All Articles Tagged As: cancer

Cancer: 'Primitive' gene discovered (2/15/2010)

To find the causes for cancer, biochemists and developmental biologists at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, retraced the function of an important human cancer gene 600 million years back in time. For the first time, they have identified the oncogene myc in a fresh water polyp and they have shown that this oncogene has similar biochemical functions in ancestral metazoan and in humans. The scientists published their findings in PNAS. ...> Full Article

Researchers reveal connection between cancer and human evolution (7/9/2009)

Mutational patterns in mitochondrial genomes show functional importance of evolution and disease ...> Full Article

Gene switch sites found mainly on 'shores,' not just 'islands' of the human genome (1/21/2009)

Scientists who study how human chemistry can permanently turn off genes have typically focused on small islands of DNA believed to contain most of the chemical alterations involved in those switches. But after an epic tour of so-called DNA methylation sites across the human genome in normal and cancer cells, Johns Hopkins scientists have found that the vast majority of the sites aren't grouped in those islands at all, but on nearby regions that they've named "shores." ...> Full Article

How DNA Repairs Can Reshape Genome, Spawn New Species (8/15/2008)

Researchers have shown how broken sections of chromosomes can recombine to change genomes and spawn new species. ...> Full Article

The genetics of the white horse unraveled (7/22/2008)

Researchers have identified the mutation causing horse to be white in color and can be traced back to a common ancestor that lived thousands of years ago ...> Full Article

Can you hear me now? (7/9/2008)

>When it comes to cellular communication networks, a primitive single-celled microbe that answers to the name of Monosiga brevicollis has a leg up on animals composed of billions of cells. It commands a signaling network more elaborate and diverse than found in any multicellular organism higher up on the evolutionary tree ...> Full Article

Evolution Of Human Genome's 'Guardian' Gives People Unique Protections From DNA Damage (1/21/2008)

Human evolution has created enhancements in key genes connected to the p53 regulatory network -- the so-called guardian of the genome -- by creating additional safeguards in human genes to boost the network's ability to guard against DNA damage that could cause cancer or a variety of genetic diseases, an international team of scientists led by Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center writes in the Jan. 22 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Because genetically engineered mouse models are increasingly powerful tools in understanding the risks and mechanisms of human diseases -- and rodents do not have the same evolution-based safeguards in p53 function as humans -- the study also underscores the need for additional considerations in the interpretation of research using rodent models. ...> Full Article

Bacteria Use Plant Defence for Genetic Modification (10/23/2007)

Bacteria that cause tumours in plants modify plant genomes by skilfully exploiting the plants' first line of defence. ...> Full Article

Analysis Reveals Extent of DNA Repair Army (5/27/2007)

Cells have the remarkable ability to keep track of their genetic contents and - when things go wrong - to step in and repair the damage before cancer or another life-threatening condition develops. ...> Full Article

Unscrambling the Gibbon Genome (3/9/2007)

The arboreal, branch-swinging antics of the gibbon are nothing compared to the acrobatics its genome has undergone during evolution. While the genomes of humans and other primates still resemble that of their common ancestor, the massive genomic scrambling of the gibbon genome has rendered it a complex puzzle. Solving that puzzle, scientists believe, could help reveal how evolution experiments with genomic rearrangement, as well as how chromosomes can become unstable in cancer and other genetic diseases. ...> Full Article

Chemical signatures reveal genetic switches in the genome (3/5/2007)

Study uses ‘histone code’ for functional genome annotation ...> Full Article