Daily Archives: March 11, 2014

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

11-Mar-2014

Contact: Cathy Yarbrough sciencematter@yahoo.com 858-243-1814 Genetics Society of America

Over 1,500 scientists from Asia, Europe and the U.S. are expected to attend the Genetics Society of America (GSA)'s 55th annual Drosophila Research Conference, March 26 to 30, 2014, at the San Diego Town and Country Resort and Conference Center, San Diego, CA. Link to conference webpage: http://www.genetics-gsa.org/drosophila/2014/

At the conference's over 940 platform and poster presentations, scientists will report on the latest research on such topics as cell biology and the cytoskeleton, RNA biology, screening of experimental therapeutics in fly models as well as fly models of such human diseases as cancer, epilepsy, heart disease and diabetes.

The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, is one of the most commonly studied model organisms. Research presented at the Drosophila conference, like those at other GSA conferences, helps advance our fundamental understanding of living systems and provides crucial insight into human biology, health and disease.

In addition to the platform and poster sessions, the conference will feature 15 presentations by invited speakers, including the internationally renowned researcher and educator Bruce Alberts, Ph.D. His topic will be, "Science, Biology and the World's Future." Dr. Alberts, former editor-in-chief of Science and past president of the National Academy of Sciences, is now at University of California at San Francisco, which honored him with the Chancellor's Leadership Chair in Biochemistry and Biophysics for Science and Education.

List of invited speakers:http://www.genetics-gsa.org/drosophila/2014/

The conference will also include a preview of the new feature film, "The Fly Room." Written and directed by geneticist Alexis Gambis, Ph.D., the semi-fictional film is set in the now famous Columbia University lab, known as the "Fly Room," in which the studies that built the scientific foundations for modern genetics were conducted. The film provides a portrait of the relationship between Calvin Bridges, Ph.D., one of the researchers who worked in the "Fly Room," and his daughter Betsey, based on interviews with the real Betsey Bridges. Dr. Gambis has described the film as a "dramatic narrative about a girl's quest to understand her father through his research." Link http://www.theflyroom.com/

###

Read the original here:
'Fly' meeting to spotlight research advances in genetics

A team of international researchers has discovered two new genes connected to bipolar disorder.

A study that will be published in the Nature Communications journal analyzed genetic material from about 24,000 people, revealing five risk regions in human DNA associated with the disease.

Two of those genes ADCY2 on chromosome five and MIR2113-POU3F2 on chromosome six are new discoveries.

Researchers are especially interested in the ADCY2 gene, which codes an enzyme involved in conducting signals to nerve cells. Scientists have previously observed that signal transfers in certain regions of the brain are impaired in people with bipolar disorder.

For the study, researchers obtained new genetic data from 2,266 people with bipolar disorder, and 5,028 people from a control group. When that information was merged with existing data sets from the Institute of Human Genetics, DNA from a total of 9,747 patients was compared to that of 14,278 healthy people.

The investigation of the genetic foundations of bipolar disorder on this scale is unique worldwide to date," one of the researchers, Marcella Rietschel of the Central Institute of Mental Health of Mannheim, Germany, said in a news release.

Researchers said the study is unparalleled because it involved an unprecedented number of patients from around the world.

About one per cent of the global population suffers from bipolar disorder, characterized by intense mood swings. Patients go from experiencing extreme euphoria and hyperactivity or manic phases to extreme depression. Scientists have been trying to understand what role genetics, in addition to a patients environment and other factors, play in the development of the disease.

Markus M. Nthen, director of the Institute of Human Genetics at the University of Bonn Hospital, said that many different genes are evidently involved and these genes work together with environmental factors in a complex way."

Researchers say identifying genes related to bipolar disorder is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Differences between the DNA of people with the disease and healthy individuals can only be statistically confirmed when a large number of samples is involved, as was the case in this study.

Continued here:
'Unparalleled' study discovers new genes connected to bipolar disorder