genetic news

genetic News, Video News

Can DNA Tests Help You Change Your Life
Genetic tests inspire some to rethink their ways, but they aren't a crystal ball of diseases to come.
2008-12-01 19:09:18
Food crunch opens doors to bioengineered crops AP
AP - Zeng Yawen's outdoor laboratory in the terraced hills of southern China is a trove of genetic potential x97 rice that thrives in unusually cool temperatures, high altitudes or in dry soil; rice rich in calcium, vitamins or iron.
2008-11-30 10:51:04
Obama To Broaden Role Of Genetics In Medical Care
For years, scientists have held out hope that the rapidly evolving field of genetics could transform medical diagnosis and treatment, moving beyond a trial-and-error approach as old as the Hippocratic Oath.
2008-11-29 00:19:51
Scientists identify the best candidate genes for bipolar disorder
Washington, November 22 ANI: Indiana University researchers have for the first time developed a comprehensive map of genes that are likely to be involved in bipolar disorder.Reporting their work in the American Journal of Medical Genetics, the researchers revealed that they combined data from the latest large-scale international gene hunting studies for bipolar disorder with information from their own studies, which helped them identify the best candidate genes for the illness.Dr. Alexander B. Niculescu III, an assistant professor of psychiatry and director of the laboratory of neurophenomics at the IU School of Medicine, said that his team mined the data from the genome-wide association studies and other study results on the levels of gene activity in human blood samples and in animal models. He said that genes with the highest levels of prominence were determined to be the most active in contributing to the disorder. He added that analysing the working of those genes, the team were able to create a comprehensive biological model of bipolar disorder. "Based on our work, we now project that there will be hundreds of genes - possibly as much as 10 percent of the human genome - involved in this illness," said Dr. Niculescu. "Not all genetic mutations will occur in every individual with bipolar disorder. Different individuals will have different combinations of genetic mutations. This genetic complexity is most likely what made past attempts to identify genes for the disorder through genetic-only studies so difficult and inconsistent." Comparing the process adopted by his team with a Web search, Dr. Niculescu said: "The process was similar to a Google approach, the more links there are to a page on the Internet, the more likely it is to come up at the top of your search list. The more experimental lines of evidence for a gene, the higher it comes up on your priority list of genes involved in the disorder." The researcher highlighted the fact that there have been few statistically significant findings in searches of the human genome, as it applies to bipolar disorder, to date. "By integrating the findings of multiple studies, we were able to sort through, identify genes that were most likely to be involved in bipolar disorder, and achieve this major breakthrough in our understanding of the illness," he added. Bipolar disorder, sometimes called manic depression, is a serious illness that causes patients to experience mild or dramatic mood swings, shifts in energy, and a diminished capacity to function. Dr. Niculescu said that his team's work could open exciting avenues for psychiatric researchers and clinicians, as well as for patients and their families. "First and foremost, these studies will lead to a better understanding of bipolar and related disorders. Second, the researchers now plan to study individuals to see which combination of genes is present in individuals to come up with a genetic risk score," he said.He revealed that the purpose behind the study was to be able to apply the risk score to test individuals even before the illness manifests itself for preventive measures - such as lifestyle changes, counselling, low-dose medications - or to delay or stop the illness from developing. "Third, in individuals who already have the illness, genetic testing in combination with blood biomarkers for the disease, could help determine which treatments works best so personalized treatments could be developed," Dr. Niculescu said. ANI
2008-11-22 03:00:00
Autumn-born babies 'more likely to get asthma'
Washington, Nov 22 ANI: Infants born in the autumn season are at a greater risk of developing childhood asthma, according to a new study.The new research from Vanderbilt University has found that while having clinically significant bronchiolitis at any age during infancy was associated with an increased risk of childhood asthma, for autumn babies, that risk was the greatest. "Infant age at the winter virus peak following birth independently predicts asthma development, with the highest risk being for infants born approximately four months prior to the peak, which is represented by birth in the fall months in the Northern hemisphere," said Tina V. Hartert, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor of medicine and director of the center for Asthma Research at Vanderbilt University, and principal investigator of the study."Birth during this time conferred a nearly 30 percent increase in odds of developing asthma," she added.The study analysed the birth and medical records of more than 95,000 children and their mothers in Tennessee to determine whether date of birth in relationship to the peak in winter respiratory viruses posed a higher risk for developing early childhood asthma.The researchers suggest two non-mutually exclusive possible reasons for the link, one, that there is a genetic susceptibility common to both bronchiolitis and the development of asthma and the other that an environmental exposure such as winter viral infection causes asthma."The risk of progressing from bronchiolitis to asthma is almost certainly influenced by genetic factors," wrote Dr. Hartert. "However, if this association were due only to genetic factors, there would be a seasonal effect on infection but not on asthma...Instead we have shown that there is variation in the risk of developing asthma by the timing of birth in relationship to the winter virus peak for each year studied. "This supports a causal relationship of childhood asthma with the winter virus peak after birth," she added. The research was published in the first issue for December of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, a publication of the American Thoracic Society. ANI
2008-11-22 03:00:00
Valley Girls: Linda Avey and Anne Wojcicki
Genetics just got personal is the view of the two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs behind 23andMe who are trying to change the world of healthcare
2008-11-20 06:00:09
Researchers ID Suite of Genes in Aging Process HealthDay
HealthDay - WEDNESDAY, Nov. 19 HealthDay News -- Genetic biomarkers that are highly accurate in determining physiological age have been identified by researchers at California's Buck Institute...
