When Emmanuelle Gattuso had a suspicious mammogram result 10 years ago, she didnt think it would amount to anything. Her mother had just died of ovarian cancer and her sister had fought off breast cancer two years earlier enough heartache for one family, she figured. After her doctor at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto told her she did, in fact, have breast cancer, she was completely stunned, she recalled. Now, Ms. Gattuso, 65, is cancer-free and determined to help push the frontiers of medicine to help others. Ms. Gattuso and her husband, broadcast mogul Allan Slaight, are donating $50-million to Princess Margaret, in what is being billed as the largest private gift for cancer research in Canadian history. The money, which was announced on Monday, will support efforts to deliver personalized medicine, a burgeoning field in which doctors use patients genetic information to diagnose disease and deliver customized treatments. Today, the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre takes a significant step towards conquering cancer in our lifetime, said Paul Alofs, president and CEO of the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation. The donation, which will be spread over 10 years, will be used to hire more cancer specialists and support their research. Benjamin Neel … Continue reading →

Jan. 21, 2013 Cancer cells are resourceful survivors with plenty of tricks for staying alive. Researchers have uncovered one of these stratagems, showing how cells lacking the tumor suppressor BRCA1 can resume one form of DNA repair, sparing themselves from stagnation or death. The study appears in the January 21st issue of The Journal of Cell Biology. The BRCA1 protein helps to mend double-strand DNA breaks by promoting homologous recombination. Without it, cells can amass broken, jumbled, and fused chromosomes, which may cause them to stop growing or die. Although cells lacking BRCA1 seem like they should be vulnerable, loss of the protein instead seems to boost abnormal growth. Recent studies have shown that cells lacking BRCA1 compensate by cutting back on 53BP1. This protein helps orchestrate a different DNA repair mechanism, nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ), and it thwarts a key step in homologous recombination. Researchers think that, in cells without BRCA1, 53BP1 spurs excessive NHEJ that can cause fatal chromosomal chaos. But with 53BP1 out of the way, the cells are able to resume homologous recombination. That might explain why cells that lack BRCA1 and eliminate 53BP1 can withstand traditional chemotherapy compounds and PARP inhibitors, a new generation of … Continue reading →

Online narrated tutorial suite teaches you how to effectively and efficiently use OMIM Seattle, WA (PRWEB) January 22, 2013 OMIM is a catalog of human genes and genetic conditions that helps researchers and clinicians understand the relationship between genes and genetic disease. OMIM is a foundational resource in genomics, and OMIM links and data are found at sites all around the bioinformatics sphere. Knowledge of the full scope of OMIMs data and resources provides access to the most comprehensive understanding of human phenotypes and disease. OMIM contains full text summaries of information from the scientific literature, and provides extensive links to the literature resources and other genomic resource tools as well. The new tutorial reflects the many changes and enhancements to OMIM, including the new face it received during the move from NCBI to omim.org. New search functions enable more precise and relevant searches for different user communities, including clinical geneticists, genetic counselors, and basic researchers. In addition, OMIM now has more links to other relevant genetics and biomedical research resources around the world. The online narrated tutorial runs in just about any browser and can be navigated in a number of ways. In just under 30 minutes, the tutorial … Continue reading →

Why Ms. Haskins Chose Arthritis Treatment Center For Her Stem Cell Procedure http://www.stemcellsarthritistreatment.com The reasons why this woman chose Arthritis Treatment Center for her stem cell procedure for arthritis. http By: Nathan Wei … Continue reading →