Procedure would swap the nucleus of a mother’s egg containing mutated genes into a donor’s The donor’s normal mitochondria replaces the mother’s defective mitochondria containing mutated DNA Donor’s genes would amount to 1 per cent of the embryo’s genes and… Read More ›
dna
Scientists build ‘mechanically active’ DNA material
Contact: Melissa Van De Werfhorst melissa@engineering.ucsb.edu 805-893-4301 University of California – Santa Barbara Researchers at UC Santa Barbara designed a ‘smart’ material made of DNA that responds with movement when stimulated Artificial muscles and self-propelled goo… Read More ›
‘Cannabis alters human DNA’ — new study
2009 study posted for filing Contact: Rajinder Singh 44-116-223-1827 University of Leicester Research at University of Leicester highlights cancer risk from cannabis smoke A new study published by University of Leicester researchers has found “convincing evidence” that cannabis smoke damages… Read More ›
Bisphenol A exposure in pregnant mice permanently changes DNA of offspring
2009 study posted for filing Contact: Aaron Lohr alohr@endo-society.org 240-482-1380 The Endocrine Society Exposure during pregnancy to the chemical bisphenol A, or BPA, found in many common plastic household items, is known to cause a fertility defect in the mother’s… Read More ›
59th Health Research Report 23 JUN 2009 – Reconstruction
Editors top five: 1. Eli Lilly and Zyprexa Under the Spotlight (criminal activity) 2. Dioxins in Food Chain Linked to Breastfeeding Ills 3. Children susceptible to pesticides longer than expected, study finds 4. ‘Cannabis alters human DNA’ — new… Read More ›
Synthetic biology raises playing God fears
Nitin Sethi, TNN Oct 19, 2012, 02.08AM IST HYDERABAD: Is it safe to let humans play God and create new organisms – animals and plants – that have never existed in Mother Nature? The ongoing UN Convention on Biodiversity here… Read More ›
First-Of-Its-Kind Self-Assembled Nanoparticle for Targeted and Triggered Thermo-Chemotherapy
ScienceDaily (Oct. 18, 2012) — Excitement around the potential for targeted nanoparticles (NPs) that can be controlled by stimulus outside of the body for cancer therapy has been growing over the past few years. More specifically, there has been considerable… Read More ›
100 reasons to change the way we think about genetics : Epigenetic inheritance passed down through generations not all through DNA
2009 study posted for filing Contact: Kevin Stacey kstacey@press.uchicago.edu 773-834-0386 University of Chicago Press Journals Article reviews evidence for epigenetic inheritance in wide range of species For years, genes have been considered the one and only way biological traits could… Read More ›
The Military Is Building Integrated Hybrid Living-Nonliving Robotic Organisms
Geoffrey Ingersoll|Oct. 16, 2012, 12:41 PM|1,624|7 In a request released Sept. 14 of this year, the Office Of Naval Research sought to find proposals for “Synthetic Biology Tools for Sensing and Bioprocessing” — essentially hybrid, organic inorganic “sensing” robots. But… Read More ›
Mother Nature, Version 2.0
Welcome to the world of synthetic biology, where micro-organisms can be programmed to invade and destroy cancer cells By SCOTT GOTTLIEB It once seemed that the most profound feats stemming from DNA-based science would spring from our ability to read… Read More ›
A complex logic circuit made from bacterial genes
The circuit is designed to act as the controller in synthetic bacteria that monitor and modify their environment . October 12, 2012 By Diana Lutz . . Just as electronic circuits are made from resistors, capacitors and transistors, biological circuits… Read More ›
Diverse intestinal viruses may play a role in AIDS progression
Contact: Elisabeth Lyons elyons@cell.com 617-386-2121 Cell Press In monkeys and humans with AIDS, damage to the gastrointestinal tract is common, contributing to activation of the immune system, progressive immune deficiency, and ultimately advanced AIDS. How this gastric damage occurs has… Read More ›
Team builds most complex synthetic biology circuit yet
