All Articles Tagged As: genes

Controlling embryonic fate by association (5/5/2008)

Association determines fate in embryonic stem cells ...> Full Article

A stem cell type supposed to be crucial for angiogenesis and cancer growth does not exist? (4/23/2008)

Researchers have shown that circulating endothelial precursor cells actually do not exist ...> Full Article

Joslin study identifies gene involved in blood stem cell replication, movement (4/10/2008)

Finding may provide target to improve bone marrow and blood cell transplants ...> Full Article

Researchers find trigger gene for muscle development (2/2/2008)

University of Oregon scientists say they have identified a gene that is the key switch that allows embryonic cells to form into muscles in zebrafish. ...> Full Article

New research into scar-free healing (1/28/2008)

New research from the University of Bristol shows that by suppressing one of the genes that normally switches on in wound cells, wounds can heal faster and reduce scarring. This has major implications not just for wound victims but also for people who suffer organ tissue damage through illness or abdominal surgery. ...> Full Article

BERT tells ERNI it's time to grow a brain (1/13/2008)

Scientists have discovered how two proteins ­called BERT and ERNI interact in embryos to control when different organ systems in the body start to form, deepening our understanding of the development of the brain and nervous system and stem cell behaviour. ...> Full Article

Researchers reveal the functioning of a genetic switch that plays crucial role in muscle stem cells (1/4/2008)

New research published in Nature Cell Biology has revealed that a master muscle stem cell gene called Pax7 controls the development of new muscle tissue by regulating how certain genes are switched from a silent state to an active state. ...> Full Article

New method exploits ancient mechanism to switch genes on and off at will (12/10/2007)

Since our ancestors first harnessed fire, we've used heat to cook burgers, forge steel and power rockets. Now, Rockefeller University researchers are using heat for another purpose: turning genes on and off at will. By exploiting the heat shock response, an ancient mechanism that protects cells from dangerously high temperatures, researchers have developed a new method to introduce foreign genes, called transgenes, into an organism and control when and where these transgenes are expressed. Unlike other techniques, which are labor intensive and inefficient, this new method makes controlling transgene expression as easy as turning the dial on an oven. ...> Full Article

Gene regulates polarity in flatworms (12/9/2007)

When cut, a planarian flatworm can use a population of stem cells called neoblasts to regenerate new heads, new tails or even entire new organisms from a tiny fragment of its body. Mechanisms have been sought to explain this process of regeneration polarity for over 100 years, but until now, little was known about how planaria can regenerate heads and tails at their proper sites. ...> Full Article

New marker identifies cancer stem cells (12/7/2007)

Marker corresponds to worse outcomes, could help determine treatments ...> Full Article

Breakthrough in Organ Rejection Diagnosis Examines Gene Behavior (11/25/2007)

New Research describes a revolutionary technique for more clearly identifying the possibility of organ rejection in kidney transplants. The technique, which uses a microarray or "Gene Chip," a process of examining DNA sequences, defines how major causes of organ disease leading to rejection share similar disturbances in gene behavior. The study is the first to show how gene sets, as opposed to single genes, can be used for diagnosis of rejection in individual patients, and offers new insight into the mechanisms of these gene changes. ...> Full Article

'Fingerprints' help find genes involved in differentiation (11/16/2007)

A database that includes the molecular profiles of the major components of the blood system – including the stem cells and the cells differentiated from them – enabled researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston to identify at least two genes involved in the differentiation process for two different kinds of blood cells. ...> Full Article

Adult stem cells lack key regulator (10/24/2007)

The protein Oct4 plays a major role in embryonic stem cells, acting as a master regulator of the genes that keep the cells in an undifferentiated state. Unsurprisingly, researchers studying adult stem cells have long suspected that Oct4 also is critical in allowing these cells to remain undifferentiated. Indeed, more than 50 studies have reported finding Oct4 activity in adult stem cells. ...> Full Article

Stem Cell Nuclei Are Soft 'Hard Drives,' Study Finds (10/15/2007)

Biophysicists have discovered that the nuclei of human stem cells are particularly soft and flexible, rather than hard, making it easier for stem cells to migrate through the body and to adopt different shapes, but ultimately to put human genes in the correct nuclear "sector" for proper access and expression. ...> Full Article

