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. New cells are born every day in the brain's hippocampus, but what controls this birth has remained a mystery. Reporting in the January 1 issue of Science, neuroscientists at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have discovered that the birth of new cells, which depends on brain activity, also depends on a protein that is involved in changing epigenetic marks in the cell's genetic material. http://www.physorg.com/news150657983.html Medicine & Health Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:26:23 EST news150657983 Scientists have identified the structure of a key component of the bacteria behind such diseases as whooping cough, peptic stomach ulcers and Legionnaires' disease. The research, funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), sheds light on how antibiotic resistance genes spread from one bacterium to another. The research may help scientists develop novel treatments for these diseases and novel ways to curtail the spread of antibiotic resistance. http://www.physorg.com/news150646319.html Medicine & Health Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:11:59 EST news150646319 The international GIANT (Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Parameters) consortium works on the discovery of obesity genes. So far, the scientists have analyzed two million DNA variations in 15 genome-wide association studies with a total of more than 32,000 participants. The hereby identified candidate genes were validated in 14 further studies including 59,000 participants. In addition to the FTO and MC4R genes already known, it was now possible for six more obesity genes to be identified: TMEM18, KCTD15, GNPDA2, SH2B1, MTCH2, and NEGR1. http://www.physorg.com/news150636788.html Medicine & Health Thu, 08 Jan 2009 11:33:08 EST news150636788 (PhysOrg.com) -- Yale researchers have published a cellular atlas of genetic activity in rice, documenting with unprecedented detail how and when genes are turned off and on within cells of a living organism. http://www.physorg.com/news150389890.html Biology Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:58:10 EST news150389890 While examining patterns of DNA modification in lung cancer, a team of international researchers has discovered what they say is a surprising new mechanism. They say that "silencing" of a single gene in lung cancer led to a general impairment in genome-wide changes in cells, contributing to cancer development and progression. http://www.physorg.com/news149924210.html Medicine & Health Wed, 31 Dec 2008 05:36:50 EST news149924210 By mixing and matching a contemporary flu virus with the "Spanish flu" - a virus that killed between 20 and 50 million people 90 years ago in history's most devastating outbreak of infectious disease - researchers have identified a set of three genes that helped underpin the extraordinary virulence of the 1918 virus. http://www.physorg.com/news149793752.html Biology Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:22:32 EST news149793752 Researchers have discovered two enzymes that, when combined, could be involved in the earliest stages of cancer. Manipulating these enzymes genetically might lead to targeted therapies aimed at slowing or preventing the onset of tumors. http://www.physorg.com/news149345232.html Medicine & Health Wed, 24 Dec 2008 12:47:12 EST news149345232 Individuals with particular variants of certain genes involved in metabolizing the most potent carcinogen found in cigarette smoke have an increased risk of developing lung cancer. That is the conclusion of a new study published in the February 1, 2009 issue of Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. The study's results may help shed light on how lung cancer develops and could have important implications for preventing smoking-related cancers. http://www.physorg.com/news149142605.html Medicine & Health Mon, 22 Dec 2008 04:30:05 EST news149142605 A groundbreaking study of popularity by a Michigan State University scientist has found that genes elicit not only specific behaviors but also the social consequences of those behaviors. http://www.physorg.com/news149142491.html Medicine & Health Mon, 22 Dec 2008 04:28:11 EST news149142491 (PhysOrg.com) -- Like Silly Putty lifting an imprint of the Sunday comics off a newspaper, complex enzymes called RNA polymerases lift information off DNA strands. The polymerases then transcribe those genetic instructions onto RNA for making proteins that cells use for basic functions. http://www.physorg.com/news148751468.html Biology Wed, 17 Dec 2008 15:51:08 EST news148751468 (PhysOrg.com) -- Think humans are complex creatures? Consider the lowly soybean, said a Purdue University researcher. When it comes to genetics, the soybean plant is far more intricate than that of a human, said Scott Jackson, a plant genomics and cytogenetics researcher in Purdue's Department of Agronomy. http://www.physorg.com/news148666295.html Biology Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:11:35 EST news148666295 Imagine having GeneVision: the uncanny ability to view the activity of any chosen gene in real time through a specially modified camera. http://www.physorg.com/news148659104.html Biology Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:11:44 EST news148659104 The recent emergence of multidrug resistance (MDR) in Acinetobacter baumannii, a bacteria that causes infections primarily among seriously ill patients in the intensive care unit who may have reduced immune systems, has raised concern in health care settings worldwide. When comparing the genome sequence of three MDR A. baumannii isolates and three drug-susceptible A. baumannii isolates, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine found that one variation of bacteria would respond to antibiotics while another variation of the same bacteria may not. http://www.physorg.com/news148658777.html Biology Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:06:17 EST news148658777 While life on Earth didn't originate from a blueprint, Stephen Michnick is helping the scientific community uncover the basic architecture of living things. A Université de Montréal biochemistry professor and Canada Research Chair in Integrative Genomics, Dr. Michnick has developed novel technologies