http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. By identifying a protein that acts as a genetic modifier, scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have solved the mystery of why some infants are born with a grave syndrome consisting of cleft palate and major deformities of the skin and limbs, while other infants bearing the same predisposing genetic mutation bear little or no sign of the illness, called EEC. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-06-geneticists-mystery-eec-syndrome-variable.html Genetics Fri, 14 Jun 2013 11:33:50 EST news290361565 At a time when sequencing the genome is becoming democratized, questions have arisen about the interpretation of these data and their secure storage. Sophia Genetics, an EPFL Science Park start-up, specializes in this. The company recently raised 2.8 million francs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-genome.html Genetics Fri, 19 Apr 2013 09:20:01 EST news285581427 A controversy at last: most of our DNA is junk, no it isn't, yes it is. Actually, I think it is – up to 90% really is junk. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-dead-junk-dna-isback.html Genetics Fri, 15 Mar 2013 09:00:36 EST news282556742 Future research into the underlying causes of neurological disorders such as autism, epilepsy and schizophrenia, should greatly benefit from a first-of-its-kind atlas of gene-enhancers in the cerebrum (telencephalon). This new atlas, developed by a team led by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is a publicly accessible Web-based collection of data that identifies and locates thousands of gene-regulating elements in a region of the brain that is of critical importance for cognition, motor functions and emotion. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-genome-wide-atlas-gene-brain-online.html Genetics Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:00:10 EST news278866544 Scientists—including a geneticist at The University of Western Australia—are a step closer to developing a vaccine against a fatally infectious parasite carried in the bite of sandflies. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-genetics-discovery-black-fever.html Genetics Tue, 08 Jan 2013 05:58:17 EST news276847089 The study, published in PLOS Genetics on 20 December, adds to growing evidence that particular genes are involved in chronic pain and highlights this pathway as a potential target for more effective pain relief treatments for patients. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-genetic-differences-sensitivity-pain.html Genetics Thu, 20 Dec 2012 17:00:06 EST news275244800 Liver cancer is the sixth most common cancer worldwide and the third leading cause of cancer-associated deaths. Yet even for such a frequent and deadly disease, the pathogenesis of this cancer remains obscure. Now, a team of scientists in Japan has shown that genes involved in regulating how tightly DNA is wound into chromosomes are commonly mutated in liver tumors. The finding points to potential new and much-needed therapeutic strategies. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-identification-mutations-common-liver-cancers.html Cancer Fri, 16 Nov 2012 07:14:42 EST news272272473 In a first of its kind study that shows environmental conditions can be more influential than genetics, Virginia Tech researchers have found that the cost of food  — not someone's genetic makeup—is a major factor in eating fattening food. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-economic-conditions-trump-genetics-obesity.html Overweight and Obesity Tue, 23 Oct 2012 07:44:33 EST news270196899 (Medical Xpress)—Researchers from the US and Japan have shown that an aggressive type of brain tumor can arise from normal cells in the central nervous system such as neurons. The cells revert to an earlier, undifferentiated stem cell stage, which can then reproduce prolifically. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-brain-tumors-neurons.html Cancer Fri, 19 Oct 2012 05:50:01 EST news269842779 Better diagnosis and treatment of a crippling inherited nerve disorder may be just around the corner thanks to an international team that spanned Asia, Europe and the United States. The team had been hunting DNA strands for the cause of the inherited nerve disorder known as spinocerebellar ataxia, or SCA. The disease causes progressive loss of balance, muscle control and ability to walk. Thanks to their diligence and detective work they have discovered the disease gene in a region of chromosome 1 where another group from the Netherlands had previously shown linkage with a form of SCA called SCA19, and the Taiwanese group on the new paper had shown similar linkage in a family for a form of the disease that was then called SCA22. The international team, from France, Japan, Taiwan and the USA have published their discovery in the Annals of Neurology. The Dutch group has also published results in the same issue of the journal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-dna-track-nerve-disorder.html Neuroscience Thu, 23 Aug 2012 09:20:01 EST news264932388 In a process akin to belling an infinitesimal cat, scientists have managed to tag a protein that regulates the neurotransmitter serotonin with tiny fluorescent beads, allowing them to track the movements of single molecules for the first time. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-probing-roots-depression-tracking-serotonin.html Neuroscience Thu, 28 Jun 2012 08:52:41 EST news260092342 A new study finds that fetal exposure to the plastic additive bisphenol A, or BPA, alters mammary gland development in primates. The finding adds to the evidence that the chemical can be causing health problems in humans and bolsters concerns about it contributing to breast cancer. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-bisphenol-mammary-gland-monkeys.html Medical research Mon, 07 May 2012 15:00:15 EST news255606290 Though the human genome has been sequenced, scientists are still trying to figure out how the accomplishment can help people, for example, how it can be used to treat disease. As University of Massachusetts Amherst geneticist Jacob Mayfield notes, "It was easy to think of the human genome as the big prize, but what we realize now is, it’s just a foot in the door." http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-geneticist-tool-genes-important-disease.html Genetics Tue, 01 May 2012 04:35:30 EST news255064747 Gene scans for everyone? Not so fast. New research suggests that for the average person, decoding your own DNA may not turn out to be a really useful crystal ball for future health. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-gene-fast.html Genetics Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:47:19 EST news252589619 Geneticist Michael Snyder, PhD, has almost no privacy. For more than two years, he and his lab members at the Stanford University School of Medicine pored over his body's most intimate secrets: the sequence of his DNA, the RNA and proteins produced by his cells, the metabolites and signaling molecules wafting through his blood. They spied on his immune system as it battled viral infections. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-first-ever-omics-profile-scientist-track.html Genetics Thu, 15 Mar 2012 12:00:06 EST news251031494 Scientists from Seattle Children's Research Institute and the University of Washington, in collaboration with the Genomic Disorders Group Nijmegen in the Netherlands, have identified two new genes that cause Baraitser-Winter syndrome, a rare brain malformation that is characterized by droopy eyelids and intellectual disabilities. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-genes-baraitser-winter-syndrome-brain-malformation.html Genetics Wed, 29 Feb 2012 17:14:54 EST news249758046 (Medical Xpress) -- For many years, most of the studies done to see what effects cancer treatment has on the offspring of survivors, has involved radiation. This is because radiation is known to cause mutations in cells. Not so well studied have been the generational effects of chemicals used to treat cancer. Now, research by Colin Glen and Yuri Dubrova at the University of Leicester in the UK, shows that male rats given chemotherapy drugs sire pups that have twice as many mutations in a part of their DNA as do their fathers. They have published their results in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-cancer-drugs-shown-mutations-mice.html Medical research Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:45:51 EST news247229134 Today, most scientists use the term "mutation" to describe a change in an individual gene -- more precisely a minute alteration of its DNA. But the term has also achieved a powerful presence in popular culture, to describe a process by which individuals gain exceptional, often malign, characteristics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-science-historian-elof-carlson-idea.html Genetics Wed, 08 Jun 2011 13:21:28 EST news226758076