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Genetics news

Genetics

One-time gene therapy could end lifelong transfusions for rare blood disease

Thanks to in-utero blood transfusion technology, what was once a fatal diagnosis in the womb can now result in live births. However, this medical advancement created a new challenge: a growing population of children born ...

Genetics

Telomere protection failure: How genetic mutations cause pulmonary fibrosis

A research group from the National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) has found that an alteration in the POT1 gene prevents lung tissue from regenerating, which over time makes breathing difficult. The mutation prevents telomeres, ...

Genetics

CRISPR approach offers hope for severe childhood brain disorder

When brain development gets off to a bad start, the consequences are lifelong. One example is a condition called SCN2A haploinsufficiency, in which children are born with just one functioning copy of the SCN2A gene—instead ...

Genetics

AI-powered CRISPR could lead to faster gene therapies

Stanford Medicine researchers have developed an artificial intelligence tool to help scientists better plan gene-editing experiments. The technology, CRISPR-GPT, acts as a gene-editing "copilot" supported by AI to help researchers—even ...

Oncology & Cancer

Research links DNA replication failure to cancer therapy

A new study from Karolinska Institutet, published in Nature Communications, reveals that cyclin-dependent kinases (CDK) promote DNA replication licensing in human cells by relieving inhibitory signals from RB tumor suppressor ...

Genetics

Gene therapy safeguards hearing, balance in preclinical test

Scientists from the Gray Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences at Tel Aviv University introduced an innovative gene therapy method to treat impairments in hearing and balance caused by inner ear dysfunction. According to the ...

Genetics

Cell defect in exosomes linked to development of Alzheimer's

They're tiny particles—with potentially huge human consequences. Researchers from Aarhus University have identified a defect in the production of so-called exosomes in cells, associated with a mutation seen in dementia ...

Oncology & Cancer

Surprising new roles discovered for known blood cancer gene DNMT3A

A gene called DNMT3A is important for guiding blood stem cells into forming all the cell types present in blood, including red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. When this gene accumulates mutations—which might ...

Oncology & Cancer

New treatments found for tough blood cancers

Researchers from King's have identified a new way to treat certain blood cancers using existing drugs, by turning a once-dismissed part of our DNA into a therapeutic target.

Genetics

'Barcodes' written into DNA reveal how blood ages

A study in the journal Nature explains how age reshapes the blood system. In both humans and mice, a few stem cells, or "clones," outcompete their neighbors and gradually take over blood production. The blood stem cell reservoir ...

Oncology & Cancer

Genomic score predicts patients' progression to multiple myeloma

A new risk assessment score developed by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and Massachusetts General Hospital reveals how multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, begins ...

Genetics

Gene variant linked to higher risk of long COVID symptoms

An international team of researchers has found a genetic link to long-term symptoms after COVID-19. The identified gene variant is located close to the FOXP4 gene, which is known to affect lung function. The study, published ...

Oncology & Cancer

Genetic test can diagnose brain tumors in as little as two hours

Scientists and medics have developed an ultra-rapid method of genetically diagnosing brain tumors that will cut the time it takes to classify them from six to eight weeks, to as little as two hours—which could improve care ...

Genetics

How neurons survive botulinum neurotoxin type A exposure

In a comprehensive research study, scientists have uncovered a previously unknown mechanism explaining how neurons survive botulinum neurotoxin type A (BoNT/A) exposure, despite the toxin's powerful ability to block neurotransmission.