“Cataloging the Structural Variations in Human Genetics” 
(May 10) HHMI reports, “A major new effort to uncover the medium- and large-scale genetic differences between humans may soon reveal DNA sequences that contribute to a wide range of diseases, according to a paper by Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Evan Eichler and 17 colleagues published in the May 10, 2007, Nature.”
“University of Pittsburgh discovers genetic 'shut down' trigger in healthy immune cells”
(May 9) EurekAlert! reports, “A fundamental genetic mechanism that shuts down an important gene in healthy immune system cells has been discovered that could one day lead to new therapies against infections, leukemia and other cancers.”
“Walk-a-thon will help genetic disorder patients”
(May 9) CBS4 Denver reports, “Students at Kent Denver School are putting their best feet forward as the school hosts a 1.5 mile walk-a-thon for Prader-Willi Syndrome.”
“Genes take charge, and diets fall by the wayside”
(May 8) EurekAlert! reports, “It was 1959. Jules Hirsch, a research physician at Rockefeller University, had gotten curious about weight loss in the obese.”
“Genetic roots of bipolar disorder revealed by first genome-wide study of illness”
(May 8) EurekAlert! reports, “The likelihood of developing bipolar disorder depends in part on the combined, small effects of variations in many different genes in the brain, none of which is powerful enough to cause the disease by itself, a new study shows.”
“Loss of a single gene in kidney cancer cells causes them to stop making mitochondria”
(May 8) News-Medical.Net reports, “Studying a rare inherited syndrome, researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that cancer cells can reprogram themselves to turn down their own energy-making machinery and use less oxygen, and that these changes might help cancer cells survive and spread.”
“A look at a rare genetic disorder called CFC Syndrome”
(May 7) KSBY reports, “A ten year old Utah boy is getting ready to go to Florida to rendezvous with other kids, just like him, who have a rare genetic disorder.”
“Gene patenting -- steep cost for health care and patients”
(May 7) EurekAlert! reports, “The drug trastuzumab (Herceptin) is used to treat HER2-positive breast cancer (a type of breast cancer that overexpresses the HER2 gene and accounts for about 25% of all breast cancers).”
“Is there a genetic basis to race after all?”
(last accessed 2/2008)
(May 7) Discover reports, “Geneticists are uncovering another level of human ethnic diversity: It may not be which genes we have so much as the way they behave that accounts for our differences.”
“One genetic mutation heals another in blistering skin disease”
(May 7) Science Daily reports, “Mutations in the laminin beta 3 (LAMB3) gene cause the blistering skin disease epidermolysis bullosa (EB).”
“UCSF-led team receives $15 million to study genetics of epilepsy”
(May 7) Medical News Today reports, “A team led by UCSF scientists has received a grant of $15 million, provided over five years, to study the complex genetic factors that underlie some of the most common forms of epilepsy.”
“New hope for patients with premature aging condition progeria”
(May 6) News-Medical.Net reports, “There is renewed hope for treatment of a rare genetic condition that causes rapidly accelerated aging and leads to an average life expectancy of 13 years.”
“New gene discovered in human stem cells may benefit transplant patients”
(May 5) Medical News Today reports, “Oxford scientists have revealed a link between a gene and the activity of human blood stem cells, giving hope that stem cell transplant success for blood cancer patients may be significantly improved.”
“Major heart disease risk predicted by genes”
(May 4) Medical News Today reports, “Scientists in Canada have found a piece of DNA in the human genome that increases some people's risk of getting heart disease by up to 40 per cent, regardless of other factors such as cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes.”
“Researchers learn more about genetic mutation linked to autism”
(May 4) EurekAlert! reports, “University of Iowa researchers have learned more about a genetic mutation that contributes to autism.”
“DNA mutation raises heart disease risk in whites”
(last accessed 2/2008)
(May 3) Reuters Health reports, “hunt for genes has found that up to three quarters of people of European descent have DNA that raises their risk for heart disease -- and these genes are close to a stretch of DNA linked to diabetes.”
(last accessed 2/2008)
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