Gothenburg, Sweden: A small genetic change can predict how people infected with hepatitis C react to treatment, paving the way to personalised therapy for this difficult to treat disease, the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics will hear today (Sunday 13 June). Dr. Zoltan Kutalik, from the Department of Medical Genetics, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, will tell delegates that individuals with this change, in a gene encoding for the antiviral cytokine (cell-signalling molecule) interferon lamda, reacts less well to treatment.
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Gothenburg, Sweden: Usher syndrome (USH), an inherited condition involving both hearing and vision loss, is not a simply recessively inherited disease, a scientist will tell the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics today (Saturday). Dr.
Gothenburg, Sweden: Understanding the genetic ancestry of mixed populations, such as those found in North America, can not only help to detect their origins but also to understand the genetic basis of complex diseases, a scientist will tell the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics today (Saturday June 11). It is the first time that the genomes of individuals of admixed ancestry have been sequenced in such detail, says Dr. Francisco De La Vega of Life Technologies, Foster City, California, USA.
MADISON — A research team at the DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) has developed a powerful new tool that promises to unlock the secrets of biomass degradation, a critical step in the development of cost-effective cellulosic biofuels. The details of this method were published online on June 11 in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
Researchers at Rice University, Purdue University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have solved a long-standing mystery about why some fluids containing polymers -- including saliva -- form beads when they are stretched and others do not.
The findings are published online this week in the journal Nature Physics.
The mechanism by which 'polycomb' proteins critical for embyronic stem cell function and fate are targeted to DNA has been identified by UCL scientists.
The discovery, which has implications for the fields of stem cell and tissue engineering, is detailed in research published today in the journal Molecular Cell.
Amsterdam, 11 June 2010 - Elsevier announced today the publication of the May 2010 issue of Reproductive Health Matters, which brings to light polemic issues related to cosmetic surgery, body image and sexuality. The issue explores the lack of proper information about the risks of complications and failure rate of many of these procedures. It also examines the controversy generated by the use of available resources, including skilled surgeons, for such procedures, when essential health and medical care are subject to serious restrictions in both developed and developing countries.
A new study at the University of Leicester is examining a sequence of DNA- known as telomeres - that varies in length between individual.
This follows evidence that these structures shrink in length over an individual's lifetime and that this may contribute to several diseases including those commonly associated with ageing and, perhaps most importantly, the development of cancer.
Now the study is trying to understand how this process is controlled.
The turkey dinner is a staple part of Christmas Day, but new research at the University of Leicester reveals that the history of the much loved poultry is in fact rather varied and unexpected.
Brooklynne Fothergill, from the University's School of Archaeology and Ancient History, has found that the turkey was not always used as a meat product. It was initially domesticated as a source of feathers, as well as being used for symbolic purposes by the indigenous peoples of North America.
When a hungry harbour seal sets off in pursuit of a fish diner, the animal has a secret weapon in its tracking arsenal: its whiskers. Detecting hydrodynamic trails in water with their sensitive whiskers, seals easily track passing fish even in the most turbid conditions. Wolf Hanke from the University of Rostock, Germany, explains that blindfolded seals can track passing mini-submarines for a distance of 40m before the wake peters out.
The widely used cancer drug bevacizumab may cause severe loss of protein from the kidney into the urine that can lead to significant kidney damage and can compromise the efficacy of cancer treatment, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). The results suggest that physicians should monitor patients' kidney health when prescribing this angiogenesis inhibitor.
A drug commonly used to treat gout may help maintain kidney disease patients' health, according to an analysis appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN). The research is the first to show that allopurinol treatment in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) decreases inflammation, slows the progression of kidney disease, and reduces patients' risk of experiencing a cardiovascular event or being hospitalized.
The transition from colonies of individual cells to multicellular organisms can be achieved relatively rapidly, within one million generations, according to a new mathematical model, published June 10 in the open-access journal PLoS Computational Biology, that simplifies our understanding of this process.
SEATTLE – How is it that some people who apparently freeze to death, with no heart rate or respiration for extended periods, can be brought back to life with no long-term negative health consequences? New findings from the laboratory of cell biologist Mark B. Roth, Ph.D., of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, may help explain the mechanics behind this widely documented phenomenon.