Genetics & Molecular Biology
A biomarker found in the blood of alcohol users is significantly higher in binge drinkers than in those who consume alcohol moderately, according to a study by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The biomarker, called phosphatidylethanol (PEth), could be used to screen young adults for harmful or heavy drinking such as binge drinking.
Having performed extensive research on alcohol and its effects on health throughout her career, Mariann Piano, professor and head of the department of biobehavioral health science in the UIC College of Nursing, knew PEth is a biomarker…
Are you really what your mother ate, drank or got stressed about? The simple answer is “no”, but not in the way you think.
We are products of nature via nurture. Our genes and environments interact. And “environment” can be what we are experiencing now or at any time during our life.
An overwhelming body of evidence, from both humans and other animals, has shown that the environment we experience in the first 1,000 days of life influences our risk of chronic diseases: conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, psychiatric disorders and some cancers.
Changes to epigenetics – molecules that…
A new study suggests that a single set of genes affects a person's perception of sweet taste, regardless of whether the sweetener is a natural sugar or a non-caloric sugar substitute.
In the study, published in Twin Research and Human Genetics, researchers tested 243 pairs of monozygotic (MZ, or identical) twins, 452 pairs of dizygotic (DZ, or fraternal) twins, and 511 unpaired individuals. Identical twins have nearly identical genes while fraternal twins share only about half of their genes. Studying twin pairs allowed the researchers to determine how much influence the twins' shared…
Johanna Olson, MD, and her colleagues at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, provide care for the largest number of transgendered youth in the U.S. and have enrolled 101 patients in a prospective observational study to determine the safety and efficacy of treatment that helps patients bring their bodies into closer alignment with their chosen gender.
Baseline characteristics of these individuals were published on July 21 in the Journal of Adolescent Health and include a significant finding: transgendered individuals have sex hormone levels consistent with the gender they were born with.
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Researchers have identified a genetic mutation associated with the appearance of premature aging and severe loss of body fat in children.
Researchers at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) Center for Rare Childhood Disorders found that the appearance of premature aging, a neonatal form of Progeroid syndrome, in a 3-year-old girl was caused by a mutation in the gene CAV1, according to a study published in PLOS ONE.
The Center for Rare Childhood Disorders was established in 2010 to examine the genetic basis of disease in children with medical conditions that have no…
The human organism contains hundreds of distinct cell types that often differ from their neighbors in shape and function. To acquire and maintain its characteristic features, each cell type must express a unique subset of genes. Neurons, the functional units of our brain, develop through differentiation of neuronal precursors, a process that depends on coordinated activation of hundreds and possibly thousands of neuron-specific genes.
A new study unravels how this synchrony is achieved at the molecular level. The researchers found that many RNA messengers encoding neuronal proteins contain…
According to the World Health Organization, clinical depression carries the second heaviest burden of disability among all medical conditions worldwide (around 350 million people) and accounts for more than 8 percent of all U.S. years lived with disability.
The findings of a recent study could potentially lead to new ways to predict risk for depression and treatments for the disease, using genome-wide association studies.
Major depression is one of the most common mental disorders in the U.S., according to the National Institute of Mental Health. In 2012, an estimated 16…
A group of scientists at SISSA have proposed a quick alternative for predicting the internal dynamics of RNA molecules (how the different parts move in relation to each other). Their simple solution, which uses beads and springs, provides similar results to other, more complex and expensive techniques for analyzing molecules that are currently in use.
It is called The Elastic Network Model (ENM) and it can predict the internal dynamics of RNA molecules in nearly real time (processing takes just a few seconds). To understand RNA functioning, it is useful to know the composition of the…
Collectively, diseases of the airways such as emphysema, bronchitis, asthma, and cystic fibrosis are the second leading cause of death worldwide.
More than 35 million Americans alone suffer from chronic respiratory disease. Weizmann Institute of Science researchers have now proposed a new direction that could, in the future, lead to the development of a method for alleviating some of the suffering of these patients. The study’s findings show how it might be possible to use embryonic stem cells to repair damaged lung tissue.
The research began with an insight: Certain stem cells that normally…
The world population, which stood at 5 billion in 1950, will likely increase to 10.5 billion by 2050, meaning that the planet’s population will have doubled within the lifetimes of many people alive today.
Beginning in the 1960s, environmental groups and their Doomsday Prophets, including Berkeley's Dr. Paul Ehrlich and current U.S. White House Science 'Czar' Dr. John Holdren, began projecting food riots and mass starvation and advocated for forced sterilization and other schemes to stave off the apocalypse.
Instead, scientists simply optimized food. Dr. Norman Borlaug, one…