Mon, 10/08/2012 – 7:39am Using genes as interchangeable parts, synthetic biologists design cellular circuits that can perform new functions, such as sensing environmental conditions. However, the complexity that can be achieved in such circuits has been limited by a critical… Read More ›
How synthetic biology will change us
By Alan Boyle October 4, 2012, 7:05 pm NBCNews.com Lisa Poole / AP file Harvard geneticist George Church shows off the DNA sequence of a colleague. In the future, genetically modified organisms could be making our medicines, our fuel, our… Read More ›
Omega-3 Supplements May Slow A Biological Effect of Aging
10/1/12 COLUMBUS, Ohio – Taking enough omega-3 fatty acid supplements to change the balance of oils in the diet could slow a key biological process linked to aging, new research suggests. The study showed that most overweight but healthy middle-aged… Read More ›
Nanosciences: All Systems Go at the Biofactory: Should furnish a way to develop, construct and utilize designer nanomachines
In order to assemble novel biomolecular machines, individual protein molecules must be installed at their site of operation with nanometer precision. LMU researchers have now found a way to do just that. Green light on protein assembly! (Credit: Image courtesy… Read More ›
Bioengineers Introduce ‘Bi-Fi’ — The Biological ‘Internet’
ScienceDaily (Sep. 27, 2012) — If you were a bacterium, the virus M13 might seem innocuous enough. It insinuates more than it invades, setting up shop like a freeloading houseguest, not a killer. Once inside it makes itself at home,… Read More ›
Common cancer treatments may create dangerous cancer stem cells
By Charles Q. Choi Published September 27, 2012| MyHealthNewsDaily Radiation therapy and chemotherapy aimed at killing cancer cells may have the undesirable effect of helping to create cancer stem cells, which are thought to be particularly adept at generating… Read More ›
41st Health Research Report 14 SEP 2008 – Recontsruction
Editors Top Five: 1. St. John’s wort relieves symptoms of major depression 2. New Study on Effects of Disclosing Financial Interests on Participation in Medical Research 3. Flu vaccine not associated with reduced hospitalizations or outpatient visits among… Read More ›
“Biohackers” or “DIY Biologists”, Teams have come together to create the world’s first “public BioBrick”
Amateur scientists build Lego-style synthetic BioBricks in public lab By Joel Winston 24 September 12 While some may believe that science is better left to scientists, hundreds of amateur biologists around the world have been setting-up makeshift biology labs in… Read More ›
New research suggests diabetes transmitted from parents to children
2008 posted for filing Contact: Nick Zagorski nzagorski@asbmb.org 301-634-7366 American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology An unusual form of inheritance may have a role in the rising rate of diabetes, especially in children and young adults, in the United… Read More ›
Addictive properties of drug abuse may hold key to an HIV cure, Florida State University biologist believes
September 21, 2012 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2012 Addictive properties of certain drugs may hold key to an HIV cure Tom Butler 09/12/2012 2:02 pm A Florida State University researcher is on a mission to explore the gene-controlling effects of addictive… Read More ›
Europe Scraps Airports Scanners… cause cancer
Monday, 17 September 2012 Controversial airport ‘strip-search’ scanners are to be scrapped after they failed to get approval from European bosses. Experts feared the ‘naked’ body scanners, which use X-ray technology to show up hidden explosives or weapons, could emit… Read More ›
A mother’s nutrition–before pregnancy–may alter the function of her children’s genes
Contact: cmooneyhan@faseb.org cmooneyhan@faseb.org 301-634-7104 Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology New research in The FASEB Journal shows that diet induces epigenetic changes in female mice before pregnancy that are inherited by her pups Bethesda, MD—Everyone knows that what mom… Read More ›
Can we engineer love and morality?
