Minecraft FTB "Horizon" LP-EP08 "Advanced genetics"
Episode number 8 we hop into the technics of DNA and genetics!

By: TheDannezz

Read more:
Minecraft FTB "Horizon" LP-EP08 "Advanced genetics" - Video

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Genetics - Trinity Open Day 2013
A talk from Genetics at the Undergraduate Open Day, December 2013, Trinity College Dublin. http://www.tcd.ie/courses.

By: TRINITYCOLLEGEDUBLIN

View original post here:
Genetics - Trinity Open Day 2013 - Video

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Advances in Cattle Genetics
Knowing the genetics of your cattle is getting easier. Livestock genetics consultant Sean McGrath explains how experts can tell you the genetic traits of you...

By: FCCTVonline

Excerpt from:
Advances in Cattle Genetics - Video

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Scott Bill O #39;Malley Show: Genetics ReUpload Finalized
Cast: Dusan, Chris, Jesus, Nathan Sorry the audio is a bit soft at the end... Please raise volume at 5:56.

By: vicodinfriendly

Originally posted here:
Scott Bill O'Malley Show: Genetics ReUpload Finalized - Video

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

This article is about chimerism in animals. For chimerism in plants, see Chimera (plant).

Most organisms produced by sexual reproduction have at most two parents, one providing an egg and one providing sperm. However, sometimes fertilized eggs merge to form organisms with two sets of parents, giving them tissues that are a mixture of different genetic inheritance. This can result in male and female organs, two different blood types, or subtle variations in form. [1] Normally, chimerism is not visible on casual inspection; however, it has been detected in the course of proving parentage.

Another way that chimerism can occur is by organ transplantation, giving one individual tissues that developed from two different genomes. For example, a bone marrow transplant can change someone's blood type.

A chimera or chimaera is a single organism (usually an animal) that is composed of two or more different populations of genetically distinct cells that originated from different zygotes involved in sexual reproduction. If the different cells have emerged from the same zygote, the organism is called a mosaic. Chimeras are formed from at least four parent cells (two fertilized eggs or early embryos fused together). Each population of cells keeps its own character and the resulting organism is a mixture of tissues. Chimeras are typically seen in animals; there are some reports of human chimerism.[1]

This condition is either inherited or it is acquired through the infusion of allogeneic hematopoietic cells during transplantation or transfusion. In nonidentical twins, chimerism occurs by means of blood-vessel anastomoses. The likelihood of offspring being a chimera is increased if it is created via in vitro fertilization[citation needed]. Chimeras can often breed, but the fertility and type of offspring depends on which cell line gave rise to the ovaries or testes; varying degrees of intersexuality may result if one set of cells is genetically female and another genetically male.

Tetragametic chimerism is a form of congenital chimerism. This condition occurs through the fertilization of two separate ova by two sperm, followed by the fusion of the two at the blastocyst or zygote stages. This results in the development of an organism with intermingled cell lines. Put another way, the chimera is formed from the merging of two nonidentical twins (although a similar merging presumably occurs with identical twins, but as their DNA is almost identical, the presence would not be immediately detectable in a very early (zygote or blastocyst) phase). As such, they can be male, female, or hermaphroditic.

As the organism develops, it can come to possess organs that have different sets of chromosomes. For example, the chimera may have a liver composed of cells with one set of chromosomes and have a kidney composed of cells with a second set of chromosomes. This has occurred in humans, and at one time was thought to be extremely rare, though more recent evidence suggests that it is not as rare as previously believed.[1][2]

This is particularly true for the marmoset. Recent research shows most marmosets are chimeras, sharing DNA with their fraternal twins.[3] 95% of Marmoset fraternal twins trade blood through chorionic fusions, making them hematopoietic chimeras. [4][5]

Most chimeras will go through life without realizing they are chimeras. The difference in phenotypes may be subtle (e.g., having a hitchhiker's thumb and a straight thumb, eyes of slightly different colors, differential hair growth on opposite sides of the body, etc.) or completely undetectable. Chimeras may also show, under a certain spectrum of UV light, distinctive marks on the back resembling that of arrow points pointing downwards from the shoulders down to the lower back; this is one expression of pigment unevenness called Blaschko's lines.[6]

Affected persons may be identified by the finding of two populations of red cells or, if the zygotes are of opposite sex, ambiguous genitalia and hermaphroditism alone or in combination; such persons sometimes also have patchy skin, hair, or eye pigmentation (heterochromia). If the blastocysts are of opposite sex, genitals of both sexes may be formed, either ovary and testis, or combined ovotestes, in one rare form of intersexuality, a condition previously known as true hermaphroditism.

