Identity Swap: Finding the variants that human history has favoured

Sequence differences in less than 0.2% of the 3-billion-base human genome play a vital role in a bewildering variety of human disease. Today, researchers from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the Cambridge University’s Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, together with international colleagues report in PLoS Genetics their detailed maps of differences implicated in disease as well as genes that are u

UF researchers restore vitality to cells in lab experiments

University of Florida researchers say primitive cells that act like molecular maintenance men – traveling throughout the body to repair damaged blood vessels – become too rigid to move in patients with diabetes, fueling the disease’s vascular complications. But they have found a way to restore the cells’ flexibility, at least in the laboratory, according to findings published in the January issue of the journal D

International team led by scientists at Einstein and Beth Israel

Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and its Manhattan hospital affiliate, Beth Israel Medical Center, have found that a specific mutation in a single gene is a major cause of Parkinson’s disease among Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jews. The report will appear in the January 26 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

“Like the discovery of the BRCA1 and BRCA2

Like any other organism, an influenza virus’s success in life is measured by its genetic track record, its ability to pass on genes from one generation to the next.

But while much is known about the genes and inner workings of flu viruses, how the microbe organizes its genetic contents to seed future generations of viruses has remained an enduring mystery of biology.

Now, with the help of a long-studied flu virus, an electron microscope and a novel idea of how

In experiments with mice, researchers have found that eliminating what appears to be a master genetic switch for the development of pain-sensing neurons knocks out the animals’ response to “neuropathic pain.” Such pain is abnormal pain that outlasts the injury and is associated with nerve and/or central nervous system changes. The animals rendered deficient in the gene, called Runx1, also showed lack of response to discomfort caused by heat and cold and inflammation. The researchers said t

NIH and PKD Foundation launch HALT-PKD treatment trials

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the PKD Foundation have launched two treatment trials for autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). The common inherited disorder is characterized by cysts in the kidneys and other organs, high blood pressure, and aneurysms (bulges in blood vessels, which may burst) in the brain. Symptoms usually appear between the ages of 30 and 40 and include back and side pain and h

Research shows it may stop new breast cancer drugs working say UK specialists

Breast cancer specialists from one of the UK’s leading cancer centres cautioned doctors (Thursday 26 January) of the risks in prescribing vaginal oestrogen to breast cancer patients being treated with the new aromatase inhibiting drugs, anastrozole, letrozole and exemestane[1].

Their concerns follow findings from the first study to examine the impact of vaginal oestrogen in women receivin

Specific recommendations for improving breast-health care and cancer treatment in countries with limited resources have been published by the Breast Health Global Initiative (BHGI), an international coalition of doctors, scientists, policy makers and advocates led by Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

“The Guidelines for International Breast Health and Cancer Control” are published as a 122-page supplement in the January-Februa

Research from UNSW provides the most convincing evidence to date that complex mental activity across people’s lives significantly reduces the risk of dementia. The researchers found that such activity almost halves the incidence of dementia.

The paper, which has just been published in Psychological Medicine, is the first comprehensive review of the research in the field of ’brain reserve’, which looks at the role of education, occupational complexity and mentall

New procedure may revolutionize traditional asthma care by lessening smooth muscle tissue in the airway

Up until now, if you suffer from asthma, medication has been the only treatment available to you for relief. But now, clinical researchers at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) hope to open up a new avenue to alleviate the debilitating symptoms of asthma – through an investigative bronchoscopic procedure where the smooth muscle of the airway, which causes the

Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers are studying whether delivering chemotherapy drugs directly to breast “plumbing” might make treatment of early breast cancer easier on the patient and at least as good as surgery or radiation. A report on successful tests of intraductal therapy in rats and mice published in the January 15 issue of Cancer Research has paved the way for one of the first preliminary clinical trials in women with breast cancer, currently under way in women

Nonsurgical cancer therapy that destroys tumors but leaves healthy surrounding tissue intact could be available at every hospital if research reported this week in the journal Nature eventually comes to fruition.

The Los Alamos National Laboratory Trident laser team, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Nevada, Reno and elsewhere, has succeeded in concentrating the intensity of a laser-driven carbon ion beam into a narrow range.

This work builds

The EUREKA project E! 2288 on Computer-aided orthopaedic care (MEDAC) is helping orthopaedic surgeons to not only document their clinical cases, but to also manage and analyse all patient data compiled. This award-winning project is revolutionising orthopaedic research and could be applicable to many other specialist areas of medicine. Patients benefit from a fast and documented diagnosis, while surgeons gain access to vast resources of reference data and the means to analyse their own patients’ re

A breakthrough by scientists at the University of Leicester in understanding mechanisms within the brain which cause injury could lead to better treatments in the future for conditions such as as cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis.

Drs Robert Fern and Mike Salter of the Department of Cell Physiology and Pharmocology at the University of Leicester had their findings published in the science journal Nature.

Their study is particularly important as it identifies the cause of damage

When activated, a specific protein in the brain enhances long-term storage of fearful memories and strengthens previously established fearful memories, Yale School of Medicine researchers report this week in Nature Neuroscience.

“This report is the first to demonstrate evidence of enhancements in memory reconsolidation in the brain,” said the senior author, Jane Taylor, associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry. “Understanding these molecular mechanisms may provide cr

The human body has a unique immune system response to foreign DNA, suggesting that DNA viruses and RNA viruses are detected by different mechanisms, Yale School of Medicine researchers report this week in Immunity.

The researchers also found that DNA recognition might be used to detect invasive bacteria in addition to viruses, according to Daniel Stetson, a post doctoral fellow in the Section of Immunobiology and lead author of the study.

Although there are countless