Page 4,151«..1020..4,1504,1514,1524,153..4,1604,170..»

Category Archives: Transhuman News

The human Y chromosome is not likely to disappear

Posted: January 10, 2014 at 1:44 am

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

9-Jan-2014

Contact: Melissa A. Wilson Sayres mwilsonsayres@berkeley.edu Public Library of Science

Is the male Y chromosome at risk of being lost? Recent work by Dr Wilson Sayres and colleagues at UC Berkeley, published in PLOS Genetics, demonstrates that the genes on the Y chromosome are important: they have probably been maintained by selection. This implies that despite its dwindling size, the Y chromosome will be sticking around.

The human Y chromosome contains 27 unique genes, compared to thousands on other chromosomes. Some mammals have already lost their Y chromosome (despite still having males, females and normal reproduction); this has led some researchers to speculate that the Y chromosome is superfluous.

As the X and Y chromosomes evolved, male-specific genes became fixed on the Y chromosome. Some of these genes were detrimental to females, so the X and Y chromosomes stopped swapping genes. This meant the Y chromosome was no longer able to correct mistakes efficiently and has thus degraded over time.

There is low genetic diversity in the human Y chromosome, and Dr Wilson Sayres and colleagues were able to precisely measure this by comparing variation on a person's Y chromosome with variation on that person's other 22 chromosomes, the X chromosome and the mitochondrial DNA. The researchers then showed that this low genetic diversity cannot be explained solely by a reduction in the number of males passing on their Y chromosome (successfully fathering male offspring). Instead, the low diversity must also result from natural selection, in this case purifying selection (the selective removal of deleterious alleles).

The movements of human populations around the world are tracked by variations in the Y chromosome. The increased understanding provided by this research will improve estimates of humans' evolutionary history.

###

Follow this link:
The human Y chromosome is not likely to disappear

Posted in Human Genetics | Comments Off on The human Y chromosome is not likely to disappear

Why is type 2 diabetes an increasing problem?

Posted: at 1:44 am

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

9-Jan-2014

Contact: Aileen Sheehy press.office@sanger.ac.uk 44-012-234-92368 Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

Contrary to a common belief, researchers have shown that genetic regions associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes were unlikely to have been beneficial to people at stages through human evolution.

Type 2 diabetes is responsible for more than three million deaths each year and this number is increasing steadily. The harmful genetic variants associated with this common disease have not yet been eliminated by natural selection.

To try to explain why this is, geneticists have previously hypothesised that during times of 'feast or famine' throughout human evolution, people who had advantageous or 'thrifty' genes processed food more efficiently. But in the modern developed world with too much food, these same people would be more susceptible to type 2 diabetes.

"This thrifty gene theory is an attractive hypothesis to explain why natural selection hasn't protected us against these harmful variants," says Dr. Yali Xue, lead author of the study from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. "But we find little or no evidence to corroborate this theory."

The team tested this theory by examining 65 genetic regions that were known to increase type 2 diabetes risk, the most detailed study of its kind.

If these harmful variants were beneficial in the past, the team would expect to see a genetic imprint of this in the DNA around the affected regions. Despite major developments in tests for positive selection and a four-fold increase in the number of genetic variants associated with diabetes to work with, they found no such imprint.

"We found evidence for positive selection in only few of the 65 variants and selection favoured the protective and risk alleles for type 2 diabetes in similar proportions," notes Dr. Qasim Ayub, first author from The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, "This is no more than what we would expect to find for a random set of genomic variants."

Here is the original post:
Why is type 2 diabetes an increasing problem?

Posted in Human Genetics | Comments Off on Why is type 2 diabetes an increasing problem?

Lebanon: DNA tests confirm identity of Majed al-Majed – Video

Posted: at 1:44 am


Lebanon: DNA tests confirm identity of Majed al-Majed
The Lebanese Army says D-N-A tests confirm the identity of an arrested Saudi suspect as Majed al-Majed. He is the leader of a terrorist group behind a deadly...

By: PressTV Videos

Read the original:
Lebanon: DNA tests confirm identity of Majed al-Majed - Video

Posted in DNA | Comments Off on Lebanon: DNA tests confirm identity of Majed al-Majed – Video

Team DNA Baby! – Crazy Minigames – Video

Posted: at 1:44 am


Team DNA Baby! - Crazy Minigames
Mario Party - Minecraft Style;-.) Minecraft Mini Games with Doc! 😀 Docm77 http://www.youtube.com/user/Docm77 Server IP: minecraftparty.com Contackt Anders I...

By: ImAnderZEL

Read the original:
Team DNA Baby! - Crazy Minigames - Video

Posted in DNA | Comments Off on Team DNA Baby! – Crazy Minigames – Video

DNA helps put serial burglar behind bars

Posted: at 1:44 am

CHARLOTTE- A serial burglar is back behind bars thanks to his DNA. Charlotte Mecklenburg Police just arrested a man, months after they say he broke into a business in West Charlotte. DNA links him to the crime.

