Science - Genetics latest news

An analysis of more than 100 patients has confirmed for the first time that darker-skinned patients benefit as those with lighter skin when given light therapy for morphea and related diseases, UT Southwestern medical Center researchers show. Phototherapy is the use of ultraviolet light to treat skin disorders, ranging from common problems such as acne and psoriasis to rarer conditions such as scleroderma and morphea, a hardening of the skin.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a novel genetic test for determining whether patients with breast cancer are good candidates for treatment with the drug Herceptin (trastuzumab). The SPOT-Light HER2 CISH kit is a test that measures the number of copies of the HER2 gene in tumor tissue. This gene regulates the growth of cancer cells.

Scientists at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson university in Philadelphia have made a key discovery about the mechanism of breast cancer metastasis, the process by which cancer spreads. Focusing on a gene dubbed "Dachshund," or DACH1, they are beginning to pinpoint new therapeutic targets to halt the spread of cancer. Reporting their findings in the Proceedings of the national academy of Sciences, researchers led by Richard Pestell, M.D., Ph.D.

Biotech and pharmaceutical firms are developing a host of new technologies designed to streamline the complicated drug discovery process, reports genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News (GEN). Most successful approaches rely on a combination of high-throughput screening methods, miniaturization techniques, and advanced data-analysis tools, according to an article in the July issue (

Recently identified genetic markers, called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), that are associated with a small but statistically significant increase in the risk of breast cancer do not appear to substantially improve the accuracy of existing models that use clinical factors to predict an individual's risk, according to a study in the July 8 online issue of the Journal of the National cancer institute.

Three plant biologists at Rutgers' Waksman Institute of Microbiology are obsessed with duckweed, a tiny aquatic plant with an unassuming name. Now they have convinced the federal government to focus its attention on duckweed's tremendous potential for cleaning up pollution, combating global warming and feeding the world.

Joint project of the Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Genetics and Genomatix takes the first step towards a new picture of the mammalian genome annotation In a collaborative project scientists from the ...

In a collaborative project scientists from the Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin (MPI MolGen), Germany and Genomatix with a business in Munich, Germany and Ann Arbor, MI, USA, applied next generation sequencing and analysis methods to generate an unprecedented view at the human transcriptome. Deep sequencing of transcripts from two human cell lines revealed so far unrecognized complexity and variability of the human transcriptome.

Researchers on Tuesday launched an effort to create a library of human genetics using the online encyclopedia Wikipedia in hopes it could spur widespread discussion about thousands of individual genes.