Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only Newswise 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 … Continue reading →

Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only Newswise Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified a gene variant that may be used to predict people most likely to respond to an investigational therapy under development for Alzheimers disease (AD). The study, published March 12 in Cell Stem Cell, is based on experiments with cultured neurons derived from adult stem cells. Our results suggest that certain gene variants allow us to reduce the amount of beta amyloid produced by neurons, said senior author Lawrence Goldstein, PhD, director of UC San Diego Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center and UC San Diego Stem Cell Program. This is potentially significant for slowing the progression of Alzheimers disease. AD is the most common cause of dementia in the United States, afflicting one in nine people age 65 and older. The genetic risk factor investigated are variants of the SORL1 gene. The gene codes for a protein that affects the processing and subsequent accumulation of beta amyloid peptides, small bits of sticky protein that build up in the spaces between neurons. These plaques are linked to neuronal death and related dementia. Previous studies have shown that certain variants of the … Continue reading →

SQUALENOYLATION: a Nanomedicine Platform for the Treatment of Severe Diseases Speaker: Prof. Dr. med. Patrick Couvreur, Centre d'tudes Pharmaceutiques (CNRS), Paris (F) "European Research Council -Related Talks on Nanomedicine and Drug Delivery" Chair: Dr. Twan ... By: TAUVOD … Continue reading →