By RICHARD WEIKART The Modesto Bee Published: Sunday, Sep. 16, 2012 – 1:00 am Recently Oxford philosophy professor Julian Savulescu moved his campaign for “moral enhancement” out of the ivory tower and into the mainstream. This month Reader’s Digest… Read More ›
The epigenetics of increasing weight through the generations ” resulting in amplification of obesity across generations “
Re-Post from 2008 Contact: Dipali Pathak pathak@bcm.edu 713-798-4710 Baylor College of Medicine Overweight mothers give birth to offspring who become even heavier, resulting in amplification of obesity across generations, said Baylor College of Medicine researchers in Houston who found that… Read More ›
Scores at risk as new breed of mosquito foils malaria prevention methods: There is NO KNOWN DNA match
Published: 16 September, 2012, 21:14 Annual deaths could jump by the hundreds of thousands because of a new species of mosquito, which bites people in the early evening rather than at night, making bed nets useless in the battle against… Read More ›
A fertility treatment which eliminates hereditary disease by engineering babies to carry healthy DNA from a third biological parent could be legalised next year.
‘Three-parent baby’ fertility technique could be made legal DNA sequence transparency Photo: ALAMY By Nick Collins, Science Correspondent 12:01AM BST 17 Sep 2012 Members of the public are being asked whether families with a genetic risk of incurable conditions… Read More ›
Police could create image of suspect’s face from DNA
11:40 14 September 2012 by Andy Coghlan For similar stories, visit the Genetics Topic Guide Police may one day be able to reconstruct the shape of a suspect’s face from their DNA. The possibility is drawing closer thanks to identification… Read More ›
New Research on “Junk” DNA Raises Questions on Eve of Crucial Court Hearing
On September 19, the Ninth Circuit is set to hear new arguments in Haskell v. Harris, a case challenging California’s warrantless DNA collection program. Today EFF asked the court to consider ground-breaking new research that confirms for the first time… Read More ›
The good news in our DNA: Defects you can fix with vitamins and minerals
2008 Re-Post for filing Contact: Robert Sanders rsanders@berkeley.edu 510-643-6998 University of California – Berkeley Personal genomes may lead to personalized vitamin supplements Berkeley — As the cost of sequencing a single human genome drops rapidly, with one company predicting a… Read More ›
32nd Health Research Report 11 JUN 2008 – Reconstructed
32nd Health Research Report 11 JUN 2008 – Reconstructed Editors Top Five: 1. US reporters often do a poor job of reporting about new medical treatments 2. Pycnogenol improved diabetes control and reduced antihypertensive medications 3. How advanced prostate cancer… Read More ›
Breast cancer risks acquired in pregnancy may pass to next 3 generations
Contact: John Pastor jdpastor@vt.edu 540-231-5646 Virginia Tech Chemicals or foods that raise estrogen levels during pregnancy may increase cancer risk in daughters, granddaughters, and even great-granddaughters, according to scientists from Virginia Tech and Georgetown University. Pregnant rats on a diet… Read More ›
Plant flavonoid found to reduce inflammatory response in the brain: luteolin
Contact: Diana Yates diya@illinois.edu 217-333-5802 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign IMAGE:Animal sciences professor Rodney Johnson, and graduate student Saebyeol Jang found that a plant flavonoid, luteolin, inhibited a key pathway in the inflammatory response of microglia. Click here for more… Read More ›
A genetic blueprint of your unborn baby
08 September 2012 by Harriet A. Washington Sequencing the whole genome of a fetus could provide a medical early warning on a previously unknown scale – but it also brings dilemmas, says Harriet A. Washington BOY or girl? This you… Read More ›
137th Health Research Report 07 SEP 2008
Full Report at www.healthresearchreport.me Editors Top Five: 1. Study Finds How BPA Affects Gene Expression, Anxiety; Soy Mitigates Effects 2. Vitamin B3 may offer new tool in fight against ‘superbugs’ 3. Johns Hopkins team finds ICU misdiagnoses may account for… Read More ›
Viruses for a healthy pregnancy
Contact: Lucy Goodchild l.goodchild@sgm.ac.uk 44-011-898-81843 Society for General Microbiology Sequences of DNA in the human genome that originated from ancient viral infections have some surprising effects on our bodies and are even essential for a healthy pregnancy, according to an… Read More ›
Scientists create a virus that reproduces