Read more from the original source:
Chimera (genetics) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

GENE THERAPY PROF WAGIH P5

By: Asmaa Alhazmi

More:
GENE THERAPY PROF WAGIH P5 - Video

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

GENE THERAPY PROF WAGIH P1

By: Asmaa Alhazmi

Read the original:
GENE THERAPY PROF WAGIH P1 - Video

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Understanding Advances in Gene Therapy
Could a blood cancer patient #39;s own immune cells soon be used to fight their cancer? In chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) gene therapy, T-cells are taken from a...

By: patientpower

View original post here:
Understanding Advances in Gene Therapy - Video

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Partner Driven Cooperation, Botswana - Reclaiming life after a spinal cord injury
Less than two years ago, military police officer Edward Dhliwayo rolled his car and incurred a spinal cord injury that has permanently paralysed him from the...

By: Sida Sverige

See the original post here:
Partner Driven Cooperation, Botswana - Reclaiming life after a spinal cord injury - Video

Recommendation and review posted by sam

Romy Camargo: Stay In Step: Spinal Cord Injury Recovery Center
http://gbfsupport.org/stay-in-step/ Help Green Beret Romy Camargo and his wife Gaby create a center for spinal cord injury victims by contributing to Stay In...

By: ClickStartMe

Originally posted here:
Romy Camargo: Stay In Step: Spinal Cord Injury Recovery Center - Video

Recommendation and review posted by sam

Regenerative Medicine Results on dog with OsteoArhtritis
VivaBiocell is a spin-off from the University of Udine (Italy) and has achieved excellent results for the treatment of osteoarthritis in animals, based on da...

By: Vivabiocell OA treatment for dogs Results

Continued here:
Regenerative Medicine Results on dog with OsteoArhtritis - Video

Recommendation and review posted by sam

Dorothy Roberts: Race Medicine
Race Medicine: Treating Health Inequities from Slavery to the Genomic Age Dorothy Roberts is the fourteenth Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor, George A. We...

By: Brown University

Read more from the original source:
Dorothy Roberts: Race Medicine - Video

Recommendation and review posted by sam

Keith Leishman, a retired RCMP staff sergeant and former CSIS officer, was sent on a critical international mission this year but not the kind youd think.

It had nothing to so with detective work or espionage: Leishman completed a high-stakes medical mission as a volunteer bone marrow stem cell courier.

The 72-year-old South Surrey resident is one of a dozen retired Mounties recruited and trained by the Bruce Denniston Bone Marrow Society to make crucial deliveries of human tissue to B.C. patients awaiting life-saving treatments.

The Bone Marrow Courier Program was set up by the Society and Vancouver Coastal Health in 2012. Formerly, Vancouver General Hospital staff served as couriers, but as more treatments were performed, some staff were away 50 per cent of the year. And, it was costly.

Because of the delicate nature of human tissue transport, not just any volunteer would do. Yet retired Mounties have experience with stressful operations, understand the importance of securing evidence and confidentiality, and are accustomed to dealing calmly and authoritatively with security.

One of the advantages they see with RCMP officers is the experience they have with continuity of possession, Leishman explained. Just like you take a piece of evidence, once we take possession of those stem cells they cant leave our sight until we turn them over at the lab at VGH. There is a very strict protocol in place.

Deliveries must be made within 72 hours of removal from a donor, as the tissue starts to degrade. Samples must be kept at a precise temperature and in sight at all times even while navigating customs and airport security.

Leishman went on his first mission in mid-September, flying to Berlin to collect a sample. He secured it as his carry-on luggage, got it safely through customs but never through X-rays, which damage the material and completed his mission without incident. Others have faced flight delays, airline strikes and bad weather.