Adult stem cells lack key pluripotency regulator (10/14/2007)

The protein Oct4 plays a major role in embryonic stem cells, acting as a master regulator of the genes that keep the cells in an undifferentiated state. Unsurprisingly, researchers studying adult stem cells have long suspected that Oct4 also is critical in allowing these cells to remain undifferentiated. Indeed, more than 50 studies have reported finding Oct4 activity in adult stem cells. ...> Full Article

Risk Genes For Multiple Sclerosis Uncovered (7/31/2007)

Using a whole-genome association scan, an international consortium of scientists has found genetic variations in multiple sclerosis patients, findings that suggest a possible link between MS and other autoimmune diseases. ...> Full Article

New Genetic Test Advances Detection and Diagnosis of Muscular Dystrophy (6/30/2007)

A new genetic test targeting the most common types of muscular dystrophy -- those caused by mutations in the dystrophin gene -- is far quicker with greater accuracy and sensitivity than existing tests. It can be used to confirm clinical diagnoses, to test female family members who may be carriers, and to perform prenatal testing. ...> Full Article

Study Maps Road To Cure For Inherited Eye Diseases (6/29/2007)

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have identified proteins in the rod and cones of the eye that could lead to the discovery of the genetic causes of a host of inherited eye diseases. The investigators hope to gain a clearer understanding of what goes wrong at the most basic level in these diseases that cause blindness and other disorders. ...> Full Article

New Gene Discovery Offers Further Hope For Childhood Blindness (6/14/2007)

An international research team has discovered a gene that, when mutated, causes one of the most common forms of inherited blindness in babies. Scientists at the University of Leeds, working in collaboration with experts from other centres around the world, identified the gene, which is essential to photoreceptors in the eye, the cells that "see" light. ...> Full Article

Bipolar Disorder Risk Genes Identified (6/11/2007)

Cardiff School of Medicine scientists have opened the way to possible new treatments for bipolar disorder by starting to pinpoint the biological mechanisms involved in the illness. ...> Full Article

Research Team Identifies New Alzheimer's Gene (6/9/2007)

Powerful research tools and public data set opens new era in the genetic study of Alzheimer's ...> Full Article

Study Advances Efforts to Use Gene Therapy to Treat Obesity (5/25/2007)

Gene therapy that could treat obesity may also have benefits for bone growth, according to a new study by scientists at Oregon State University and the University of Florida. ...> Full Article

Opossum Genome May Reveal Clues To Human Health Dilemmas (5/11/2007)

The genome of the opossum is no longer playing dead, and the animal's genetic makeup may help scientists better understand and treat neurological disorders and skin cancer in humans. ...> Full Article

Scientists Parse Dna Tied To Heart Disease Susceptibility (5/7/2007)

In the May 3 issue of Science Express, an international research team - including scientists from two University of Texas health institutions - announced the discovery of a tiny stretch of DNA on chromosome 9 that increases individual susceptibility to heart disease by 30 to 40 percent, regardless of other established risk factors. ...> Full Article

Gene Discovered In Human Stem Cells May Benefit Transplant Patients (5/3/2007)

Oxford scientists have for the first time revealed a link between a gene and the activity of human stem cells, giving hope that stem cell transplant success for blood cancer patients may be significantly improved. ...> Full Article

Novel Gene-Repair Technology Under Development (4/28/2007)

OrphageniX Inc., a new biotechnology company founded by University of Delaware researchers, has been established in Wilmington to develop and commercialize UD-patented technologies for repairing genes that cause rare, hereditary diseases such as sickle cell anemia and spinal muscular atrophy. ...> Full Article

Dna Survey Reveals Nature's Way Of Reducing Triglycerides And Heart Disease (4/27/2007)

If you're one of the lucky few with variations in a single gene that reduce artery-clogging triglycerides in your blood, you have an increased chance of avoiding heart disease, the leading cause of death in adult Americans. That�s the good news from a DNA study that involved scientists from two University of Texas health institutions and led to the discovery of these genetic variations in approximately 3 to 4 percent of the people tested. ...> Full Article

Neural Mechanisms Play Role In Healthy Bone Growth (4/24/2007)

