http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Breast cancers contain many different cell types with different patterns of gene expression, but a new study provides reassurance that this variability should not be a barrier to using gene expression tests to help tailor cancer treatments to individual patients. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-breast-cancer-heterogeneity-barrier.html Cancer Thu, 02 May 2013 09:21:30 EST news286705284 A small French study of 14 HIV patients who have remained healthy for years after stopping drug treatment offers fresh evidence that early medical intervention may lead to a "functional cure" for AIDS, researchers said Thursday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-french-patients-hiv-bay-drugs.html HIV & AIDS Thu, 14 Mar 2013 17:09:00 EST news282499733 An international team of researchers, including an investigator with the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech, has produced what may be the most comprehensive computer model of human metabolism yet developed. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-recon-tailor-treatments-patients-metabolic.html Medical research Mon, 04 Mar 2013 10:05:09 EST news281613903 Scientists have produced an instruction manual for the human genome that provides a framework to better understand the relationship between an individual's genetic make-up and their lifestyle. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-human-metabolism-health-disease.html Genetics Sun, 03 Mar 2013 13:00:01 EST news281521158 Neuroblastoma, the most common malignant tumor of early childhood, is frequently associated with the presence of MYCN amplification, a genetic biomarker associated with poor prognosis. Researchers have determined that tumors containing MYCN amplification are sensitive to a new class of drugs, BET bromodomain inhibitors. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-biomarker-neuroblastomas-sensitivity-bromodomain-inhibitors.html Cancer Thu, 21 Feb 2013 10:32:14 EST news280665121 Scientists at the Monell Center have identified the location and certain genetic characteristics of taste stem cells on the tongue. The findings will facilitate techniques to grow and manipulate new functional taste cells for both clinical and research purposes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-elusive-stem-cells.html Medical research Mon, 04 Feb 2013 00:20:01 EST news279118489 Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the world. A form known as primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) predominantly affects Europeans and Africans, whereas primary closed angle glaucoma (PACG) mostly affects Asians. Despite the high levels of blindness caused by PACG in Asian countries, scientists lacked the information that could confirm the disease's genetic basis and provide a starting point to tackle the problem. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-dna-analysis-reveals-genetic-variants.html Genetics Wed, 30 Jan 2013 07:20:05 EST news278749743 The central skill of cancer is its ability to mutate – that's how it became cancerous in the first place. Once it's started down that path, it's not so difficult for a cancer cell to mutate again and again. This means that different tumors within a single patient or even different areas within the same cancerous deposit may develop different genetic characteristics. This heterogeneity helps cancer escape control by new, targeted cancer therapy drugs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-lung-cancer-patients-pockets-resistance.html Cancer Sat, 01 Dec 2012 06:12:23 EST news273564734 An international group of scientists has identified three genetic regions that predispose Asian women who have never smoked to lung cancer. The finding provides further evidence that risk of lung cancer among never-smokers, especially Asian women, may be associated with certain unique inherited genetic characteristics that distinguishes it from lung cancer in smokers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-gene-variations-linked-lung-cancer.html Cancer Sun, 11 Nov 2012 13:13:06 EST news271861968 Using biological markers—genetic characteristics that are associated with some patients with breast cancer—can increase the success rate of clinical trials for breast cancer drugs by almost 50 per cent, says new research from the University of Toronto Mississauga. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-biological-markers-clinical-trial-success.html Cancer Mon, 01 Oct 2012 12:51:48 EST news268314695 BGI Tech Solutions announced today that they have achieved whole exome sequencing analysis of total degraded DNA as low as 200 ng from formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) samples. This advancement enables researchers to efficiently uncover the genetic information from FFPE disease samples such as cancers and infectious diseases, with the advantages of high reliability, accuracy and fast turnaround time. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-bgi-exome-sequencing-analysis-ffpe.html Genetics Tue, 18 Sep 2012 09:51:55 EST news267180706 (Medical Xpress)—With the ability to sequence human genes comes an onslaught of raw material about the genetic characteristics that distinguish us, and wading through these reserves of data poses a major challenge for life scientists. Researchers at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) and the Center for Human Genome Variation at Duke University Medical Center (DUMC) have developed an approach for analyzing data that can help researchers studying genetic factors in disease to quickly cull out relevant genetic patterns and identify variants that lead to particular disorders. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-approach-efficient-analysis-emerging-genetic.html Genetics Thu, 06 Sep 2012 09:26:47 EST news266142401 BGI, the world's largest genomics organization, reported that it can use next-generation sequencing to analyze DNA as low as 200 ng from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples. This advancement enables researchers to easily identify the genetic details and pathology mechanism of FFPE disease samples, especially for some rare tumors, with higher accuracy and reliability than existing techniques. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-bgi-next-gen-sequencing-analysis-ffpe.html Genetics Thu, 08 Mar 2012 10:52:41 EST news250426351 BGI, the world's largest genomics organization, developed single-cell genome sequencing technology and published two research papers for cancer single-cell sequencing in the research journal Cell. In the papers, which were published today in the same issue of Cell, BGI researchers applied their new single-cell sequencing (SCS) method to identify the genetic characteristics of essential thrombocythemia (ET, a kind of blood neoplasm) and clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC, a typical kidney cancer), and demonstrated that single cell analyses of highly heterogeneous tissues provide much clearer intratumoral genetic pictures and developmental history than previous bulk tissue sequencing. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-single-cell-sequencing-era-cancer.html Genetics Fri, 02 Mar 2012 10:47:05 EST news249907619 The Lawson Translational Cancer Research Team (LTCRT) of the Lawson Health Research Institute is one of five groups participating in a new study that seeks to personalize cancer drug treatment. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-lawson-team-personalize-cancer.html Cancer Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:00:03 EST news242916553 A new University of Maryland-led study finds that 'sex' between the virus responsible for the 2009 flu pandemic (H1N1) and a common type of avian flu virus (H9N2) can produce offspring -- new combined flu viruses -- with the potential for creating a new influenza pandemic. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-well-known-flu-strains-dangerous-progeny.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 13 Jul 2011 12:36:44 EST news229779385 Leukemia is the most common childhood cancer; it also occurs in adults. Now researchers working with zebrafish at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah have identified previously undiscovered high-risk genetic features in T-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia (T-ALL), according to an article published online May 9, 2011, in the cancer research journal Oncogene. When compared to samples from human patients with T-ALL, these genetic characteristics allowed scientists to predict which patients may have more aggressive forms of the disease that either recur after remission or do not respond to treatment. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-zebrafish-high-risk-genetic-features-leukemia.html Genetics Tue, 10 May 2011 12:32:01 EST news224249478