By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY It is the stuff of science fiction and bioethical debates: The creation of artificial life. Up until now, it’s largely been just that. But an important technical bridge towards the creation of such life was… Read More ›
Environmental toxicants causing ovarian disease across generations
Contact: Michael Skinner skinner@wsu.edu 509-335-1524 Washington State University WSU researchers expand research on environmental epigenetics and ovarian disease PULLMAN, Wash.—Washington State University researchers have found that ovarian disease can result from exposures to a wide range of environmental chemicals and… Read More ›
Inositol and inositol hexaphosphate could provide all-purpose radiation protection
Antioxidants could provide all-purpose radiation protection Findings from the AACR Centennial Conference on Translational Cancer Medicine: From Technology to Treatment Singapore, Nov. 4-8, 2007 SINGAPORE — Two common dietary molecules found in legumes and bran could protect DNA… Read More ›
Antiviral drugs could make diseases worse – By Speeding up the Mutation Rates, Helping Create Super Viruses
Contact: Tracey DePellegrin Connelly td2p@andrew.cmu.edu 412-268-1812 Genetics Society of America New study raises the possibility that some antiviral drugs could make diseases worse Research published in the journal Genetics suggests that mutagenic drugs designed to kill viruses may make them… Read More ›
Why sex could be history – George Orwell maybe Right
From artificial wombs to men and women being able to reproduce entirely alone, Aarathi Prasad says science is rewriting the rules of sex and human reproduction. What would that mean for our ideas of family and parenthood Over tea at… Read More ›
Poxviruses defeat antiviral defenses by duplicating a gene – Engineered an E3L-deficient strain that was quickly able to increase infectious virus production by selectively increasing the number of copies of the K3L gene in its genome
Contact: Phil Sahm phil.sahm@hsc.utah.edu 801-581-2517 University of Utah Health Sciences Study helps explain how large DNA viruses undergo rapid evolution SALT LAKE CITY – Scientists have discovered that poxviruses, which are responsible for smallpox and other diseases, can adapt to… Read More ›
Citrus compounds called limonoids targeted and stopped neuroblastoma cells in the lab.
Contact: Kathleen Phillips ka-phillips@tamu.edu 979-845-2872 Texas A&M AgriLife Communications Citrus shows promise for certain childhood cancer COLLEGE STATION – Orange juice and cancer don’t mix. In fact, the popular citrus drink could become a cocktail to prevent or stop the… Read More ›
Radioprotection and extracts of Ginko biloba
Contact: Chang-Mo Kang kangcm@kcch.re.kr Inderscience Publishers Herbal tonic for radiotherapy Antioxidant extracts of the leaves of the Gingko biloba tree may protect cells from radiation damage, according to a study published in the International Journal of Low Radiation. The discovery… Read More ›
Traditional herbal medicine kills pancreatic cancer cells, Jefferson researchers report (2nd Confirmation)
(PHILADELPHIA) An herb used in traditional medicine by many Middle Eastern countries may help in the fight against pancreatic cancer, one of the most difficult cancers to treat. Researchers at the Kimmel Cancer at Jefferson in Philadelphia have found that… Read More ›
Chemotherapy causes a 30 Fold Increase in WNT16B which drives more cancer and resistance (2nd Confirmation)
Public release date: 5-Aug-2012 [ Contact: Kristen Woodward kwoodwar@fhcrc.org 206-667-5095 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Researchers discover new mechanism behind resistance to cancer treatment Finding could lead to development of better therapies SEATTLE – Developing resistance to chemotherapy is a… Read More ›
Chemotherapy contributes to relapse in cancer patients by damaging DNA and generating new mutations that allow tumor cells to evolve and become resistant to treatment.
The chemotherapy drugs required to push a common form of adult leukemia into remission may contribute to DNA damage that can lead to a relapse of the disease in some patients, findings of a new study suggest. The research, by… Read More ›
Study shows why synthetic estrogens wreak havoc on reproductive system
Researchers at Yale School of Medicine now have a clearer understanding of why synthetic estrogens such as those found in many widely-used plastics have a detrimental effect on a developing fetus, cause fertility problems, as well as vaginal and breast… Read More ›
Engineering Evil 