Feature Channels: Genetics

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Two Tufts faculty members have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest scientific society. They join 504 other scientists, engineers, and innovators from 24 scientific disciplines who are being recognized for their scientific achievements. This year’s fellows from Tufts are Mitch McVey, professor of biology in the School of Arts and Sciences, and Pamela Yelick, AG89, professor and director of the Division of Craniofacial and Molecular Genetics in the Department of Orthodontics in the School of Dental Medicine.

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Miriam Greenberg, Ph.D., professor of biological sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Wayne State University, has been named an AAAS Fellow for her distinguished contributions to the field of lipid function, particularly for elucidating the role of cardiolipin in Barth syndrome (BTHS) and for identifying molecular mechanisms of control of inositol homeostasis.

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A genetic mutation in the SPTSSA gene is identified as the cause of Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia, a rare disease that causes progressive weakness, stiffness and spasticity in the lower extremities, according to a study, "SPTSSA variants alter sphingolipid synthesis and cause a complex hereditary spastic paraplegia," published in Brain on on Jan. 30. The SPTSSA gene is responsible for stimulating serine palmitoyltransferase, or SPT, an enzyme with critical functions within the nervous system.

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Predominant stereotypes about eating disorders suggest that it is a condition mainly associated with girls from wealthy backgrounds. However, a new study from Michigan State University found that boys living in disadvantaged circumstances are at an increased risk for disordered eating, particularly if they have underlying genetic risk factors.

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Scientists have discovered new clues to the genetic basis for scoliosis, an abnormal curvature of the spine.

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Irvine, Calif., Jan. 30, 2023 — Combating Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases by inserting healthy new immune cells into the brain has taken a leap toward reality. Neuroscientists at the University of California, Irvine and the University of Pennsylvania have found a way to safely thwart the brain’s resistance to them, vaulting a key hurdle in the quest.

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New Cornell research is providing a fresh view into the ways a common chemotherapy agent, etoposide, stalls and poisons the essential enzymes that allow cancer cells to flourish.

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An innovative technique from Cornell University researchers finds seminal fluid protein transferred from male to female fruit flies during mating changes the expression of genes related to the fly’s circadian clock.

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Patients with myelofibrosis had clinically significant improvement in disease-related symptoms, including anemia and spleen enlargement, when treated with the targeted therapy momelotinib, according to results from the international Phase III MOMENTUM trial led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

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The Department of Energy Systems Biology Knowledgebase (KBase) recently released a suite of features and a protocol for performing sophisticated microbiome analysis that can accelerate research in microbial ecology. KBase helps researchers understand which organisms live in an environment and how they interact. The tool’s new features reduce the time required to process sequencing data and characterize genomes and help scientists collaboratively analyze genomics data and build research communities.

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Vinegar flies use pheromones to ensure that they court and mate with members of the same species. As new fly species split off from a common ancestor, but continue to share the same environment, they need a way to rapidly diversify their pheromones to suppress inter-species mating. New research identifies a link between the genetic instructions for the production and perception of sex pheromones.

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A new species of microalgae was found in water from a home aquarium. While analyzing DNA samples taken from the algae, researchers from the University of Tokyo discovered Medakamo hakoo, whose DNA sequence didn’t match any on record.

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UC San Diego and its collaborating partners have been awarded $10 million from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to leverage the biomedical promise of viruses known as bacteriophages as new therapeutic agents in the fight against the rising crisis of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections.

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Story tips: Shuffling the load, a reveille for more biomass, designer molecules may help valuable minerals float, ‘T’ molecules huddle around rare earth elements

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A group of researchers from the Graduate School of Medicine at Nagoya University in Japan have discovered the impact of microRNA (miRNA) on inflammation in lupus in mice.

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Research in a mouse model of diet-induced obesity found greater disruption to genes involved in heart function when coupled with vitamin A deficiency. The study is published in the American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology. It was chosen as an APSselect article for January.

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Researchers at the University of Kentucky and Hebrew University in Jerusalem are partnering to study the complexity of the human brain. Specifically, researchers will test whether new, so-far unknown proteins exist in the brain.Labs from the two institutions have obtained a joint grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) to study new aspects of RNA biology.