Volunteers often spend just 24 hours on the ground.

Its not a holiday, he said. You are focused on getting that package back to someone who is very ill. It could be someones last chance.

Read the rest here:
Ex-Mounties serve as couriers for life-saving bone marrow stem cells

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Dec. 18, 2013 Regenerative medicine may offer ways to banish baldness that don't involve toupees. The lab of USC scientist Krzysztof Kobielak, MD, PhD has published a trio of papers in the journals Stem Cells and The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) that describe some of the factors that determine when hair grows, when it stops growing and when it falls out.

Authored by Kobielak, postdoctoral fellow Eve Kandyba, PhD, and their colleagues, the three publications focus on stem cells located in hair follicles (hfSCs), which can regenerate hair follicles as well as skin. These hfSCs are governed by the signaling pathways BMP and Wnt -- which are groups of molecules that work together to control cell functions, including the cycles of hair growth.

The most recent paper, published in the journal Stem Cells in November 2013, focuses on how the gene Wnt7b activates hair growth. Without Wnt7b, hair is much shorter.

The Kobielak lab first proposed Wnt7b's role in a January 2013 PNAS publication. The paper identified a complex network of genes -- including the Wnt and BMP signaling pathways -- controlling the cycles of hair growth. Reduced BMP signaling and increased Wnt signaling activate hair growth. The inverse -- increased BMP signaling and decreased Wnt signaling -- keeps the hfSCs in a resting state.

Both papers earned the recommendation of the Faculty of 1000, which rates top articles by leading experts in biology and medicine.

A third paper published in Stem Cells in September 2013 further clarified the workings of the BMP signaling pathway by examining the function of two key proteins, called Smad1 and Smad5. These proteins transmit the signals necessary for regulating hair stem cells during new growth.

"Collectively, these new discoveries advance basic science and, more importantly, might translate into novel therapeutics for various human diseases," said Kobielak. "Since BMP signaling has a key regulatory role in maintaining the stability of different types of adult stem cell populations, the implication for future therapies might be potentially much broader than baldness -- and could include skin regeneration for burn patients and skin cancer."

Read this article:
Stem cells offer clues to reversing receding hairlines

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Contact Information

Available for logged-in reporters only

Highlights Investigators have discovered a cocktail of chemicals which, when added to stem cells in a precise order, turns on genes found in kidney cells in the same order that they turn on during embryonic kidney development. The kidney cells continued to behave like kidney cells when transplanted into adult or embryonic mouse kidneys.

Newswise Washington, DC (December 19, 2013) Researchers have successfully coaxed stem cells to become kidney tubular cells, a significant advance toward one day using regenerative medicine, rather than dialysis and transplantation, to treat kidney failure. The findings are published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).

Chronic kidney disease is a major global public health problem, and when patients progress to kidney failure, their treatment options are limited to dialysis and kidney transplantation. Regenerative medicinewhich involves rebuilding or repairing tissues and organsmay offer a promising alternative.

Albert Lam, MD, Benjamin Freedman, PhD, Ryuji Morizane, MD, PhD (Brigham and Womens Hospital), and their colleagues have been working for the past five years to develop strategies to coax human pluripotent stem cellsparticularly human embryonic stem (ES) cells and human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cellinto kidney cells for the purposes of kidney regeneration.

Our goal was to develop a simple, efficient, and reproducible method of differentiating human pluripotent stem cells into cells of the intermediate mesoderm, the earliest tissue in the developing embryo that is fated to give rise to the kidneys, said Dr. Lam. He noted that these cells would be the starting blocks for deriving more specific kidney cells.

The researchers discovered a cocktail of chemicals which, when added to stem cells in a precise order, causes them to turn off genes found in ES cells and turn on genes found in kidney cells, in the same order that they turn on during embryonic kidney development. The investigators were able to differentiate both human ES cells and human iPS cells into cells expressing PAX2 and LHX1, two key markers of the intermediate mesoderm. The iPS cells were derived by transforming fibroblasts obtained from adult skin biopsies to pluripotent cells, making the techniques applicable to personalized approaches where the starting cells can be derived from skin cells of a patient. The differentiated cells expressed multiple genes expressed in intermediate mesoderm and could spontaneously give rise to tubular structures that expressed markers of mature kidney tubules. The researchers could then differentiate them further into cells expressing SIX2, SALL1, and WT1, important markers of the metanephric cap mesenchyme, a critical stage of kidney differentiation. In kidney development, the metanephric cap mesenchyme contains a population of progenitor cells that give rise to nearly all of the epithelial cells of the kidney.

