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Genetics and Health

June 8th, 2008

Elite athletes who died of enlarged hearts may have a genetic mutation

Enlarged hearts are found often, but not exclusively, in those who are obese, have diabetes or high blood pressure. People with none of these underlying problems can be affected, as can elite athletes.  For example, a post-mortem diagnosed the problem in Cameroon football midfielder Marc-Vivien Foe, who died in 2003 after collapsing during an international match […]

By Elaine -- 0 comments

May 29th, 2008

First female genome is sequenced - Dr Marjolein Kriek!

At last one for the girls!
 … Geneticists at Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) are the first to determine the DNA sequence of a woman. She is also the first European whose DNA sequence has been determined
The DNA is that of Dutch scientist Dr Marjolein Kriek, a clinical geneticist at LUMC. “If anyone could properly consider the […]

By Elaine -- 3 comments

May 21st, 2008

Extinct Tasmanian Tiger DNA ‘resurrected’

 (Tasmanian Tiger - photo credit www.bbc.co.uk/news)
Using transgenic mice, Australian and American researchers have shown that they can “resurrect” a snippet of DNA from the genome of an extinct animal — the Tasmanian tiger — and test its biological function in a living animal.   The last Tasmanian Tiger died in an Australian zoo in 1936 having […]

By Elaine -- 0 comments

May 4th, 2008

Meet GNA - DNA’s ‘ambidextrous’ cousin

GNA 
(Source: John Chaput, University of Arizona)
Nanotechnology researchers are continually on the lookout for new building blocks to push innovation and discovery to scales much smaller than the tiniest speck of dust.  At present DNA nanotechnology researchers are basically limited by what they can buy off the shelf.
In the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, researchers led […]

By Elaine -- 0 comments

May 4th, 2008

Osteoporosis - finding the genetic fingerprint

 
Osteoporosis 
(Image source: www.soylabs.com) 
An extensive genome-wide search has been undertaken to find the genes linked to osteoporosis and fracture. Five regions of interest have been identified that appear to warrant further scientific investigation.
The Garvan Institute for Medical Research collaborated with the Icelandic genetics company, deCode, in a project that looked at 1500 women from Garvan’s Dubbo Osteoporosis […]

By Elaine -- 1 comment

April 22nd, 2008

Doggie DNA used to look into human psychiatric problems

 
KQED Public Broadcasting in San Francisco recently did a radio story about the UC San Francisco Canine Behavioral Genetics Project run in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania. The aims of the project are:
1. To explore the relationship between genes and behavior, both normal and abnormal, in domestic dogs.
2. To assess the amount and nature […]

By Elaine -- 1 comment

March 6th, 2008

Michael J Fox Foundation offers their Parkinson’s data to world

(Image courtesy of CIMA http://www.cima.es/areas1_neuro/areas1_neuro_english.html) 
Data from one of the first genome-wide association studies (GWAS), which focused on Parkinson’s diseases and was funded in part by The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF), is now being made available to researchers through the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and the National Center for Biotechnology […]

By Elaine -- 0 comments

March 2nd, 2008

Gene discovered capable of blocking HIV

HIV-2 Virus. Reference: http://www.csend.hu/magazin/0102/hiv2.jpg
A team of researchers at the University of Alberta has discovered a gene that is able to block HIV, and in turn prevent the onset of AIDS.  Stephen Barr, a molecular virologist in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, says his team has identified a gene called TRIM22 that can block […]

By Elaine -- 2 comments

March 2nd, 2008

Drug responses vary between Africans and Europeans

Further to my various articles on our ancestry, differences in gene expression levels between people of European versus African ancestry appear to affect how each group responds to certain drugs or fights off specific infections, report researchers from the University of Chicago Medical Center and the Expression Research Laboratory at Affymetrix Inc. of Santa Clara, CA.
The researchers […]

By Elaine -- 2 comments

March 2nd, 2008

Electronic structure of DNA revealed - may lead to easier sequencing of DNA

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem scientists and others have revealed for the first time the electronic structure of single DNA molecules.  In their work, the researchers were able to decode the electronic structure of DNA and to understand how the electrons distribute into the various parts of the double helix, a result that has been […]

By Elaine -- 0 comments

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