http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. The t haplotype in mice—a block of linked genes occupying the proximal half of mouse chromosome 17—is one of the best-studied examples of a selfish genetic element. Through an elaborate sperm-poisoning system, heterozygous males with only one copy of the t haplotype transfer the genetic element to over 95% of their progeny, while offspring that inherit two copies of the haplotype typically die during development. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-secrets-t-haplotype-gene-revealed-decade-long.html Genetics Fri, 08 Mar 2013 09:10:01 EST news281953820 Researchers from the group on stem cells and cancer at IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute) have deciphered one of the gene regulation circuits which would make it possible to generate hematopoietic blood cells, i.e. blood tissue stem cells. This finding is essential to generate these cells in a laboratory in the future, a therapy that could benefit patients with leukaemia or other diseases who need a transplant and who, in many cases, do not have a compatible donor. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-key-circuits-genes-involved-blood.html Genetics Thu, 31 Jan 2013 11:20:12 EST news278853604 (Medical Xpress)—Researchers in Japan have injected induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from mice back into genetically identical mice and report that doing so caused no immune reaction. This contradicts the results of an earlier study that showed using the technique could lead to an immune response that destroyed the injected cells. In this new research, the team, as they report in their paper published in the journal Nature, injected iPSCs into a mouse embryo, then transplanted tissue from the grown mice into genetically identical mice, with no apparent immunity response. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-refutes-ipscs-prone-immune-response.html Medical research Thu, 10 Jan 2013 07:50:01 EST news277023910 The thymus plays a key role in the body's immune response. It is here where the T lymphocytes or T cells, a major type of immune defence cells, mature. Different types of T cells, designated to perform specific tasks, arise from progenitor cells that migrate to the thymus from the bone marrow. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Immunology and Epigenetics in Freiburg have generated artificial thymus tissue in a mouse embryo to enable the maturation of immune cells. In this process, they discovered which signalling molecules control the maturation of T cells. Their results represent the first step towards the production of artificial thymus glands that could be used to replace or augment the damaged organ. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-artificial-thymus-tissue-enables-maturation.html Immunology Thu, 29 Mar 2012 12:00:07 EST news252239826