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NHGRI-Related News

A listing of news releases from other National Institutes of Health (NIH) institutes and centers, academic and non-profit institutions, and scientists or scientific societies related to NHGRI-funded work.

NHGRI-Related News Archive

2008

• December 21, 2008: Ancient African exodus mostly involved men, geneticists find
  From Harvard Medical School: Modern humans left Africa over 60,000 years ago in a migration that many believe was responsible for nearly all of the human population that exist outside Africa today. Now, researchers from NHGRI - and others - have revealed that men and women weren't equal partners in that exodus.
  
  
• December 19, 2008: NHGRI, NIEHS, EPA Researchers Receive Award for Alternative Toxicity Testing
  From the Humane Society of the United States: An NIH collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to improve safety testing of chemicals and reduce reliance on animal testing was recognized with the North American Alternative Award, presented jointly by the U.S. Humane Society and Procter & Gamble on Dec. 17, 2008. NHGRI's Christopher Austin, M.D., director of the NIH Chemical Genomics Center, accepted the award for the center's collaboration with federal scientists from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The trans-agency collaboration, announced in February 2008, provides for the sample and the information-sharing necessary to more rapidly and effectively identify chemicals that might pose possible risks to the health of humans and animals, and to the environment.
  
  
• December 16, 2008: In just 5 years, gene discovery to clinical trial of potential treatment
  From American Society for Cell Biology: One of the fastest translations of a basic research discovery into a promising clinical trial for an "untreatable" and fatal disorder was discussed publicly for the first time by the key players on Dec. 14, at the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB)'s annual meeting. The disease is progeria, or Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS), a rare, accelerated aging disease that afflicts children. Research on progeria has been spearheaded by former NHGRI Director Francis S. Collins.
  
  
• December 15, 2008: Breast cancer genome shows evolution, instability of cancer
  From Baylor College of Medicine: A newly published genome sequence of a breast cancer cell line reveals a heavily rearranged genetic blueprint involving breaks and fusions of genes and a broken DNA repair machinery, said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears online in the journal Genome Research. The research is part of The Cancer Genome Atlas, a project managed by the NHGRI and the National Cancer Institute.
  
  
• December 11, 2008: Public expectations for return of results from large-cohort genetic research
  From the Genetics & Public Policy Center: Participants in a series of focus groups feel strongly that anyone taking part in a large-cohort genetic study should have access to their research results, according to a new paper in the American Journal of Bioethics. The National Human Genome Research Institute turned to the Genetics and Public Policy Center to conduct a pilot public consultation project, recognizing that dialogue with the public would be critical to the success of creating a biobank for access to individual research results.
  
  
• December 8, 2008: New genes present drug targets for managing cholesterol and glucose levels
  From the University of Michigan: A research team that includes NHGRI scientists has identified 12 new genes that are somewhat strange bedfellows. Some link gallstones and blood cholesterol levels, others link melatonin and sleep patterns to small increases in glucose levels and larger jumps in the risk of diabetes. While these associations are surprising, all the genes are potential new drug targets and some of them could help explain conditions that have been a mystery. On Dec. 8, Nature Genetics published two papers explaining the findings in advance of the January print edition.
  
  
• December 1, 2008: Powerful online tool for protein analysis provided pro bono by Stanford geneticist
  From Stanford University School of Medicine: Scientists around the world may benefit from a powerful new database, available for free online, that will help them to home in on the parts of proteins most necessary for their function. ProPhylER will enable researchers studying a protein, or the gene coding for it, to more easily figure out how it works and whether something might go wrong if the gene has a mutation. The development of the new database was funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute.
  
  
• November 19, 2008: Scientists Sequence Woolly-Mammoth Genome
  From Penn State, Eberly College of Science: Scientists at Penn State report sequencing the genome of an extinct animal: the woolly mammoth, an extinct species of elephant that was adapted to living in the cold environment of the northern hemisphere. The research was funded in part by the National Human Genome Research Institute.
  
  
• November 18, 2008: The International Cancer Genome Consortium announces the launch of 8 Cancer Genome Projects
  From the International Cancer Genome Consortium: The International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) announce the commitments of 11 funding organizations in eight countries to generate comprehensive, high-resolution analyses of genomic changes for eight forms of cancer found across the planet. The ICGC projects will complement the large U.S.-based project, The Cancer Genome Atlas, which is a joint effort of the National Cancer Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute.
  
