Case Western Reserve scientists have discovered that speed matters when it comes to how messenger RNA (mRNA) deciphers critical information within the genetic code -- the complex chain of instructions critical to sustaining life. The investigators' findings, which appear in the March 12 journal Cell, give scientists critical new information in determining how best to engage cells to treat illness -- and, ultimately, keep them from emerging in the first place. "Our discovery is that the genetic code is more complex than we knew," said senior researcher Jeff Coller, PhD, associate professor, Division of General Medical Sciences, and associate director, The Center for RNA Molecular Biology, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. "With this information, researchers can manipulate the genetic code to achieve more predictable outcomes in an exquisite fashion." The genetic code is a system of instructions embedded within DNA. The code tells a cell how to generate proteins that control cellular functions. mRNA transmits the instructions from DNA to ribosomes. Ribosomes translate the information contained within the mRNA and produce the instructed protein. The genetic code comprises 61 words, called "codons," and a single codon, a sequence of three nucleotides, instructs the ribosome how to build proteins. … Continue reading →

Posted: Thursday, March 12, 2015 7:08 PM UCLA stem-cell researchers have shown that a novel stem-cell gene therapy method could one day provide a one-time, lasting treatment for the most common inherited blood disorder in the U.S. sickle cell disease. Publishedin the journal Blood, the study outlines a method that corrects the mutated gene that causes sickle cell disease and shows, for the first time, the gene correction method leads to the production of normal red blood cells. The study was directed by renowned stem cell researcher and UCLA Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research member, Dr. Donald Kohn. People with sickle cell disease are born with a mutation in their beta-globin gene, which is responsible for delivering oxygen to the body through blood circulation. The mutation causes blood stem cellswhich are made in the bone marrowto produce distorted and rigid red blood cells that resemble a crescent or sickle shape. Consequently, the abnormally shaped red blood cells do not move smoothly through blood vessels, resulting in insufficient oxygen supply to vital organs. Anyone can be born with sickle cell disease, but it occurs more frequently in African Americans and Hispanic Americans. The stem-cell … Continue reading →