http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have discovered a completely new route by which leukaemia develops, according to research published in Nature this weekend. http://www.physorg.com/news173369704.html Medicine & Health Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:15:45 EST news173369704 RNAs, serving as a mere intermediary between DNA and proteins, were long regarded as a poor relation by researchers, attracting little interest. However, following the discovery of small RNAs known as microRNAs, they have increasingly been moving into the limelight. MicroRNAs bind to messenger RNA (mRNA), thereby regulating the translation of genes into proteins. http://www.physorg.com/news171783595.html Biology Thu, 10 Sep 2009 06:50:01 EST news171783595 Muscular dystrophy, a group of inherited diseases characterized by progressive skeletal muscle weakness, can be caused by mutations in any one of a number of genes. Another gene can now be added to this list, as Yukiko Hayashi and colleagues, at the National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Japan, have now identified mutations in a gene not previously linked to muscular dystrophy as causative of a form of the disease in five nonconsanguineous Japanese patients. http://www.physorg.com/news169150841.html Medicine & Health Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:40:01 EST news169150841 Thousands of scientists and hundreds of software programmers studying the process by which RNA inside cells normally degrades may soon broaden their focus significantly. http://www.physorg.com/news168179768.html Biology Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:41:02 EST news168179768 Scientists in Michigan and California are reporting an advance toward development of a new generation of drugs that treat disease by orchestrating how genes in the body produce proteins involved in arthritis, cancer and a range of other disorders. Acting like an `on-off switch,` the medications might ratchet up the production of proteins in genes working at abnormally low levels or shut off genes producing an abnormal protein linked to disease. http://www.physorg.com/news163362257.html Chemistry Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:24:52 EST news163362257 In an in vitro study, led by Grace Gill, PhD, Tufts University School of Medicine, researchers discovered how a protein called SUMO (Small Ubiquitin-related Modifier) guides an enzyme complex that alters the structure of chromatin to regulate expression of genes. Chromatin is a compacted mass of DNA and protein that make up chromosomes. The interaction between SUMO and the enzyme complex is of interest in the study of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, where aberrant gene expression and altered SUMO function are thought to be indicative of disease. http://www.physorg.com/news160048671.html Medicine & Health Mon, 27 Apr 2009 10:58:22 EST news160048671 A cancer scientist from Johns Hopkins has convinced an international group of colleagues to delay their race to find new cancer biomarkers and instead begin a 7,000-hour slog through a compendium of 50,000 scientific articles already published to assemble, decode and analyze the molecules that might herald the furtive presence of pancreatic cancer. http://www.physorg.com/news158303878.html Medicine & Health Tue, 07 Apr 2009 06:18:26 EST news158303878 Whitehead Institute researchers have greatly simplified the creation of so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, cutting the number of viruses used in the reprogramming process from four to one. Scientists hope that these embryonic stem-cell-like cells could eventually be used to treat such ailments as Parkinson's disease and diabetes. http://www.physorg.com/news148583537.html Biology Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:12:17 EST news148583537 Infants and adults with the blood cancer mixed-lineage leukemia (MLL) typically have a poor prognosis, and most infants die before their first birthdays. Although there are varying causes of MLL, most cases are caused by a fusion of two genes, the MLL and the AF4 genes. http://www.physorg.com/news148583213.html Medicine & Health Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:06:53 EST news148583213