Genes account for only 2.5 percent of DNA in the human genetic blueprint, yet diseases can result not only from mutant genes, but from mutations of other DNA that controls genes. University of Utah researchers report in the journal Nature Genetics that they have developed a faster, less expensive technique for mutating those large, non-gene stretches of DNA.
The rights of patients and the public will be strengthened by new amendments to the Mental Health Bill published by the UK Government.
University of Surrey researchers, Dr Alan Dalton and Dr Richard Sear, have received grants totalling ?100k from the SETsquared Applied Collaborative Research Programme and the EPSRC to support collaborative work with the University of California, Irvine, researching the use of nanomaterials in stem cell growth.
Children born after embryo biopsy for preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) do not show any more major malformations than those born after artificial reproduction technologies (ART) without PGD, a scientist will tell the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics today.
Results of the Option (TOcilizumab Pivotal Trial in Methotrexate Inadequate respONders) trial, the first multinational Phase III study outside of Japan, showed that patients treated with Actemra (either 4mg/kg or 8mg/kg) plus methotrexate achieved a significant and clinically important improvement in the signs and symptoms of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA) compared to patients treated with placebo and methotrexate, a current standard of care.
A study conducted in a large sample of postmenopausal women by University at Buffalo epidemiologists has provided new information on the prevalence of certain gum-disease-causing oral bacteria in this population and the association of the bacteria with oral bone loss.
Rare, previously undetectable drug-resistant forms of HIV have been identified by Yale School of Medicine researcher Michael Kozal, M.D., using an innovative genome sequencing technology that quickly detects rare viral mutations.
Many people are drinking too much water, including sports drinks, when exercising, a practice that could put some individuals engaging in prolonged types of endurance exercise at risk of potentially lethal water intoxication, say international experts who study disorders of water metabolism.
The University of Delaware has been awarded $11 million from the National Institutes of Health for leading-edge, “translational” research on osteoarthritis that includes a unique mentoring program to foster the development of women biomedical researchers at UD.
“Junk DNA” is what biologists used to call heterochromatin, the highly repetitive, gene-poor DNA concentrated near the centromeres and telomeres of chromosomes. With the publication of version 5.1 of the genome of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, led by scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and their colleagues, the term “junk” will be heard less often. Heterochromatin, it appears, is crucial to genome maintenance and cell biology.