Scientists searching for a gene therapy to control obesity have unexpectedly discovered a way that the brain regulates bone growth, a finding that shines new light on osteoporosis and other bone-robbing diseases. ...> Full Article

Cancer-Initiating Stem Cells Taking a Larger Role in Cancer Treatment (4/20/2007)

Recent discoveries about the role of stem cells in cancer have altered the landscape of cancer research. With each new study, scientists are learning more about cancer-initiating properties of stem cells at organ sites and throughout the body. Increasingly, stem cells are examined as the cause - and potential target of treatment - for many, if not all, cancers. ...> Full Article

Researchers Develop ALS Mouse Stem Cell Line (4/19/2007)

A team of Harvard researchers has used embryonic stem cells, derived from mice carrying a human gene known to cause a form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), to create an in vitro model of the always-fatal neurodegenerative disease. Harvard Stem Cell Institute principal investigator Kevin Eggan and Tom Maniatis, the Thomas H. Lee Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology in Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, are the senior authors of the study published on-line April 15 by Nature Neuroscience. ...> Full Article

Major Genetic Study Identifies Clearest Link Yet To Obesity Risk (4/16/2007)

Scientists have identified the most clear genetic link yet to obesity in the general population as part of a major study of diseases funded by the Wellcome Trust, the UK's largest medical research charity. People with two copies of a particular gene variant have a 70 per cent higher risk of being obese than those with no copies. ...> Full Article

Sheep Gene Research May Help Human Disorder (4/13/2007)

Sheep gene research at the University of Adelaide's Roseworthy Campus aimed at helping maximise wool production for Australian producers, has shed light on a human genetic hair and skin disorder. ...> Full Article

Three Proteins May Play Important Role in Nerve-Cell Repair (4/12/2007)

Some mature brain cells can grow new extensions when the amount of three particular proteins on their surface increases, a new study shows. The research examined three related receptor proteins, called GPR3, GPR6 and GPR12, on nerve cells in the brains of rats. ...> Full Article

Ultrathin films deliver DNA as possible gene therapy tool (3/30/2007)

Gene therapy - the idea of using genetic instructions rather than drugs to treat disease - has tickled scientists' imaginations for decades, but is not yet a viable therapeutic method. One sizeable hurdle is getting the right genes into the right place at the right time. ...> Full Article

Tiny Clue Reveals New Path Toward Heart Disease (3/24/2007)

Geneticists have discovered a new gene that may put individuals at higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease. ...> Full Article

Genetic Studies Endow Mice with New Color Vision (3/23/2007)

Scientists with Howard Hughes Medical Institute and University of California have created a mouse with color vision by introducing a human gene into a mouse chromosome. ...> Full Article

Gene therapy for blindness clears hurdle in mice (3/14/2007)

University of Florida researchers have used an experimental therapy in mice to shut down a gene that plays a crucial role in a leading cause of inherited blindness ...> Full Article

Eye color due to multiple genes (3/8/2007)

A study by researchers from The University of Queensland's Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) and the Queensland Institute of Medical Research is the first to prove conclusively that there is no single gene for eye color. ...> Full Article

Rare Mutation Causes Early Heart Disease and Metabolic Syndrome (3/5/2007)

Yale School of Medicine researchers have identified a rare defect in a single gene that poses a substantial risk for metabolic syndrome and early heart disease, the leading cause of death worldwide. ...> Full Article

Genetic testing sheds light on degenerative eye disease (3/5/2007)

Genetic testing for eye disease is providing vital information about complex retinal diseases, especially when used to confirm a clinician’s diagnosis. ...> Full Article

Heart Reboot Causes Blue Screen of Death (2/20/2007)

In almost all forms of heart failure, the heart begins to express genes that are normally only expressed in the fetal heart. Researchers have known for years that this fetal-gene reactivation happens, yet not what regulates it. Now, investigators at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered that an enzyme important in fetal heart-cell development regulates the enlargement of heart cells, known as cardiac hypertrophy, which is a precursor to many forms of congestive heart failure (CHF). ...> Full Article

Gene Test for Macular Degeneration Created (10/20/2006)

Scientists at the John A. Moran Eye Center with the University of Utah have created a genetic test to determine whether a person is at risk of developing Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD). ...> Full Article