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A new clinical and preclinical study from UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center identifies the DNA roots of resistance to targeted cancer therapy, providing a possible strategy to address a vexing issue in cancer therapeutics. Results are published online ahead of print in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

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Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital used the auxin-inducible degron 2 system on CTCF, bringing the novel approach to bear on a fundamental protein.

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In recent years, there have been increasing reports of toxic blue-green algae blooms in summer, even in German lakes, caused by climate warming and increased nutrient inputs.

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Scientists at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have illuminated how treatments for multiple myeloma and other aggressive blood cancers can lead to future malignancies, called therapy-related myeloid neoplasms (tMNs).

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Argonne’s expertise in biosafety, genetic sequencing and epidemiology help public health officials track which COVID variants are present in Illinois and monitor variants of concern.

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Below is a brief roundup of news and story ideas from the experts at UCLA Health.

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Wisconsin virologists have outlined in atomic detail the intricate RNA replication machines that coronaviruses create inside infected cells, giving rise to potential new strategies to fight disease.

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Proteins labeled with colored tags fill the main compartment — but not the nuclei (blue) — of human cervical cancer cells. Green cells contain the protein TRPV2, red cells contain STING, and yellow and orange cells contain a mixture of both. The proteins are part of a newly discovered DNA-protection pathway that potentially could be targeted to improve cancer therapies, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

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In a new study, researchers at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center uncovered a gene that is overexpressed in mutated IDH1. Studies in human cells and a novel mouse model both show that this gene, called ZMYND8, plays a critical role in the radiation resistance. When they knocked down the gene, the glioma cells became responsive to radiation treatment.

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Thai Red Cross Emerging Infectious Diseases Health Science Center, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University has researched a blood test for markers of Alzheimer’s that can give a 10-year warning, so people can be prepared to slow down the development of dementia in old age.

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An international consortium co-led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center immunogeneticist Rubén Martínez-Barricarte, PhD, has discovered a new genetic disorder that causes immunodeficiency and profound susceptibility to opportunistic infections including a life-threatening fungal pneumonia. The discovery, reported Jan. 20 in the journal Science Immunology, will help identify people who carry this in-born error of immunity (IEI).

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Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital captured the 3D structure of SPOP, revealing how mutations in previously unappreciated regions fuel cancer.

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An anti-ageing gene discovered in a population of centenarians has been shown to rewind the heart’s biological age by 10 years. The breakthrough, published in Cardiovascular Research and led by scientists at the University of Bristol and the MultiMedica Group in Italy, offers a potential target for patients with heart failure.

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It's often assumed that island plant and animal populations are just the simple, fragile cousins of those on the mainland.

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Researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have developed a new computational tool that can more accurately discover and quantify RNA molecules from these error-prone long-read RNA sequencing data. The tool, called ESPRESSO (Error Statistics PRomoted Evaluator of Splice Site Options), was reported today in Science Advances.

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Editing a gene that prompts a cascade of damage after a heart attack appeared to reverse this inevitable course in mice, leaving their hearts remarkably unharmed, a new study by UT Southwestern scientists showed. The findings, published in Science, could lead to a new strategy for protecting patients from the consequences of heart disease.

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Environmental DNA analysis of microbial communities can help us understand how a particular region’s water cycle works. Basel hydrogeologist Oliver Schilling recently used this method to examine the water cycle on Mount Fuji.

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Imagine overhearing the Powerball lottery winning numbers, but you didn't know when those numbers would be called—just that at some point in the next 10 years or so, they would be. Despite the financial cost of playing those numbers daily for that period, the payoff is big enough to make it worthwhile.

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The red junglefowl – the wild ancestor of the chicken – is losing its genetic diversity by interbreeding with domesticated birds, according to a new study led by Frank Rheindt of the National University of Singapore published January 19 in the journal PLOS Genetics.

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UC San Diego researchers describe how pancreatic cancer stem cells leverage a protein in a family of proteins that normally suppress tumors to instead do the opposite, boosting their resistance to conventional treatments and spurring growth.

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Women with cancer in one breast may be at higher risk of developing cancer in the opposite breast if they are carriers of specific genetic changes that predispose them to develop breast cancer, according to a study led by the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center. The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, will help personalize approaches to breast cancer screening and risk factors, study authors say.