The cells also continued to behave like kidney cells when transplanted into adult or embryonic mouse kidneys, giving hope that investigators might one day be able to create kidney tissues that could function in a patient and would be 100% immunocompatible.

We believe that the successful derivation of kidney progenitor cells or functional kidney cells from human pluripotent stem cells will have an enormous impact on a variety of clinical and translational applications, including kidney tissue bioengineering, renal assist devices to treat acute and chronic kidney injury, drug toxicity screening, screening for novel therapeutics, and human kidney disease modeling, said Dr. Lam.

Continued here:
Researchers Generate Kidney Tubular Cells From Stem Cells

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

What areas of research are heating up in 2014? How will patients access health care differently in the coming year?

We asked experts across UC San Francisco to identify what's ahead in digital health, basic science research, cancer treatments, health care access and other key areas. Judging by their answers, it will be an exciting year that could lead to more precise, effective and even preventive treatment of human diseases.

Check out some of the top, cutting-edge trends for 2014:

"The next big thing in personal medical technology will becreating a next generation of truly useful devices and sensors that cansend data to careproviders. The only way this technology is going to revolutionize health is if it actually tellsdoctors what they really need to know abouttheir patients when they need to know it."

Michael Blum, MD, chief medical information officer of UCSF Medical Center

The marketplace is awash in wearable medical technology, but these devices wont really help doctors treat their patients until we figure out how to manage all that data.

At the level of design, that means wearable heart rate monitors that dont merely mimic the look of an EKG, but also collectclinically usabledata on heart signals. At the level of organization, it means collecting the kind of data that a physician finds meaningful, and not just what seems cool to consumers.

Figuring all this out is the next big challenge for digital health.

Read the original post:
Top Trends in Health Sciences for 2014

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Stem Cell Therapy - Facet Syndrome Patients Relieve Back and Neck Pain Dr Robert Wagner - NSPC
How to know if the cause of your back or neck pain is Facet Syndrome. Discover how biologic regenerative treatments are able to pick up where traditional tre...

By: StemCell Arts

Go here to see the original:
Stem Cell Therapy - Facet Syndrome Patients Relieve Back and Neck Pain Dr Robert Wagner - NSPC - Video

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Poway, CA (PRWEB) December 19, 2013

Amazing Grace Hamiltons banked stem cells from Vet-Stem, Inc. have recently helped her avoid hip surgery for the second time. Gracie is now nearly 12 years old and her owners noticed her activities had dramatically slowed in the last year. They turned to banked stem cells that Gracie had stored with Vet-Stem, Inc. in Poway, California to help with the discomfort and pain of arthritis that was slowing her down.

When Gracies owners brought her to Garden State Veterinary Specialists in Tinton Falls, New Jersey in October of this year the x-rays showed a severely deteriorated right hip. Dr. Thomas Scavelli and Dr. Michael Hoelzler were very concerned and recommended hip replacement. Gracies owners wanted to try stem cell therapy first, since it had given them such positive results five years before.

We needed to give the stem cells a try before going to the more invasive surgical approach, Mrs. Hamilton said. At the time of the procedure Dr. Hoelzler told me that Gracies hips were the worst he had seen, but in just a couple of days after the stem cell therapy we began to see a difference. Just shy of two weeks after the procedure I took her back to Dr. Hoelzler and he was very impressed. She was walking comfortably.

At three years Gracie had been diagnosed with hip dysplasia. By six years of age she had slowed to the point of great concern as her owners described it. The pain caused by arthritis from the hip dysplasia was beginning to interfere with her life.

Gracie was no longer running and jumping, and certain activities had become difficult (like climbing onto my husbands sailboat). She also had a noticeable limp, Mrs. Hamilton remembered the signs of pain and discomfort that prompted Gracies first stem cell therapy five years before.