2008-11-20 03:00:00
'Repo! The Genetic Opera'
One of the worst movies of the year, if not all time. This goth garbageisn't clever enough to be "Sweeney Todd" and it isn't campy enough tobe "The Rocky Horror Picture...
2008-11-19 09:16:18
Can genetic research spur racist attitudes
INT31International/Science/SocietyCan genetic research spur racist attitudesToronto, Nov 18 IANS People might be different in many ways but genetically they are quite similar. However, is it possible that genetic research may evoke racist attitudes, asks University of Alberta's Tim Caulfield. He organised a seminar to examine the issue.Last year, Nobel Prize winning geneticist James Watson claimed there are genes responsible for creating differences in human intelligence. These comments made international headlines and Watson later apologised. Caulfield knows that studying racial groups is important. For example, if a researcher is studying health disparities in the US, they want to know why African Americans have poorer outcomes than those of European descent. "In that case you're not saying that there's a biological difference because you're incorporating social and economic factors to that definition," said Caulfield. Accordingly, Caulfield brought together an interdisciplinary group to discuss the concerns of the scientific community and come up with ways to avoid it. This group included professionals in anthropology, bioethics, clinical medicine and law. "It was a very interesting group of individuals that haven't always agreed in the past," said Caulfield. They managed to come together and agree on this topic, though, detailing a number of steps to ensure biomedical research doesn't stir up racism."For example, scientists must justify in the study why they're studying that certain group. When a discovery is made, researchers are to ensure the evidence is defined properly in the hard copy of the study and to the media," according to an Alberta release. Besides, Caulfied's group will continue to track the ways published studies reference ethnic groups. "We're trying to trace how race-based studies are described in various stages." "We're continuing to study the issue in how race is represented," said Caulfield, whose study will appear in January edition of Genome Medicine. --Indo-Asian News ServiceSt/jg334 Words18111116
2008-11-18 01:32:26
Why sharp memory remains intact in some elderly people
Washington, November 17 ANI: Researchers at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine have found in a study that the brain of the elderly people who have not suffered any memory loss contain many fewer fibre-like tangles as compared to the brains of those who had aged normally. Lead researcher Changiz Geula, a research professor of neurology, calls such elderly people with laser sharp memory "super aged".He has revealed that the fibre-like tangles they observed consist of a protein called tau, which accumulates inside brain cells and is thought to eventually kill the cells. He points out that such tangles are found in moderate numbers in the brains of elderly, and increase substantially in the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients."This new finding in super aged brains is very exciting. It was always assumed that the accumulation of these tangles is a progressive phenomenon through the aging process. But we are seeing that some individuals are immune to tangle formation and that the presence of these tangles seems to influence cognitive performance," said Geula.For their study, the researchers examined the brains of five deceased people, who were considered super aged because of their high performance on memory tests when they were more than 80 years old. They compared the brains of such people with those of elderly, non-demented individuals. While making a presentation at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington, D.C., Geula revealed that the number of plaques in the brains of the super aged was similar to that in the brains of the normally aging group. Just like tangles, plaques also are found in modest numbers in the brains of aged individuals, and show a dramatic increase in number in Alzheimer's disease.Geula said that the lower number of tangles in the super aged appears to be the critical difference in maintaining memory skills. He even revealed that some of the super aged in the study performed memory tasks at the level of people who were about 50 years old: after being told a story, they were able to remember it immediately after and still accurately recall its details 30 minutes later. The subjects could also remember a list of 15 words and recall them equally well when tested after 30 minutes. Geula revealed that his team's future studies would focus on why do cells in super aged brains become more resistant to tangle formation. "We want to see what protects the brains of these individuals against the ravages that cause memory loss. Understanding the specific genetic and molecular characteristics of the brains that makes them resistant, someday may lead to the ability to protect average brains from memory loss," he said.Geula's research is part of a larger super aging study at Northwestern's Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center CNADC. A number of super aged individuals have been identified, and are being followed up annually with tests of cognitive abilities. ANI
2008-11-17 10:00:00