and odour. During this fertile phase women are more likely to have an affair with a masculine-looking man, as their features ar
Micro-RNA, a special type of RNA found in brain cells, plays an important role in the mechanisms of human brain development and in the emergence of certain mental diseases. This hypothesis was put forward by Evgeny Rogaev, a Russian neuroscientist. It is based on the data from publications and his own research conducted in Russia and the USA.
Micro-RNA is a special class of regulatory RNA just 19-22 nucleotides in length. Such micro-RNAs are the products of operation of short genes that
People, as they belong to the mammals, should be particularly interested in the problem of origin of this class in the animal kingdom that has conquered the entire world through evolution: not only the land, but, partly the ocean and the air. We have already known our ancient ancestors for long – these are medium-sized animals – eutherapsida (which means “real Synapsida”), they appeared at the end of the palaeozoic, approximately 270 million years ago, and continued to develop in the Age of
Andalusian researchers from the University of Huelva, the University of Seville, the Instituto de la Grasa of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Corporación Alimentaria Peñasanta have produced an emulsion similar to mayonnaise with buttermilk, or whey butter, obtained as a by-product when milk is skimmed. It is a research line resulting from the Spanish PETRI project (it stands for ‘Proyecto Estímulo Transferencia Resultado de Investigación’, project to encourage the transfer of res
Researchers of the Pablo de Olavide University (Seville)have started a project based on the study of phenotype techniques in mice and their applicability to the pharmaceutical industry and neurodegenerative medicine. It is a research conducted by the group ‘División de Neurociencias’, led by José María Delgado, that focuses on the development of new techniques for studying the behaviour and physiology of wild and transgenic mice’s nervous system.
The goal of this Excellence Project, funde
Findings could lead to new therapeutic approaches to a major disease
According to the new study, the presence of caspase-12, which appears to modulate inflammation and innate immunity in humans, increases the body’s “vulnerability to bacterial infection and septic shock” while a deficiency confers strong resistance to sepsis. This new discovery suggests that caspase-12 antagonists could be a potentially useful in the treatment of sepsis and other inflammatory and immune di
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