that have enabled him to examine how proteins interact within cells. http://www.physorg.com/news148657804.html Chemistry Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:50:04 EST news148657804 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 A new study uncovers 11 gene variants associated with three blood lipids measured to determine cardiovascular disease risk: low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and triglycerides. The discovery opens up new opportunities for nutrigenomics researchers looking for links between diet and genetics that will optimize health and lower chronic disease risk. http://www.physorg.com/news148561907.html Medicine & Health Mon, 15 Dec 2008 11:11:47 EST news148561907 Is obesity all in your head? New research suggests that genes that predispose people to obesity act in the brain and that perhaps some people are simply hardwired to overeat. http://www.physorg.com/news148485640.html Medicine & Health Sun, 14 Dec 2008 14:00:40 EST news148485640 Research conducted by a team in Switzerland suggests that a family of genes involved in regulating the expression of other genes in the brain is responsible for helping us deal with external inputs such as stress. Their results, appearing in the December 11 advance online version of the journal Neuron, may also give a clue to why some people are more susceptible to anxiety or depression than others. http://www.physorg.com/news148223550.html Medicine & Health Thu, 11 Dec 2008 13:12:30 EST news148223550 Transposons are the Clark Kents of a genome. Apparently mild-mannered and inconsequential but with sudden bursts of activity, these free-floating bits of genetic material have for millions of years been sneaking into the genetic maps of plants and animals, dramatically increasing a genome's size. http://www.physorg.com/news148131257.html Biology Wed, 10 Dec 2008 11:34:17 EST news148131257 Rather than testing for individual marker genes or proteins, researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego) and the Moores UCSD Cancer Center have evidence that groups, or networks, of interactive genes may be more reliable in determining the likelihood that a form of leukemia is fast-moving or slow-growing. http://www.physorg.com/news147980787.html Medicine & Health Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:46:27 EST news147980787 Scientists have identified 12 new genes that are somewhat strange bedfellows: Some link gallstones and blood cholesterol levels, others link melatonin and sleep patterns to small increases in glucose levels and larger jumps in the risk of diabetes. http://www.physorg.com/news147885016.html Medicine & Health Sun, 07 Dec 2008 15:10:16 EST news147885016 The more often a gene is differentially expressed, the more likely it is to contain disease-associated DNA variants. Research published today in BioMed Central's open access journal Genome Biology shows how a list of SNPs in genes that are repeatedly implicated across many publicly-available gene expression microarray experiments (so-called, 'fitSNPs'), based on differential expression rates, can be used to successfully prioritize candidate genes for further research. http://www.physorg.com/news147698011.html Biology Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:13:31 EST news147698011 To decipher how cancer develops, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center investigators say researchers must take a closer look at the packaging. http://www.physorg.com/news147632761.html Biology Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:06:01 EST news147632761 A team led by Craig Pikaard, Ph.D., WUSTL professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, has made a breakthrough in understanding the phenomenon of nucleolar dominance, the silencing of an entire parental set of ribosomal RNA genes in a hybrid plant or animal. http://www.physorg.com/news147632722.html Biology Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:05:22 EST news147632722 Trillions of microbes make their home in the gut, where they help to break down and extract energy and nutrients from the food we eat. Yet, scientists have understood little about how this distinctive mix of microbes varies from one individual to the next. http://www.physorg.com/news147532823.html Medicine & Health Wed, 03 Dec 2008 13:20:23 EST news147532823 It is a well-known fact in drug trials that individuals can respond just as well to placebos, sugar pills, as to the active drug. On the other hand, it is difficult to explain why only certain people get better from placebos. A team of researchers from Uppsala University and Gothenburg University have now found gene variants that can impact the placebo effect and a mechanism in the brain that characterizes those who respond to placebos. http://www.physorg.com/news147531408.html Medicine & Health Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:56:48 EST news147531408 In a study in the advance online edition of Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, researchers from Albert Einstein College of Medicine describe a technique for looking more precisely at a fundamental step of a cell's life - a gene, DNA, being read into a message, mRNA. The technique could provide a window into the process by which genes are switched on inappropriately, causing disease. http://www.physorg.com/news147462888.html Biology Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:54:48 EST news147462888 (PhysOrg.com) -- Plant researchers from McGill University and the University of California, Berkeley, have announced a major breakthrough in a developmental process called epigenetics. They have demonstrated for the first time the reversal of what is called epigenetic silencing in plants. http://www.physorg.com/news147454931.html Biology Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:42:11 EST news147454931 Researchers at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) have shown in both fruit flies and humans that genes involved in embryonic heart development are also integral to adult heart function. The study, led by Rolf Bodmer, Ph.D., was published in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences. http://www.physorg.com/news147447947.html Medicine & Health Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:45:47 EST news147447947