http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Scientists at A*STAR's Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) have successfully developed a method to map the epigenome using 100 times fewer cells than was previously possible. The discovery, published in the journal Developmental Cell, means that it is now possible to study the epigenome of parts of the body with rare cell populations such as germ cells (which differentiate into the egg or sperm), and clinical biopsy samples (to advance the study, diagnosis and prevention of cancer). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-microscale-epigenomics-technology-epigenome-rare.html Genetics Mon, 11 Feb 2013 07:00:02 EST news279786735 Exposing pregnant mice to low doses of the chemical tributyltin (TBT) – which was used in marine antifouling paints and is used as an antifungal agent in some paints, certain plastics and a variety of consumer products – can lead to obesity for multiple generations without subsequent exposure, a UC Irvine study has found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-fetal-exposure-tributyltin-linked-obesity.html Overweight and Obesity Thu, 24 Jan 2013 16:42:02 EST news278268114 Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology say cells from the amniotic membrane part of the placenta normally discarded after a woman gives birth could one day be a source for human eggs. The first-of-its-kind discovery was published online last month in Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology (2012, 10:108). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-amniotic-sac-membrane-source-human.html Medical research Fri, 11 Jan 2013 08:26:57 EST news277115209 Passing one's genes on to the next generation is a mark of evolutionary success. So it makes sense that the body would work to ensure that the genes the next generation inherits are exact replicas of the originals. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-class-rna-molecules-germ-cells.html Genetics Thu, 15 Nov 2012 17:35:23 EST news272223312 In a new paper released today in Nature, BioFrontiers Institute scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder, Tom Cech and Leslie Leinwand, detailed a new target for anti-cancer drug development that is sitting at the ends of our DNA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-uncover-cancer.html Cancer Wed, 24 Oct 2012 16:15:32 EST news270314116 (Medical Xpress)—The risk of a child to inherit mitochondrial diseases - i. e. malfunction in what is usually referred to as the power plants of the cell - is largely decided when the future mother herself is still an embryo. This according to a novel study by scientists at Karolinska Institutet and the Max Planck Institute in Germany, which is published in the journal Nature Genetics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-inheritance-mitochondrial-disease-mother-embryo.html Genetics Mon, 08 Oct 2012 07:22:45 EST news268899753 A compelling new genetic study tracing the origins of immature egg cells, or 'oocytes', from the embryonic period throughout adulthood adds new information to a growing controversy. The notion of a "biological clock" in women arises from the fact that oocytes progressively decline in number as females get older, along with a decades-old dogmatic view that oocytes cannot be renewed in mammals after birth. After careful assessment of data from a recent study published in PLoS Genetics, scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Edinburgh argue that the findings support formation of new eggs during adult life; a topic that has been historically controversial and has sparked considerable debate in recent years. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-ovaries-eggs-adulthood.html Genetics Thu, 26 Jul 2012 17:00:04 EST news262539862 Women who have eggs that cannot mature will not become pregnant, and they cannot be helped by in vitro fertilization (IVF). Now researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have identified a molecule called Cdk1 that has an important function for mammalian egg maturation. In the future this could lead to an increased rate of successful IVF. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-discovery-molecule-maturation-mammalian-eggs.html Genetics Mon, 05 Mar 2012 16:22:08 EST news250186919 Imagine a contraceptive that could, with one or two painless 15-minute non-surgical treatments, provide months of protection from pregnancy. And imagine that the equipment needed were already in physical therapists' offices around the world. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-sonicating-sperm-future-male.html Other Mon, 30 Jan 2012 03:55:56 EST news247118146 A Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researcher has achieved a significant breakthrough in male fertility, producing normal sperm from mouse cells. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-male-fertility-breakthrough.html Medical research Tue, 15 Nov 2011 11:08:27 EST news240577700