News • Mutation Study
Influential gene neighbourhood
Genes do not exist in isolation. So far, little has been known about how the position of a gene on a chromosome affects its evolution.
DNA
News • "Genetic Wild West"
Direct-to-consumer genetic testing can be a trip down the rabbit hole
Genetics isn’t just for geneticists anymore. With the rise of direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies like 23andMe, anyone can rifle through their genotypes at hundreds of thousands of positions throughout their DNA. However, these new possibilities may have some serious drawbacks, says Alzheimer's-specialized site Alzforum.
News • Melatonin deprivation
Working night shifts may diminish ability to repair DNA damage
A Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center study, led by epidemiologist Dr. Parveen Bhatti, found that night shift work is associated with reduced ability to repair DNA lesions. Over time, DNA damage that is not repaired will cause mutations that can lead to cancer.
News • Structural insights
Cancer cells may streamline their genomes to proliferate more easily
Research from the Stowers Institute provides evidence suggesting that cancer cells might streamline their genomes in order to proliferate more easily. The study, conducted in both human and mouse cells, shows that cancer genomes lose copies of repetitive sequences known as ribosomal DNA. While downsizing might enable these cells to replicate faster, it also seems to render them less able to…
News • Nutrigenomics
Healthy diet? That depends on your genes
A recently published Cornell University study describes how shifts in the diets of Europeans after the introduction of farming 10,000 years ago led to genetic adaptations that favored the dietary trends of the time.
Article • Discussion
Genome editing: Should we tweak human evolution?
According to Darwin, humans will one day become extinct. Some don’t think we need to accept this fate because gene editing may allow us to use our brains to take over the evolutionary story.
Sponsored • Blood collection device
Cell-Free DNA BCT CE protects patient samples
Scientists have discovered that dying tumor cells release small pieces of their DNA into the bloodstream. These pieces are called circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) or circulating cell-free DNA (ccfDNA).
News • DNA manipulation
Chaos in cancer cells: Mysterious gene transcripts after therapy
Drugs that are used in cancer therapy to erase epigenetic alterations in cancer cells simultaneously promote the production of countless mysterious gene transcripts, scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) now report in Nature Genetics. The substances activate hidden regulatory elements in DNA. The unusual gene activity has the potential to stimulate the immune system – a…
Article • Disease analysis
No shortage of biobank donors
By definition, biobanks are collections of specimens of human bodily substances, such as tissue, cells, DNA, proteins, blood or other fluids, with data on the donor attached.
News • Breast Cancer
Biomarker Identified for Likely Aggressive, Early Stage Breast Cancer
The one-size-fits-all approach to early stage breast cancer creates a paradox: Millions of dollars are spent on unnecessary surgeries and radiation to treat women with low-risk ‘in situ’ lesions, an estimated 85% of which would never progress to invasive cancers. Meanwhile, the standard conservative treatment is insufficient for many early-stage tumors that have progressed past the in situ…
News • Previously unidentifiable
Gene-based blood tests identify more skin cancers
Genetic testing of tumor and blood fluid samples from people with and without one of the most aggressive forms of skin cancer has shown that two new blood tests can reliably detect previously unidentifiable forms of the disease.
News • Psychological consequences
Cortisol excess hits natural DNA process hard
High concentrations of the stress hormone, Cortisol, in the body affect important DNA processes and increase the risk of long-term psychological consequences. These relationships are evident in a study from the Sahlgrenska Academy on patients with Cushing’s Syndrome, but the findings also open the door for new treatment strategies for other stress-related conditions such as anxiety, depression…
Article • Mass Spectrometry
Circulating biomarkers – the great white hope of liquid biopsy
About six years ago, liquid biopsy appeared on the diagnostic lab stage. Last December, a seminar offered by Agena Bioscience in Frankfurt, Germany, was set to explore the enormous potential of this new technique for oncology.
Article • Genetics
Ascertaining the value of microRNA
European Hospital reports a new approach in molecular diagnostics introduced during the IASLC World Conference in Vienna.
News • Whole genome sequencing
Genetic testing cannot determine antimicrobial susceptibility
Experts at the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST), who define the optimal drug concentrations to inhibit the growth of pathogens, have found that genetic methods cannot yet be used to test for susceptibility in a number of important bacterial species.
News • Oncology
Treatment hope would leave liver cancer cells in limbo
Scientists have shown that a mutation in a gene called Arid1b can cause liver cancer. The gene normally protects against cancer by limiting cell growth, but when mutated it allows cells to grow uncontrollably. The researchers have shown that two existing drugs can halt this growth in human cells. This points to a new approach to treating liver cancer.
Solid-State nanopores unravel twisted DNA mystery
Cancer thrives when mutated cells undergo frequent division. Most anti-cancer drugs work by inserting themselves in between the DNA base pairs that encode our genetic information. This process is known as intercalation, and it can result in subtle changes to the DNA molecule’s geometric shape or tertiary structure. These structural changes interfere with the DNA’s transcription and a cell’s…
News • Oncology
Nanovaccine could enhance cancer immunotherapy
NIBIB researchers have created a nanovaccine that could make a current approach to cancer immunotherapy more effective while also reducing side effects. The nanovaccine helps to efficiently deliver a unique DNA sequence to immune cells – a sequence derived from bacterial DNA and used to trigger an immune reaction. The nanovaccine also protects the DNA from being destroyed inside the body, where…
News • Infection
Evidence of Zika virus found in tears
Researchers have found that Zika virus can live in eyes and have identified genetic material from the virus in tears, according to a study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The research, in mice, helps explain why some Zika patients develop eye disease, including a condition known as uveitis that can lead to permanent vision loss.
Sponsored • Mass spectrometry
Rapid, reliable cancer diagnostics
Cancer patients today can benefit from much better drugs providing treatments tailor-made to specific mutations. However, broad application is still hampered by a considerable bottleneck: fast, reliable, and cost-effective diagnosis. Agena's MassARRAY platform is addressing this bottleneck with an elegant new solution.
Article • Transplants
Cell-free DNA offers several advantages
As part of a national, joint research project in cooperation with Chronix Biomedical (San Jose, CA/USA/Göttingen/Germany), Professor Michael Oellerich MD is on new biomarkers in organ transplantation, aiming to develop personalised immunosuppression for patients. This also entails the development of molecular test procedures, among others for the early detection of rejection. The keyword here is…
News • Discovery
Potential genetic trigger of autoimmune disease
Researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) have uncovered a potential genetic trigger of systemic autoimmune disease. The study, the culmination of more than 10 years of research, discovered virus-like elements within the human genome linked to the development of two autoimmune diseases: lupus and Sjogren's syndrome.
News • Nanoscale devices
Revealing the fluctuations of flexible DNA in 3-D
An international team working at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has captured the first high-resolution 3-D images from individual double-helix DNA segments attached at either end to gold nanoparticles. The images detail the flexible structure of the DNA segments, which appear as nanoscale jump ropes.
News • Mathematical Model
Explain with math the mutation rates in human genome
It turns out that the type, how frequent, and where new mutations occur in the human genome depends on which DNA building blocks are nearby, found researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
News • DNA
Blood test may expand scope of liquid biopsies
When cells die, they don't vanish without a trace. Instead, they leave behind their fingerprints in the form of cell-free DNA. In people, these tiny fragments of DNA can be found in the bloodstream.