Gracie was brought to Dr. Scavelli in 2008 with painful symptoms, and stem cell therapy for pets was the latest, cutting edge treatment. Gracies owners understood that without stem cell therapy Gracie would have faced hip surgery at the time.

We are grateful for stem cell therapy which has restored Gracies ability to enjoy her morning walks again, Mrs. Hamilton shared, She enjoys wrestling with us and playing with her toys. She looks forward to visiting her friends, and prances around like a puppy. Gracie is a happy dog and we are happy owners because she does not appear to be in pain anymore!

About Vet-Stem, Inc.

Vet-Stem, Inc. was formed in 2002 to bring regenerative medicine to the veterinary profession. The privately held company is working to develop therapies in veterinary medicine that apply regenerative technologies while utilizing the natural healing properties inherent in all animals. As the first company in the United States to provide an adipose-derived stem cell service to veterinarians for their patients, Vet-Stem, Inc. pioneered the use of regenerative stem cells in veterinary medicine. The company holds exclusive licenses to over 50 patents including world-wide veterinary rights for use of adipose derived stem cells. In the last decade over 10,000 animals have been treated using Vet-Stem, Inc.s services, and Vet-Stem is actively investigating stem cell therapy for immune-mediated and inflammatory disease, as well as organ disease and failure. For more on Vet-Stem, Inc. and Veterinary Regenerative Medicine visit http://www.vet-stem.com or call 858-748-2004.

See the rest here:
Stem Cell Therapy by Vet-Stem, a Surprising Alternative to Hip Surgery for a New Jersey Chocolate Labrador Retriever

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Abba Zubair, medical and scientific director of the Cell Therapy Laboratory at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, wants to test the feasibility of growing stem cells in outer space, cells that could be used to generate new tissue and even new organs in human beings.

There are reasons to believe that stem cells, which are hard to grow in the great quantity they are needed on Earth, will grow much more rapidly in the microgravity environment in space, Zubair thinks. Now the Center for the Advancement in Science in Space has given Zubair a $300,000 grant to test that by placing stem cells in a specialized cell bioreactor in the International Space Station.

It now takes a month to generate enough cells for a few patients, Zubair said. A clinical laboratory in space could provide the answer we all have been seeking for regenerative medicine. ... If you have a ready supply of these cells, you can treat almost any condition and can theoretically regenerate entire organs using a scaffold. Additionally, they dont need to come from individual patients. Anyone can use them without rejection.

The stem cells he plans to grow in space will be stem cells that can induce regeneration of neurons and blood vessels in patients who have suffered hemorrhagic strokes caused by blood clots.

I have a special personal interest in stroke, Zubair said. Thats what killed my mom years ago. I really would like to conquer and treat stroke.

The first step in growing stem cells in space is happening at the University of Colorado where engineers are building the cell bioreactor Zubair will use on the space station. Within a year, Zubair hopes to transport the bioreactor and stem cells to the space station, perhaps aboard a flight by SpaceX, a company expected to begin commercial flights to the space station soon.

Once the bioreactor and stem cells are aboard the space station, it will take about a month to grow them, Zubair said. The results will then be analyzed by the astronauts on the space station and by researches back in Zubairs Jacksonville laboratories.

We will be trying to determine if our notion that stem cells grow faster in microgravity is true, Zubair said. We also want to know how feasible it is to produce clinical grade cells in space that can be used in humans.

Hes optimistic his study will show that growing stem cells in space is a viable way to create stem cells in quantity.

Were quite excited, he said. I really think the future is full of promise. We just have to take the opportunity to make that a reality.

Continue reading here:
Mayo cell therapy researcher plans to grow stem cells in space, where he thinks they will grow faster than on Earth

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Dec 18, 2013 5:00pm

By Steven C. Moyo, M.D.

A gene mutation can increase your risk of heart attack and death as much as smoking does, new research suggests.

Duke University researchers reported today finding a link between a gene mutation known to increase the bodys response to stress and heart health. They found in a study of more than 6,000 patients with heart disease, carriers of this genetic mutation had a 38 percent increased risk of heart attack or death.

