You might resemble or act more like your mother, but a novel research study from UNC School of Medicine researchers reveals that mammals are genetically more like their dads. Specifically, the research shows that although we inherit equal amounts of genetic mutations from our parents the mutations that make us who we are and not some other person we actually use more of the DNA that we inherit from our dads. The research, published in the journal Nature Genetics, has wide implications for the study of human disease, especially when using mammalian research models. For instance, in many mouse models created for the study of gene expression related to disease, researchers typically dont take into account whether specific genetic expression originates from mothers or fathers. But the UNC research shows that inheriting a mutation has different consequences in mammals, depending on whether the genetic variant is inherited from the mother or father. This is an exceptional new research finding that opens the door to an entirely new area of exploration in human genetics, said Fernando Pardo-Manuel de Villena, PhD, professor of genetics and senior author of the paper. Weve known that there are 95 genes that are subject to this … Continue reading →

Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only Newswise New research suggests that widely used statin therapy provides the most benefit to patients with the highest genetic risk of heart attack. Using a relatively straightforward genetic analysis, the researchers assessed heart attack risk independently of traditional risk factors such as age, sex, so-called good and bad cholesterol levels, smoking history, family history and whether the patient has diabetes. Patients in intermediate and low-risk categories still benefit from statin therapy, but that benefit is progressively smaller because theyre starting at lower baseline risk, according to the investigators. The research, from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Brigham and Womens Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School appears March 4 in The Lancet. For patients at risk of heart disease, doctors routinely prescribe statins, known for their cholesterol-lowering effect. In 2013, the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association changed the guidelines for statin therapy, dramatically increasing the number of patients recommended to take it. The move has stirred debate over whether these drugs are overused, especially in light of increasing health-care costs. There is ongoing debate over which individuals should be allocated statin therapy to prevent a … Continue reading →

DUBLIN, Mar. 03, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/s3s3t8/personalized) has announced the addition of Jain PharmaBiotech's new report "Personalized Medicine - Scientific and Commercial Aspects" to their offering. The aim of personalized medicine or individualized treatment is to match the right drug to the right patient and, in some cases, even to design the appropriate treatment for a patient according to his/her genotype. This report describes the latest concepts of development of personalized medicine based on pharmacogenomics, pharmacogenetics,pharmacoproteomics, and metabolomics. Basic technologies of molecular diagnostics play an important role, particularly those for single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping. Diagnosis is integrated with therapy for selection of the treatment as well for monitoring the results. Biochip/microarray technologies are also important and finally bioinformatics is needed to analyze the immense amount of data generated by various technologies. Various technologies are integrated to develop personalized therapies for specific therapeutic areas described in the report. Examples of this are genotyping for drug resistance in HIV infection, personalized therapy of cancer, antipsychotics for schizophrenia, antidepressant therapy, antihypertensive therapy and personalized approach to neurological disorders. Although genotyping is not yet a part of clinically accepted routine, it is expected to have this status by the year 2020. … Continue reading →

Contrasto/eyevine Biologist Graziella Pellegrini has worked on stem-cell therapy at four different Italian institutions, including a hospital run by priests. Last month saw a major landmark for regenerative medicine: the first time that a stem-cell therapy beside the use of cells extracted from umbilical cords had been cleared for sale by any regulatory agency in the world. The European Commission approved Holoclar for use in cases of blindness caused by burning. The achievement is all the more remarkable because Holoclar was developed by a small laboratory in Italy, a country better known for its lack of support for life sciences and for its recent tolerance of an unproven stem-cell concoction, marketed by the Stamina Foundation, that claimed to be a panacea for many diseases. Nature talked to Graziella Pellegrini from the University of Modena about how she and her colleagues overcame the many obstacles to take the therapy from bench to bedside. The surface of the cornea the transparent tissue that sits in front of the iris is constantly renewed in a healthy eye, to keep it smooth and clear. New corneal cells are generated from a niche of stem cells in the limbus, an area between the cornea and … Continue reading →