APS announces the winners of its 2004 postdoctoral fellowship in physiological genomics
...ll investigate how IL-6 is made and how it directs gene expression, immunity, and physiology in the lungs. Takuya Sakaguchi, Ph.D. University of California, San Francisco Dr. Sakaguchi's research focus is the molecular mechanism underlying liver formation (organogenesis). Though the liver is one of the...Tobacco promising factory for biopharmaceuticals
...other than their native hosts. For example, if the gene for human growth hormone is inserted into the genetic code of yeast (gene recombination), then the corresponding protein expressed in the yeast is called recombinant human growth hormone. Zhang's research starts with introducing the genes of interes...Leukemia stem cells identified by Stanford researchers
...ividing state. "What's novel is that you have this gene turned on in a mature cell," Jamieson said. The protein was particularly abundant in people whose cancers were resistant to the chemotherapy drug Gleevec. Beta-catenin is part of a pathway kicked off by a protein called Wnt (pronounced "wint"), which...Joslin Diabetes Center launches research section on developmental and stem cell biology
... responsible for the effects of diabetes on embryo gene expression. Embryonic stem cells can be used to study the precise biochemical and molecular mechanisms by which high glucose and oxidative stress prevent the activation of embryonic genes. If oxidative stress plays a significant role in causing birth...Excess thyroid hormone harmful to fetus
...ns with a mutation of the thyroid hormone receptor gene the hormone was less effective. People with the mutation produce more thyroid hormone than normal but they do not experience the anxiety, weight loss or elevated heart rate usually caused by such excess. The genetic defect is transmitted as a domin...Brain's reward circuitry revealed in procrastinating primates
...ates into workaholics by temporarily suppressing a gene in a brain circuit involved in reward learning. W...National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). "The gene makes a receptor for a key brain messenger chemical, dopamine," explained Barry Richmond, M.D., NIMH...Jefferson scientists find gene expression pattern may predict behavior of leukemia
...t are thought to be important in the regulation of gene expression and in the development of cancer. MiRNAs can serve as stop signs for gene expression and protein synthesis, and are thought to play important roles in regulating gene express...The telomere crisis: A crucial stage in breast cancer
...these cells, they introduced a known breast cancer gene into the culture and examined progressive generations of cells. Telomere length decreased steadily. Genome instability and evidence of rearranged chromosomes were low before telomere crisis -- just as in the tissue samples of usual ductal hyperplasi...Evolvability could be a driving force in drug resistance
...ecombination, genetic transposition and horizontal gene transfer. With these mechanisms, relatively large chunks of genetic code are shuffled or substituted for one another along the DNA chain. Deem and Earl's argument centers on the idea that the ability to reorder genes or to cause large-scale genetic c...Coordinating power of circadian rhythms keeps estrus and pregnancy on track
... the Clock mutant mouse, which has a mutation in a gene that regulates the internal clock, researchers hav...e H. Miller found that the disruption of the Clock gene resulted in abnormal estrous cycles (the mouse equivalent of human menstrual cycles), primarily due ...Genetic mutation linked to more aggressive breast cancer found more often in African-Americans
Alterations in a tumor suppressor gene called p53 are more prevalent in breast cancer of African-American women than white women, according to a new study. This study, published August 9, 2004 in the online edition of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, "repres...More aggressive breast cancer tumors found in African American women
...d the effects of alterations in a tumor suppressor gene called p53. The team looked at how the patterns of alterations of genes related to worse prognosis differed between African-American and white women. They examined the breast tumors of 145 African-American and 177 white women and found that African-A...Alterations in vitamin D receptor gene increase prostate, breast cancer risk
...one to developing metastases. "Differences in the gene sequence for the vitamin D receptor are associated...ool. Among three known variable regions of the VDR gene considered by the research team, the bb and LL variants increased breast cancer risk by almost twofo...New prostate cancer gene identified
...t suppress tumors, and in the process identified a gene that appears to be important in prostate cancer. ...ancer. This is the first time abnormalities in the gene have been linked to cancer. They believe loss of the gene's function leads to disorganization of cel...LBP-1a gene mutation linked to disruption of normal fetal development
The lack of a gene called LBP-1a in the mouse embryo prevents normal ...rs also report that the protein made by the LBP-1a gene is a member of a family of proteins called the "grainyhead transcription factors." This is the first...U-M scientists find common virus in human prostate tissue
... prostate samples analyzed for the study contained gene segments from the BK virus. TAg protein from the BK virus was present in 43 percent of the tissue samples, but only in atrophic lesions a precursor stage of prostate cancer development. TAg was not expressed in normal cells or cancerous cells. ...Method to visualize gene activity may provide insight into normal development & genome function
...ce also makes it possible to quantify how active a gene is, and even infer the genetic makeup of an organi...ressive a tumor will be from its early patterns of gene expression." "Cell fate decisions must be understood in order for any of the incredible medic...Bad news for pathogenic bacteria: Scientists find protein essential for bacterial survival
...how the common organism Escherichia coli regulates gene expression has given scientists new ideas for desi...ely on a key protein in order to properly regulate gene expression a process fundamental to cell survival. This protein, called DksA, coordinates the ...UCSD researchers are first to demonstrate molecular link between inflammation and cancer
...the study also demonstrated that inactivation of a gene involved in the inflammatory process can dramatica...nal form of cancer. The investigators found that a gene called I-kappa-B kinase (IKK beta), a pro-inflammatory gene, acts differently in two cell types to c...