Genetic mutations are not just the stuff of movies and comic books. They are changes in our DNA code that affect the color of our eyes, our risks for cancer and, as this study shows, even our response to stress.

When we are stressed, it sets off a chain reaction of chemical signals in our bodies. The first of these is the release of a chemical called serotonin in the brain something that happens as soon as we get yelled at by our boss, for example, or get cut off in traffic. This release of serotonin lights the fuse for the explosive cascade of chemicals that follows, eventually leading to increased levels of cortisol in our system.

What this gene mutation does is produce a slightly different serotonin receptor in the brain one that causes an even greater than normal release of cortisol in response to stress.

This is bad news for our hearts. Specifically, increased cortisol has been shown to be associated with higher levels of calcium deposits in the hearts blood vessels, and blockage of these vessels is linked to increased risk of heart attack and death.

Men with this gene mutation have been shown to have a two- to three-times larger cortisol response to stress, said study investigator, Dr. Redford Williams, professor of medicine at Duke University. This higher-than-normal cortisol response from this gene, he said, boosts the risk of heart attack or death. Williams added that more than one in eight men and up to 2 percent of women in the general population are thought to carry this gene mutation, and that the increased risk associated with this gene is comparable to the increased risk associated with a smoking habit.

Williams said he hopes the findings will shed further light on the role of genes in stress-related heart ills a hope shared by heart disease experts not involved with the study.

Continued here:
'Stress Gene' Ups Heart Attack, Death Risk

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

A gene linked to high stress levels has now been discovered to also increase a persons risk of having a heart attack, Medical News Today reported.

In a study published in PLoS ONE, researchers focused on the gene 5HTR2C, in order to examine how it affected cardiovascular health. Based on previous research, the study authors knew that a variation in the DNA of this gene was linked with extreme reactions to stress. In fact, men who carry this genetic variant have twice as much of the stress hormone cortisol in their blood, compared to men without the variant.

Knowing that high levels of cortisol were linked to an increased risk for heart attacks, the researchers decided to examine the effects of this genetic variant more closely.

For their study, researchers from the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., followed 6,100 white male and female heart patients for six years. Of the patients studied, 13 percent carried the genetic variation for extreme stress response.

Overall, researchers found that carriers of this gene variant had a 38 percent higher risk for heart attack or death. The researchers suspect this may be because of a blood compound called MMP9, which is known to increase as cortisol levels in the body rise. According to Medical News Today, MMP9 may soften plaque in the arteries, making them more likely to burst or clot leading to heart attacks or death.

Experts hope these findings might someday make it easier to prevent heart attack deaths.

"This research may one day help to identify patients who should be candidates for more intensive disease prevention and treatment strategies, said Dr. Peter Kaufmann, a deputy branch chief of the Clinical Applications and Prevention Branch at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

Click for more from Medical News Today.

Read more here:
Stress gene linked to higher risk for heart attack

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

How To Be A Superhuman
Science stands at the brink of unlocking our primal instincts. Advancements in genetic engineering may soon free humans from the limitations that have linked...

By: sciencefullepisodes

Go here to see the original:
How To Be A Superhuman - Video

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

19-Dec-2013

Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 x2156 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, December 19, 2013The natural ability of certain fungi to break down complex substances makes them very valuable microorganisms to use as cell factories in industrial processes. Advances in metabolic engineering and systems biology are helping to customize and optimize these fungi to produce specific bioproducts, as described in a Review article in Industrial Biotechnology, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available on the Industrial Biotechnology website.

In the Review "Integrated Approaches for Assessment of Cellular Performance in Industrially Relevant Filamentous Fungi," Mhairi Workman, Mikael Anderson, and Jette Thykaer, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, focus on how to apply state-of-the-art analytical tools and technologies to characterize industrially relevant fungi, improve fungal cell factories, and "utilize fungal bioproduct diversity to its full potential."

