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Clinical genetics news

Rare cranial disorders: Towards a non-invasive therapy using gene silencing delivered by nanoparticles and 3D printing

A "gene silencer" (technically known as small interfering RNA, or siRNA), locally delivered by nanoparticles embedded in an injectable gel produced through 3D printing, can switch off the defective gene responsible for serious ...

Williams-Beuren syndrome: Early enzyme changes may hold key to future treatments

Williams-Beuren syndrome is a rare, congenital disease in which the main morbidity and mortality comes from obstructions, or stenoses, in specific arteries. When these obstructions involve the aorta, it is known as supravalvular ...

Neuronal activity reveals new clues to ALS progression

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease with no cure and limited treatment options. One of the earliest signs of ALS is overactive brain signals known as cortical hyperexcitability. ...

Qatari genetic map reveals over 150,000 structural variants

Research co-led by King's College London and Sidra Medicine, Qatar, has produced the most detailed map to date of large-scale genetic differences in the Qatari population, providing a clearer picture of the genetic diversity ...

Obesity genes tied to kidney, eye and nerve damage in diabetes

A large genome-wide analysis reports that common obesity traits share, and in some cases drive, risk for diabetic kidney disease, diabetic retinopathy, and diabetic neuropathy. The study maps shared DNA signals, tests causal ...

How gene mutations drive dementia in Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease causes both movement and cognitive deficits, and for a long time both were thought to be caused by the accumulation of a protein called alpha-synuclein in the brain. But a new Nature Communications study ...

Gene linked to rheumatic disease controls cell movement

A team of researchers at Karolinska Institutet, together with colleagues from Linköping University, has uncovered the function of a gene called DIORA1 (FAM167A), previously linked to autoimmune rheumatic diseases such as ...

When mom and dad's DNA don't match up, the embryo finds a way

When a sperm meets an egg, a lot has to go right for an embryo to develop into a complete organism. One critical step of early development is the reorganization of parental DNA to form a new unified genome, before the embryo ...

Study maps how Down syndrome biology changes with age

In a new study published in Nature Communications, researchers from the Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome (Crnic Institute) at the University of Colorado Anschutz discovered important differences in the physiological ...