  
• November 12, 2008: Survey Finds Wide Public Support for Nationwide Study Of Genes, Environment and Lifestyle
  From the Genetics and Public Policy Center: Four in five Americans support the idea of a nationwide study to investigate the interactions of genes, environment and lifestyle, and three in five say they would be willing to take part in such a study, according to a survey released today. The research was conducted by the Genetics & Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University with funding from the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health.
  
  
• November 5, 2008: Washington University scientists first to sequence genome of cancer patient
  From the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine: For the first time, scientists have decoded the complete DNA of a cancer patient and traced her disease - acute myelogenous leukemia - to its genetic roots. A large research team at the Genome Sequencing Center and the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis - funded in part by the National Human Genome Research Institute - sequenced the genome of the patient - a woman in her 50s who ultimately died of her disease - and the genome of her leukemia cells, to identify genetic changes unique to her cancer. The study is reported in the Nov. 6 issue of the journal Nature.
  
  
• September 29, 2008: NIH Announces Funding for New Epigenomics Initiative
  From the National Institutes of Health: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announces funding for the NIH Roadmap Epigenomics Program. The overall hypothesis of the program is that the origins of health and susceptibility to disease are, in part, the result of epigenetic regulation of the genetic blueprint. Researchers believe that understanding how and when epigenetic processes control genes during different stages of development and throughout life will lead to more effective ways to prevent and treat disease. The new program will use knowledge gained from the ongoing ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project led by the National Human Genome Research Institute - an effort to catalog the structural and functional elements in the human genome, which includes the study of specific signatures of change in histones and the correlation of these signatures with different genome functions.
  
  
• September 23, 2008: Methylation Levels Key to Glioblastoma Survival
  From the American Association for Cancer Research: A new study analyzing gene expression among patients with glioblastomas finds that not all of the common, deadly brain tumors appear the same upon closer examination. The research, directed by scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, utilized data from The Cancer Genome Atlas, a project organized by the National Cancer Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute.
  
  
• September 23, 2008: Worm Genome Offers Clues to Evolution of Parasitism
  From the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis: The genome of a humble worm that dines on the microbial organisms covering the carcasses of dead beetles may provide clues to the evolution of parasitic worms, including those that infect humans, say scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Max-Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Germany.
  
  
• September 19, 2008: Genetic Fishing Expedition Yields Surprising Catch Important to Mammals
  From the Johns Hopkins Medicine: Johns Hopkins investigators report the discovery of master controllers of a gene critical to human and all mammalian development by trawling, implausibly enough, through anonymous genetic sequences using tiny zebrafish embryos.
  
  
• September 9, 2008: Genetic Region Linked to a Five Times Higher Lung Cancer Risk
  From the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis: A narrow region on chromosome 15 contains genetic variations strongly associated with familial lung cancer, says a study conducted by scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and other institutions in the United States and the United Kingdom, and funded in part by the National Human Genome Research Institute.
  
  
• September 4, 2008: Thumbs Up — A Tiny Ancestral Remnant Lends Developmental Edge to Humans
  From the DOE Joint Genome Institute: Subtle genetic changes that confer an evolutionary advantage upon a species, such as the dexterity characteristic of the human hand, while difficult to detect and even harder to reproduce in a model system, have nevertheless generated keen interest amongst evolutionary biologists.
  
  
• August 27, 2008 : Low Levels of Brain Chemical May Lead to Obesity, NIH Study of Rare Disorder Shows
  From the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development: A brain chemical that plays a role in long term memory also appears to be involved in regulating how much people eat and their likelihood of becoming obese, according to a National Institutes of Health study of a rare genetic condition.
  
  
• August 11, 2008: UA Receives $1.4 Million NIH Training Grant to Study Genes, the Environment, and Human Health
  From the University of Arizona: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded The University of Arizona (UA) a five-year, $1.4 million grant to create a multidisciplinary "training ground" that will give student researchers the expertise to better understand how genes and the environment interact to affect human health — skills that could one day improve our ability to treat and prevent diseases such as diabetes and asthma.
  