The Review is part of an IB IN DEPTH special section on Fungal Biology led by Guest Editors Scott Baker, PhD, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA, and Adrian Tsang, PhD, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. Additional Original Research articles include "Kinetic Modeling of -Glucosidases and Cellobiohydrolases Involved in Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Cellulose," by Marie Chauve, PhD, et al. from IFP Energies nouvelles (Solaize and Rueil-Malmaison, France), European Synchrotron Radiation Facility and Centre de Recherches sur les Macromolecules Vegetales (Grenoble, France); and "Comparative Genomics Analysis of Trichoderma reesei Strains," by Hideaki Koike, PhD, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba, Japan, and colleagues from the US Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (Walnut Creek, CA), and PNNL.

Also included in the Fungal Biology special section are two IB Interviews: with Randy Berka of Novozymes (Davis, CA); and Igor Grigoriev, PhD, US DOE Joint Genome Institute.

"Once again, one of IB's Editorial Board members has stepped forward to tell a compelling story of industrial biotechnology development," says Co-Editor-in-Chief Larry Walker, PhD, Professor, Biological & Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. "The opportunities to exploit fungal biotechnology for industrial chemicals and energy are unlimited."

###

About the Journal

Follow this link:
Integrated approaches to customize fungal cell factories

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

19-Dec-2013

Contact: Scott LaFee slafee@ucsd.edu 619-543-6163 University of California - San Diego

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, with colleagues in The Netherlands and United Kingdom, have produced the first map detailing the network of genetic interactions underlying the cellular response to ultraviolet (UV) radiation.

The researchers say their study establishes a new method and resource for exploring in greater detail how cells are damaged by UV radiation and how they repair themselves. UV damage is one route to malignancy, especially in skin cancer, and understanding the underlying repair pathways will better help scientists to understand what goes wrong in such cancers.

The findings will be published in the December 26, 2013 issue of Cell Reports.

Principal investigator Trey Ideker, PhD, division chief of genetics in the UC San Diego School of Medicine and a professor in the UC San Diego Departments of Medicine and Bioengineering, and colleagues mapped 89 UV-induced functional interactions among 62 protein complexes. The interactions were culled from a larger measurement of more than 45,000 double mutants, the deletion of two separate genes, before and after different doses of UV radiation.

Specifically, they identified interactive links to the cell's chromatin structure remodeling (RSC) complex, a grouping of protein subunits that remodel chromatin the combination of DNA and proteins that make up a cell's nucleus during cell mitosis or division. "We show that RSC is recruited to places on genes or DNA sequences where UV damage has occurred and that it helps facilitate efficient repair by promoting nucleosome remodeling," said Ideker.

The process of repairing DNA damage caused by UV radiation and other sources, such as chemicals and other mutagens, is both simple and complicated. DNA-distorting lesions are detected by a cellular mechanism called the nucleotide excision repair (NER) pathway. The lesion is excised; the gap filled with new genetic material copied from an intact DNA strand by special enzymes; and the remaining nick sealed by another specialized enzyme.

However, NER does not work in isolation; rather it coordinates with other biological mechanisms, including RSC.

Visit link:
How cells remodel after UV radiation

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

A stress gene has been linked to having a higher risk of dying from a heart attack or heart disease.

Heart patients with the genetic change had a 38 per cent increased risk of heart attack or death, say US researchers.

Personalised medicine may lead to better targeting of psychological or drug treatment to those most at risk, they report in PLOS ONE.

The study adds to evidence stress may directly increase heart disease risk, says the British Heart Foundation.

A team at Duke University School of Medicine studied a single DNA letter change in the human genome, which has been linked to being more vulnerable to the effects of stress.

They found heart patients with the genetic change had a 38 per cent increased risk of heart attack or death from heart disease after seven years of follow up compared with those without, even after taking into account factors like age, obesity and smoking.

This suggests that stress management techniques and drug therapies could reduce deaths and disability from heart attacks, they say.

director of the Behavioural Medicine Research Center at Duke University School of Medicine, Dr Redford Williams, said the work is the first step towards finding genetic variants that identify people at higher risk of cardiovascular disease.

This is one step towards the day when we will be able to identify people on the basis of this genotype who are at higher risk of developing heart disease in the first place, he told BBC News.

Thats a step in the direction of personalised medicine for cardiovascular disease.

Here is the original post:
Stress gene linked to heart attack – Study

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith