Feature Channels: Genetics

• share
• favorite_border

University of Adelaide research into the origins of ovarian cancer has led to the discovery of a genetic pathway that could slow the spread of the cancer.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study shows that children in homes affected by violence, suicide, or the incarceration of a family member have significantly shorter telomeres—a cellular marker of aging, than those in stable households.

• share
• favorite_border

A new mouse model developed by researchers at Tufts University demonstrates that learning impairments and autistic-like behaviors can be caused by loss of the APC gene in the developing brain, demonstrating that APC regulates critical pathways that link to these disabilities.

• share
• favorite_border

Immunity stops you dying from a common cold or a tiny pinprick. Differences in resistance or tolerance to disease influence who catches the bug that’s going around the office, or which species succumb to the deadly fungus devastating frogs around the world. To catalyze new advances in this complex field, the Genetics Society of America journals GENETICS and G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics have launched an ongoing collection of research articles that address the genetics of immunity.

• share
• favorite_border

National University of Singapore (NUS), University of California, Berkeley, and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) researchers have teamed up to show that when we make strategic decisions in a competitive betting game, at least in the laboratory, genes that modulate dopamine information signaling in the brain partially trigger how we take risks.

• share
• favorite_border

Sex is everywhere in nature. Whether it’s a bird singing or a tiny yeast cell secreting chemicals to attract the opposite mating type, sex has profoundly shaped the appearance, behavior and evolution of many organisms. In recognition of the importance of the genetic and evolutionary forces underlying sex differences and sex determination, the Genetics Society of America journals GENETICS and G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics announce an ongoing collection of research articles on the genetics of sex.

• share
• favorite_border

A new Moffitt Cancer Center study published Thursday in Genetics in Medicine shows that counseling from a genetic health care provider before genetic testing educates patients and may help reduce unnecessary procedures.

• share
• favorite_border

An imbalance of female sex hormones among men in Western nations may be contributing to high levels of male obesity, according to new research from the University of Adelaide.

• share
• favorite_border

In the most comprehensive genetic study of the Mexican population to date, researchers from UC San Francisco and Stanford University, along with Mexico’s National Institute of Genomic Medicine (INMEGEN), have identified tremendous genetic diversity, reflecting thousands of years of separation among local populations and shedding light on a range of confounding aspects of Latino health.

• share
• favorite_border

Recent modifications in recommendations regarding incidental findings (IFs) in genetic testing from the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) depart from the college’s 2013 recommendations in favor of an individualized approach. Experts in the Bioethics Program of the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine published a review of the updated 2014 recommendations in the journal Proceedings.

• share
• favorite_border

UAB epidemiologist Christine Skibola used genomics to identify a DNA variant that makes some susceptible to leukemia.

• share
• favorite_border

An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, have identified the genes encoding a molecule that famously defines Group A Streptococcus (strep), a pathogenic bacterial species responsible for more than 700 million infections worldwide each year.

• share
• favorite_border

An international team of researchers has shown that circulating avian influenza viruses contain all the genetic ingredients necessary to underpin the emergence of a virus similar to the deadly 1918 influenza virus.

• share
• favorite_border

An enzyme closely associated with genetic forms of Parkinson’s disease appears to play a larger role in its progression than previously thought, say investigators at UAB.

• share
• favorite_border

A new analysis of DNA from thousands of patients has uncovered several underlying gene networks with potentially important roles in autism. These networks may offer atractive targets for developing new autism drugs or repurposing drugs for other indications.

• share
• favorite_border

Returning to research of years ago, U biologists developed an assay to test effects of all possible silent mutations on protein translation. One-third of silent mutations caused a slow down--in some cases decreasing the speed of translation five-fold.

• share
• favorite_border

A team led by researchers at The Scripps Research Institute has used advanced electron microscopy techniques to determine the first accurate structural map of Mediator, one of the largest and most complex “molecular machines” in cells.

• share
• favorite_border

Advances in the understanding of the genetics of coronary artery disease, or CAD, will revitalize the field and lead to more therapeutic targets for new medicines to combat this common disease, suggests a genetics expert from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in a Perspective article in the new issue of Science Translational Medicine.

• share
• favorite_border

A team of UCLA researchers has identified a new gene involved in Parkinson’s disease, a finding that may one day provide a target for a new drug to prevent and potentially even cure the debilitating neurological disorder.

• share
• favorite_border

In a new study, researchers from the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University associate a person’s genetic risk for obesity with Body Mass Index (BMI), and show that saturated fat intake may influence the expression of a person’s genetic obesity risk.

• share
• favorite_border

A team led by Gregorio Valdez of the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute has designed a search engine that identifies genes that are functionally linked. The discovery may lead to ways to treat diseases that have a genetic component, such as cancer or Alzheimer’s.

• share
• favorite_border

Tumor sequencing of several different lung cancers and their surrounding tissue complicates the prevailing theory of linear lung cancer progression and offers new insights for management of this deadly cancer, according to a new Mayo Clinic study. Sequencing results provide, for the first time, strong molecular evidence of progression from phenotypically indolent components to more aggressive disease and also show that both components can progress independently, even if they arise from the same precursor, according to the study.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) have developed a unique next-generation sequencing test for the gene linked to retinoblastoma.

• share
• favorite_border

Combining oncolytic adenovirus-mediated cytotoxic gene therapy (OAMCGT) with intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) reduces the risk of having a positive prostate biopsy two years after treatment in intermediate-risk prostate cancer without affecting patients’ quality of life.

• share
• favorite_border

New research confirms a vulnerability to lung cancer can be inherited and implicates the BRCA2 gene as harboring one of the involved genetic mutations. An international consortium of scientists including investigators at the Institute for Cancer Research in London, the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Harvard, and Dartmouth used integrated results from the 1000 Genomes Project with genetics studies of lung cancer to complete the investigation published on June 1, 2014 in Nature Genetics.

• share
• favorite_border

A collaborative effort between Duke Medicine researchers and neurosurgeons and scientists in China has produced new genetic insights into a rare and deadly form of childhood and young adult brain cancer called brainstem glioma.

• share
• favorite_border

A single-letter change in the genetic code is enough to generate blond hair in humans, in dramatic contrast to our dark-haired ancestors. A new analysis by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) scientists has pinpointed that change, which is common in the genomes of Northern Europeans, and shown how it fine-tunes the regulation of an essential gene.

• share
• favorite_border

The combined action of two enzymes, Srs2 and Exo1, prevents and repairs common genetic mutations in growing yeast cells, according to a new study led by scientists at NYU Langone Medical Center.

• share
• favorite_border

A UCLA research team has discovered a new hormone called erythroferrone, which regulates the iron supply needed for red blood-cell production.

• share
• favorite_border

A University of Colorado Cancer Center study presented at the 50th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) draws a line from mutation of the gene NTRK1, to its role as an oncogene in non-small cell lung cancer, to treatment that targets this mutation.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and other institutions have applied a newly developed software tool to identify genetic mutations that contribute to a person’s increased risk for developing common, complex diseases, such as cancer.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study has identified a causative link between a key cell stress response pathway and alcoholic liver disease advancing understanding of how this disease develops.

• share
• favorite_border

A study of 338 patients with coronary artery disease has identified a gene expression profile associated with an elevated risk of cardiovascular death. Used with other indicators such as biochemical markers and family history, the profile – based on a simple blood test – may help identify patients who could benefit from personalized treatment and counseling designed to address risk factors.

• share
• favorite_border

Research by scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine may help explain how some cases of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can result from environmental influences rather than gene mutations. The findings, published online today in PLOS Genetics, shed light on why older mothers are at increased risk for having children with ASD and could pave the way for more research into the role of environment on ASD.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists have developed a powerful tool called pVAAST that combines linkage analysis with case control association to identify disease-causing mutations in families faster and more precisely than ever before.