  
• July 23, 2008: Victor A. McKusick, M.D., "Father of Medical Genetics," 1921-2008
  From Johns Hopkins Medicine: Victor Almon McKusick, M.D., University Professor of Medical Genetics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, one of the two distinguished Johns Hopkins geneticists for whom the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine was named, and a towering international figure in genetics research, diagnosis and treatment, died Tuesday, July 22 at home. He was 86.
  
  
• April 21, 2008: DNA Day Ambassadors Reach Out to North Carolina High Schools
  From the University of North Carolina: On April 25, young scientists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, more than 200 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in medicine and science from several universities, will visit almost 180 schools as part of DNA Day, an annual commemoration of two key scientific breakthroughs - the discovery of DNA's double helix in 1953, and the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003.
  
  
• April 17, 2008: Charting the Epigenome: Salk Researchers Zoom in on Genome-Wide DNA Methylation and Transcriptomes at Single Base Resolution
  From the Salk Institute for Biological Studies: New high-throughput DNA sequencing technology has enabled researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies to map the precise position of individual DNA modifications throughout the genome of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana, and chart its effect on the activity of any of Arabidopsis' roughly 26,000 genes. The work was supported in part by grants from the National Human Genome Research Institute.
  
  
• April 9, 2008: Leading Geneticist Francis Collins Named First Recipient of the Inamori Ethics Prize at Case Western Reserve University
  From Case Western Reserve University: Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., a physician-geneticist and leader of the Human Genome Project, has been named recipient of the inaugural Inamori Ethics Prize from the Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence at Case Western Reserve University.
  
  
  • Learn more: NHGRI Director to Receive International Ethics Prize
    
    
• April 4, 2008: GenBank Celebrates 25 Years of Service with Two-Day Conference; Leading Scientists Will Discuss the DNA Database at April 7-8 Meeting
  From the National Institutes of Health (NIH): In celebration of GenBank and its contribution to science over the last 25 years, the National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, NIH, is holding a two-day conference to take place April 7-8, 2008 at the Natcher Conference Center on the main NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland. NHGRI Director Dr. Francis S. Collins is a featured speaker at the conference.
  
  
• April 3, 2008: NIDA Researchers Identify Genetic Variant Linked to Nicotine Addiction and Lung Cancer
  From the National Institute on Drug Abuse: In a study published in the April 3 issue of the journal Nature, scientists identify a genetic variant that not only makes smokers more susceptible to nicotine addiction but also increases their risk of developing two smoking-related diseases, lung cancer and peripheral arterial disease. The research was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The same variant was identified as one that increased risk for lung cancer in two other articles appearing in the April 3rd, 2008, issues of Nature and Nature Genetics, partially funded by two other NIH institutes - the National Cancer Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute.
  
  
• March 25, 2008: Scientists Launch First Comprehensive Database of Human Oral Microbiome
  From the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research: Scientists know more today than ever before about the microbes that inhabit our mouths. They know so much, in fact, that gathering all of the relevant bits of information into one place when designing experiments can be a labor-intensive job in itself.
  
  
• March 24, 2008: First Beetle Genome Sequenced
  From Baylor College of Medicine: Sequencing the genome of the red flour beetle, also known as Tribolium castaneum, could prove of double benefit - both in understanding how organisms develop and in fighting the insect pest, said a researcher at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston who was part of the international consortium that published the genetic sequence in the current issue of the journal Nature.
  
  
• February 25, 2008: Center to Hold Town Halls on Genes, Environment, and Your Health in Five U.S. Cities
  From the Genetics and Public Policy Center: The Genetics and Public Policy Center will conduct a series of public town hall meetings to gather feedback from the public on their views related to a proposed large cohort study on the role of genes and environment in health. The town halls are part of a public consultation effort to inform the National Institutes of Health and other federal health agencies' discussions as they decide whether and how such a study might go forward.
  
  
• January 25, 2008: Search for the 'On' Switches May Reveal Genetic Role in Development and Disease
  From Duke University Medical Center News: A new resource that identifies regions of the human genome that regulate gene expression may help scientists learn about and develop treatments for a number of human diseases, according to researchers at Duke's Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy (IGSP).
  
  

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Last Updated: December 22, 2008