http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified a protein that drives the formation of pituitary tumors in Cushing's disease, a development that may give clinicians a therapeutic target to treat this potentially life-threatening disorder. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-scientists-potential-therapeutic-cushing-disease.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 07 May 2013 16:11:18 EST news287161860 Liver fibrosis results from an excessive accumulation of tough, fibrous scar tissue and occurs in most types of chronic liver diseases. In industrialized countries, the main causes of liver injury leading to fibrosis include chronic hepatitis virus infection, excess alcohol consumption and, increasingly, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-sunshine-hormone-vitamin-d-liver.html Medical research Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:55:15 EST news286120272 A decade after completion of the Human Genome Project on April 14, 2003, a top official of the National Institutes of Health surveyed the rarefied view from that mountaintop: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-science-genome-sequencing-years.html Genetics Mon, 15 Apr 2013 16:50:01 EST news285261709 Genetic sequencing technology is altering the way cancer is diagnosed and treated, but traditional specimen handling methods threaten to slow that progress. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-scripps-physicians-cancer-tissue.html Cancer Fri, 04 Jan 2013 13:09:32 EST news276527366 Genomic research is widely expected to transform medicine, but progress has been slower than expected. While critics argue that the genomics "promise" has been broken – and that money might be better spent elsewhere—proponents say the deliberate pace underscores the complexity of the relationship between medicine and disease and, indeed, argues for more funding. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-genomic-clinical-careand.html Genetics Fri, 04 Jan 2013 12:59:59 EST news276526775 Cleveland Clinic researchers from the Lerner Research Institute have uncovered two new genes associated with Cowden syndrome (CS) according to a new study, published today in the online version of the American Journal of Human Genetics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-genetic-mutations-cowden-syndrome.html Genetics Thu, 13 Dec 2012 12:00:13 EST news274620353 October 25, 2012 – Explosive advancement in human genome sequencing opens new possibilities for identifying the genetic roots of certain diseases and finding cures. However, so many variations among individual genomes exist that identifying mutations responsible for a specific disease has in many cases proven an insurmountable challenge. But now a new study by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), Scripps Health, and Scripps Translational Science Institute (STSI) reveals that by comparing the genomes of diseased patients with the genomes of people with sufficiently similar ancestries could dramatically simplify searches for harmful mutations, opening new treatment possibilities. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-genomics-ancestry-disease-riddles.html Genetics Thu, 25 Oct 2012 16:00:09 EST news270396948 Personalized genomic medicine is hailed as a revolution that will empower patients to take control of their own health care, but it could end up taking control away from patients and limiting their treatment choices, concludes an article in the Hastings Center Report. A commentary responding to the article, by the editorial director of Health and Family at Consumer Reports, also appears in the journal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-personalized-genomic-medicine-empower-patients.html Genetics Mon, 15 Oct 2012 16:52:02 EST news269538701 Today investigators at Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City reported the first use of whole genome information for diagnosing critically ill infants. As reported in Science Translational Medicine, the team describes STAT-Seq, a whole genome sequencing approach - from blood sample to returning results to a physician - in about 50 hours. Currently, testing even a single gene takes six weeks or more. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-hour-genome-sequencing-rapid-diagnosis.html Genetics Wed, 03 Oct 2012 14:00:05 EST news268488385 Cleveland Clinic researchers have discovered that vitamin E may prevent cancer in patients with an under-recognized genetic disorder. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-vitamin-decrease-cancer-cowden-syndrome.html Cancer Mon, 17 Sep 2012 16:12:03 EST news267117109 When the human genome project was completed in 2003, some expected it to herald a new age of personalized genomic medicine, but the resulting single "reference" sequence has significant shortcomings for these applications and does not account for the actual variability in the human population, as reported in a study published July 11 in the open access journal PLoS ONE. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-personalized-genomic-medicine-hurdles.html Genetics Wed, 11 Jul 2012 17:00:10 EST news261242996 Cleveland Clinic researchers have discovered three genes that increase the risk of thyroid cancer, which is has the largest incidence increase in cancers among both men and women. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-cleveland-clinic-genetic-thyroid-cancer.html Cancer Fri, 23 Dec 2011 09:55:37 EST news243856364 A team of geneticists has identified five specific gene regions associated with asthma susceptibility among Japanese adults. Mayumi Tamari of the RIKEN Center for Genomic Medicine, Yokohama, led the research. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-asthma-susceptibility-japanese-adults.html Genetics Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:40:01 EST news243764435 Mutations in three genes have been identified that are more prevalent in patients with esophageal cancer and Barrett esophagus, a premalignant metaplasia (change in cells or tissue) caused by chronic gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), according to preliminary research reported in the July 27 issue of JAMA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-genetic-link-barrett-esophagus-esophageal.html Genetics Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:00:07 EST news230885852 A genome-wide study by researchers at the RIKEN Center for Genomic Medicine, Hiroshima University Hospital and Sapporo-Kosei General Hospital has identified a genetic variant associated with the development of liver cancer in chronic hepatitis C virus carriers. The findings are based on a study of 3,312 Japanese individuals and appear in the journal Nature Genetics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-genetic-variant-linked-liver-cancer.html Genetics Sun, 03 Jul 2011 13:00:01 EST news228916647