Jimmy Clinton Johnson is just one of the latest suspects identified through DNA. CMPD said he allegedly broke into a trophy shop in West Charlotte back in August. Crime scene investigators collected and analyzed blood from the inside of the front door. CMPD cant comment specifically about this case, because it is pending but did speak about how DNA is used to solve a case.

"DNA is considered the gold standard as far as forensic science goes, said the Director of the CMPD Crime Lab, Matt Mathis. It's a great tool, very reliable, and based on very solid science."

Mathis says CMPDs crime lab is the second largest in the state and they test about 800 cases per year for DNA. Johnson's was in the system from an earlier conviction, and came back a match.

"Sometimes the only thing missing is the who, said Mecklenburg County Prosecutor, Spencer Merriweather. DNA can be that tool that helps us fill in the who. It can help answer that question for us."

Merriweather said DNA can be crucial to getting a conviction in many cases. And the more samples that are collected and compared, the more cases that could get closure, no matter how old they are.

"A person can't outlive the evidence, added Merriweather. The evidence is going to be there, it may not be tomorrow, two weeks from now, two years from now."

Merriweather said DNA can also be used to prove someone's innocence.

North Carolina now collects DNA when certain violent offenders are arrested. The Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office says it collected more than 1,400 samples last year. They were sent to the SBI to be analyzed and placed in the database.

Continue reading here:
DNA helps put serial burglar behind bars

Posted in DNA | Comments Off on DNA helps put serial burglar behind bars

Where do your bones come from? Shark genome study offers insights.

Posted: at 1:44 am

Researchers have mapped the genome of the elephant shark, and they say it helps explain the genetic basis of how bones form.

It turns out that studying a boneless animal can help explain the genetic basis of bones.

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition

An international group of researchers has sequenced the genome of the elephant shark, "a curious-looking fish with a snout that resembles the end of an elephant's trunk." The species, which despite its name is not actually a shark, is a member ofthe family of the world's oldest-living jawed vertebrates.

But why elephant sharks?

The elephant shark was selected for sequencing because of its compact genome, which is one-third the size of the human genome, according to a press release by The Genome Institute at Washington University School of Medicine.

Like actual sharks, the elephant shark, which belongs to the order chimaera, has a "skeleton" made of cartilage rather than bone, making it an oddity on the evolutionary tree.

After comparing the shark genome with those of other vertebrates with bones, researchers noticed that the elephant shark lacked a family of genes that are crucial for bone formation. They confirmed this by removing a member of this gene family in zebrafish, a tropical freshwater fish. It was observed that a gene's absence correlated with a reduction in bone formation in zebrafish, highlighting the importance of this gene family in making bones.

"So now we know what genes are missing in elephant sharks and from that we learned about this new gene family, which is important in bone formation," Patrick Minx from The Genome Institute at Washington University School of Medicine, told the Monitor. Therefore, the findings have important implications for understanding bone diseases, he says.

Read more:
Where do your bones come from? Shark genome study offers insights.

Posted in Genome | Comments Off on Where do your bones come from? Shark genome study offers insights.

Genome research here is perfect fit

Posted: at 1:44 am

You might not think of the Buffalo Niagara region as a hotbed of genetic medical research, but Marnie LaVigne thinks the pieces already are in place here.

Its just a question of putting them all together.

Thats why LaVigne, the University at Buffalos associate vice president of economic development, is so excited about Gov. Andrew M. Cuomos plans to invest $50 million in genomic medical research here, building on UBs supercomputing capacity, the modest-but-growing life sciences industry here and the regions large database of electronic medical records.

Weve got phenomenal genomics capability, LaVigne said.

The high-performance computing isnt in other places, as it is here, she said. The access to patient data is excellent here, with medical data from more than 1 million medical records available for researchers to analyze as they seek out new cures and treatments.

Its not just data storage. Its analytics, she said.

And thats the big selling point of UBs involvement in the $105 million project that will upgrade the computing facilities and forge a partnership with the New York Genome Center, a consortium of 16 institutions in New York that are using genetic information to try to develop new medical tests and treatments.

Its all part of a quest for a holy grail thats sometimes called personalized medicine. By studying a patients genes, researchers look for genetic clues that show how susceptible that person is to certain diseases or conditions. Essentially, the makeup of a patients DNA and other genetic coding can help determine what diseases they are more likely to contract and how they can be treated most effectively.

You can test it here. You can expand it here. You can co-locate here, LaVigne said. Groups outside of Buffalo are going to want to access what we have, even international firms.

If that sounds familiar, it should. Its the same type of mantra that the Cuomo administration has been following for most of its high-profile economic development initiatives here.

Here is the original post:
Genome research here is perfect fit

Posted in Genome | Comments Off on Genome research here is perfect fit

Dr Jeevani Hasantha Testimonials-eczema – Video

Posted: at 1:43 am


Dr Jeevani Hasantha Testimonials-eczema
Eczema patient describes how homeopathy cured him compleately with a very short period at Sajeevi Healing Home.