• share
• favorite_border

In any animal’s lifecycle, the shift from egg cell to embryo is a critical juncture that requires a remarkably dynamic process that ultimately transforms a differentiated, committed oocyte to a totipotent cell capable of giving rise to any cell type in the body. The lab of Whitehead Member Terry Orr-Weaver conducted perhaps the most comprehensive look yet at changes in translation and protein synthesis during a developmental change, using the oocyte-to-embryo transition in Drosophila as a model system.

• share
• favorite_border

Striving for the protein equivalent of the Human Genome Project, researchers created an initial catalog of the human “proteome,” or all of the proteins in the human body. The team identified proteins encoded by 17,294 genes, about 84 percent of all of the genes in the human genome. They also found 193 proteins that were not predicted to exist.

• share
• favorite_border

The overall number and nature of mutations—rather than the presence of any single mutation—influences an individual’s risk of developing schizophrenia, as well as its severity, according to a discovery by Columbia University Medical Center researchers. The findings could have important implications for the early detection and treatment of schizophrenia.

• share
• favorite_border

A genetic variant linked to sudden cardiac death leads to protein overproduction in heart cells, Johns Hopkins scientists report. Unlike many known disease-linked variants, this one lies not in a gene but in so-called noncoding DNA, a growing focus of disease research. The discovery also adds to scientific understanding of the causes of sudden cardiac death and of possible ways to prevent it, the researchers say.

• share
• favorite_border

“Aha” moments are rare in medical research, scientists say. As rare, they add, as finding mice with Mohawk-like hairstyles. But both events happened in a lab at NYU Langone Medical Center, months after an international team of neuroscientists bred hundreds of mice with a suspect genetic mutation tied to autism spectrum disorders.

• share
• favorite_border

A new approach to studying microbes in the wild will allow scientists to sequence the genomes of individual species from complex mixtures. It marks a big advance for understanding the enormous diversity of microbial communities —including the human microbiome. The work is described in an article published May 22 in Early Online form in the journal G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics, published by the Genetics Society of America.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers have discovered how a gene commonly linked to obesity—FTO—contributes to weight gain. The study shows that variations in FTO indirectly affect the function of the primary cilium, a little-understood hair-like appendage on brain and other cells. Specific abnormalities of cilium molecules, in turn, increase body weight, in some instances, by affecting the function of receptors for leptin, a hormone that suppresses appetite. The findings, made in mice, suggest that it might be possible to modify obesity through interventions that alter the function of the cilium, according to scientists at Columbia University Medical Center.

• share
• favorite_border

Australia can no longer lay claim to the origins of the iconic New Zealand kiwi following University of Adelaide research published in the journal Science today showing the kiwi’s closest relative is not the emu as was previously thought.

• share
• favorite_border

For most people, the urge to eat a meal or snack comes at a few, predictable times during the waking part of the day. But for those with a rare syndrome, hunger comes at unwanted hours, interrupts sleep and causes overeating.

• share
• favorite_border

A group of 11 genes can successfully predict whether an individual is at increased risk of alcoholism, a research team from the United States and Germany reports

• share
• favorite_border

Bacteria that naturally live in the soil have a vast collection of genes to fight off antibiotics, but they are much less likely to share these genes, a new study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has revealed

• share
• favorite_border

Findings on the genetic blueprint of the relatively primitive dampwood termite highlight key differences and similarities with other social insects like ants, wasps and bees, and provide insight into how social insects evolved.

• share
• favorite_border

The ability to transfer a gene or DNA sequence from one animal into the genome of another plays a critical role in a wide range of medical research—including cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and diabetes, and now there’s a way to avoid cell death when introducing DNA into egg cells. In Review of Scientific Instruments, the team describes its microelectromechanical system nanoinjector, which was designed to inject DNA into mouse zygotes.

• share
• favorite_border

A group of researchers led by Johns Hopkins scientists say they have identified a genetic marker that may be associated with the development of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), whose causes and mechanisms are among the least understood among mental illnesses.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers have discovered a new gene expression mechanism in porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, or PRRS, virus — an important swine pathogen that costs the U.S. pork industry more than $600 million a year. The discovery provides a new avenue for scientists to explore strategies to control and prevent the disease.