news archive genetic news - January 13, 2009

January 13, 2009

your information resource in human molecular genetics

-	Cancer Stem Cells Leave Their Mark Inappropriate activation of a signalling pathway in intestinal stem cells causes them to become cancerous.
-	Stem Cells and Disease Modelling Scientists have generated pluripotent stem cells from the skin cells of a patient with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), and show that these cells can be used to model the specific pathology for inherited diseases.
-	Cell-Cycle Restriction Helps Leukaemia Stem Cells Keep Going A protein that aids the survival of cancer-causing stem cells is described.
-	Hijacked Pathway Contributes to Cancer Spread Lung cancer cells hijack immune system signalling pathways to stimulate metastasis.
-	Arrestin' Insulin Resistance The protein beta-arrestin-2 helps ensure efficient insulin signalling by scaffolding key enzymes to the insulin receptor.
-	Natural Killer Cells Never Forget A study reports that certain cells of the innate immune system can 'remember' infectious agents - an ability previously only attributed to cells of the adaptive immune system.
-	Breaking Through the Barrier A non-invasive method to deliver genes to the central nervous system in mice is reported online.
-	Clearing Plaques In Blood Vessels In Alzheimer's Disease Scientists have uncovered the role of two critical proteins that negatively affect the clearance of amyloid beta in the brain, the accumulation of which is thought to lead to the development of Alzheimer's disease.
-	Rotaviruses Stick to Sugars Sugar molecules on the surface of host cells are linked to all rotavirus infections.
-	New Mechanism For Genetic Hair Loss Mutations that reduce the function of a small, previously unknown peptide cause a rare form of genetic hair loss.
-	Common Mutation Underlying Epilepsy Identified A deletion on chromosome 15 is the most prevalent risk factor for common epilepsies identified to date.
-	Female-Specific Genetic Risk Factor for Alzheimer's Disease A variant in a gene on the X chromosome is associated with increased risk of Alzheimer's disease specifically in women, according to a study published online.
-	A Chip for Efficient Cell Fusion A device that enables efficient pairing and fusion of cells and allows easy observation of the process is presented in a study.
-	Prions and Smell Study finds that Prions help us to distinguish odours.
-	Higher Heart Rate May Predict Obesity Paper reports that a higher heart rate has been shown to predict obesity that manifests 20 years later.
-	Increases in Melanoma Rising rates of melanoma cannot be attributed to better screening and detection of thin melanomas, according to a published paper.