By: jeevani hasantha

The rest is here:
Dr Jeevani Hasantha Testimonials-eczema - Video

Posted in Eczema | Comments Off on Dr Jeevani Hasantha Testimonials-eczema – Video

NIH-funded scientists develop mouse model for atopic dermatitis

Posted: at 1:43 am

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

9-Jan-2014

Contact: Linda Huynh linda.huynh@nih.gov 301-402-1663 NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

A study reports the development of a new mouse model for atopic dermatitis, an inflammatory skin disorder commonly known as eczema. The findings, published in Cell Reports, suggest that mast cells, a type of immune cell, are critical for both spontaneous and allergen-induced eczema. The study, led by researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, was supported in part by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a component of the National Institutes of Health.

Eczema is estimated to affect approximately one in five infants and one in fifty adults in the United States. The causes underlying the disorder are unclear. Previous research has suggested a role for imbalanced immune responses and impaired skin defenses, as well as overproduction of thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP), a protein that promotes inflammation. While different mouse models for eczema have been developed, research examining how they are linked to human disease is still ongoing.

In the current study, researchers show that mice lacking phospholipase C-3 (PLC- 3), an enzyme that helps regulate inflammation, develop a skin disorder similar to human eczema, with high levels of TSLP. In this model, disease progression depends on the accumulation of mast cells and the activity of a signaling protein called Stat5. This role for mast cells and Stat5 in eczema was not previously known. The researchers also examined skin lesions of eczema patients and found that some had accumulation of mast cells expressing active Stat5. They identified changes, or polymorphisms, in genes that regulate PLC- 3 and Stat5 that are more common in patients with eczema. With these links to human disease, the targets identified in the mouse model may offer potential new strategies for treating this common disorder in people.

###

ARTICLE: T. Ando et al. Critical role for mast-cell Stat5 activity in skin inflammation. Cell Reports. DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2013.12.029 (2014).

Marshall Plaut, M.D., chief of the Food Allergy, Atopic Dermatitis and Allergic Mechanisms Section in NIAID's Division of Allergy, Immunology and Transplantation, is available to discuss the findings.

To schedule interviews, please contact Linda Huynh, (301) 402-1663, linda.huynh@nih.gov.

See the original post here:
NIH-funded scientists develop mouse model for atopic dermatitis

Posted in Eczema | Comments Off on NIH-funded scientists develop mouse model for atopic dermatitis

La Jolla Institute scientist identifies pivotal cellular protein underlying eczema

Posted: at 1:43 am

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

9-Jan-2014

Contact: Bonnie Ward contact@liai.org 619-303-3160 La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology

SAN DIEGO (January 9th, 2014) Researchers from the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology have revealed a critical player in the cellular interactions leading to eczema a chronic inflammatory skin condition affecting more than 14 million U.S. children and adults.

In a study published today, Toshiaki Kawakami, M.D., Ph.D., and his research team provide information which supports for the first time in humans the long-held theory that mast cells are a key culprit in causing eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis. Further, the team showed that a cellular protein, known as STAT5, plays a pivotal role by triggering major increases in mast cells in the skin of some eczema sufferers. The discovery opens the door to creating new therapies to prevent or better treat eczema based on blocking STAT5 in mast cells.

The team conducted its studies using skin samples from eczema patients. "We found that the number of mast cells, which we have previously shown to be important in mouse atopic dermatitis, is increased in human patients," says Kawakami. "We also showed that these mast cells contain high levels of the active form of STAT5."

Kawakami says the researchers also tested their theory on STAT5's importance in mice. "When STAT5 is knocked out in the mast cells (of specially engineered mice), the mice become resistant to atopic dermatitis," says Kawakami. "This indicates that STAT5 regulatory mechanisms in mast cells are important for the pathogenesis of this disease."

The findings were published online in Cell Reports in a paper entitled "Critical role for mast-cell Stat5 activity in skin inflammation." The study was supported in part by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a component of the National Institutes of Health, under contract number N01 AI40030.

Eczema is a condition in which the skin becomes inflamed or irritated and is marked by redness, itchiness and dry, cracked skin. The exact cause of eczema is unknown, but it's thought to be linked to an overactive response by the body's immune system to allergens and irritants, similar to other allergic diseases such as asthma and food allergy. Eczema is more common in children than adults, since it sometimes resolves with age. About 10.7 percent of U.S. children and 3 percent of adults are estimated to be affected.

Kawakami says this finding is a continuation of his nearly 10-year effort to pinpoint the cascade of key cellular actions involved in eczema. Initially working in mice, his latest study enabled human confirmation of his key findings. "We now know that, in eczema, the mechanisms we found in mice are also operative in human disease," says Kawakami. Along with showing that mast cells and STAT5 drive the eczema process in humans, this study also found an enzyme -- Phospholipase C-beta3 (PLC-3) that can block the activation. PLC-3 has a calming effort on STAT5 and can prevent it from driving up the mast cell numbers, explains Kawakami. "The mast cell numbers are inversely correlated with PLC-3 levels," he says. "The more PLC-3, the fewer the mast cells."

See the rest here:
La Jolla Institute scientist identifies pivotal cellular protein underlying eczema

Posted in Eczema | Comments Off on La Jolla Institute scientist identifies pivotal cellular protein underlying eczema

Page 4,151«..1020..4,1504,1514,1524,153..4,1604,170..»