http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. When cells suffer too much DNA damage, they are usually forced to undergo programmed cell death, or apoptosis. However, cancer cells often ignore these signals, flourishing even after chemotherapy drugs have ravaged their DNA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-ids-key-protein-cell-death.html Genetics Tue, 14 May 2013 06:27:15 EST news287731615 (Medical Xpress)—Researchers have found that missteps in a basic cellular process, RNA splicing, is the culprit behind a class of rare neurological disorders manifested by intellectual disability and stunted development. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-errors-rna-splicing-class-neurological.html Genetics Fri, 29 Mar 2013 06:50:17 EST news283758597 During embryonic development, animals generate many different types of cells, each with a distinct function and identity. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-cell-reprogramming-liver-regeneration.html Medical research Thu, 28 Mar 2013 12:06:25 EST news283691176 A recently described master regulator protein may explain the development of aberrant cell growth in the pancreas spurred by inflammation http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-molecular-master-pancreatic-cancer-potential.html Cancer Tue, 12 Feb 2013 14:20:03 EST news279900219 Our DNA, which stores our genetic information, is constantly exposed to damage. If not properly repaired, DNA damage can lead to cell death. This, in turn, can lead to tissue exhaustion and ageing, or induce mutations resulting in uncontrolled cell proliferation and cancer. Brca1 is a key gene that mediates DNA repair, and mutations in Brca1 lead to familial and sporadic breast and ovarian cancer in humans. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-uncover-role-brca1-survival-skin.html Cancer Thu, 03 Jan 2013 07:59:49 EST news276422333 (Medical Xpress)—Insights from a genetic condition that causes brain cancer are helping scientists better understand the most common type of brain tumor in children. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-clues-kids-brain-tumors.html Genetics Fri, 16 Nov 2012 07:42:49 EST news272274161 (Medical Xpress)— Scientists have discovered that breaking a biological signaling system in an embryo allows them to change the destiny of a cell. The findings could lead to new ways of making replacement organs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-destiny-cell.html Genetics Thu, 01 Nov 2012 09:22:23 EST news270980537 (Medical Xpress)—Researchers led by Tanya Stoyanova and Dr. Owen Witte of UCLA's Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research have determined how a protein known as Trop2 drives the growth of tumor cells in prostate and other epithelial cancers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-reveal-trop2-protein-tumor-growth.html Cancer Tue, 16 Oct 2012 07:33:15 EST news269591570 The adult human circulatory system contains between 20 and 30 trillion red blood cells (RBCs), the precise size and number of which can vary from person to person. Some people may have fewer, but larger RBCs, while others may have a larger number of smaller RBCs. Although these differences in size and number may seem inconsequential, they raise an important question: Just what controls these characteristics of RBCs? http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-protein-red-blood-cell-size.html Genetics Tue, 28 Aug 2012 18:23:09 EST news265396943 Different genetic mistakes driving skin cancer may affect how patients respond to the drug vemurafenib, providing grounds to screen people with melanoma skin cancer before treatment, a new study by Cancer Research UK scientists suggests http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-patients-screened-vemurafenib.html Cancer Tue, 14 Aug 2012 04:39:40 EST news264137958 Alterations in the formation of ribosomes (the elements of the cell where proteins are made) cause the induction of p53 protein and cell cycle disruption. This process is crucial to understand fundamental biological processes and the emergence of various diseases. Now, scientists at the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) have found that this response is achieved independently, depending on which subunit of the ribosome (40S and 60S) is impaired, by the joint action of two proteins of the ribosome. The research results are published in the latest issue of the journal Genes and Development. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-ribosome-subunits-cell.html Genetics Tue, 22 May 2012 10:39:10 EST news256901871 (Medical Xpress) -- A study published in Genes and Development from scientists at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research pinpoints the importance of maternal epigenetic influences during early embryogenesis in mammals. A chromatin regulatory complex in the oocyte ensures that the proper luggage of maternal transcripts and chromatin structures control the first steps in the formation of an embryo. In the absence of this epigenetic regulator the embryo fails to develop correctly. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-mother-maternal-epigenetic-inheritance.html Genetics Mon, 07 May 2012 08:58:44 EST news255599878 (PhysOrg.com) -- The 24-hour internal clock controls many aspects of human behavior and physiology, including sleep, blood pressure, and metabolism. Disruption in circadian rhythms leads to increased incidence of many diseases, including metabolic disease and cancer. Each cell of the body has its own internal timing mechanism, which is controlled by proteins that keep one another in check. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-circadian-clock-molecular-pair-time-keeping.html Genetics Wed, 04 Apr 2012 18:06:37 EST news252781586 The same mechanism that stabilises the DNA in the cell nucleus is also important for the structure and function of vertebrate muscle cells. This has been established by RUB-researchers led by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Linke (Institute of Physiology) in cooperation with American and German colleagues. An enzyme attaches a methyl group to the protein Hsp90, which then forms a complex with the muscle protein titin. When the researchers disrupted this protein network through genetic manipulation in zebrafish the muscle structure partly disintegrated. The scientists have thus shown that methylation also plays a significant role outside the nucleus. They published their results in Genes and Development. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-protein-networks-stabilize-muscle-fibers.html Genetics Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:55:02 EST news246545676 Although all cells in an organism have the same DNA, cells function differently based on the genes they express. While most studies of gene expression focus on activities in the cell's nucleus, a new Cornell study finds that processes outside the nucleus -- along the cell membrane -- also play important roles in gene expression. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-weill-uncover-basic-cell-pathway.html Genetics Tue, 24 May 2011 07:31:16 EST news225440998 An international research team led by Dr. Tak Mak, Director, The Campbell Family Institute for Breast Cancer Research at Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH), has discovered a new aspect of "metabolic transformation", the process whereby tumour cells adapt and survive under conditions that would kill normal cells. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-cancer-scientists-breast-cells-environmental.html Cancer Sun, 15 May 2011 11:38:25 EST news224678285