The Human Dynasty

Researchers have revealed new insights into how sex chromosomes are regulated. A chromatin modifying enzyme helps compensate for the fact that males have only one copy of the sex chromosome X, while females have two.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have established a human cell-based system for studying sickle cell anemia by reprogramming somatic cells to an embryonic stem cell like state. Publishing online on May 29, the team describes a faster and more efficient method of reprogramming cells that might speed the development of stem cell therapies.

A new study has transformed scientists’ understanding of Rett syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes autistic behavior and other disabling symptoms. Until now, scientists thought that the gene behind Rett syndrome was an “off” switch, or repressor, for other genes. But the new study, published today in Science, shows that it is an “on” switch for a startlingly large number of genes.

The contentious debate about why insects evolved to put the interests of the colony over the individual has been reignited by new research from the University of Leeds, showing that they do so to increase the chances that their genes will be passed on.

Researchers have identified genetic markers in cancer cells that predicted the benefit of a novel cancer drug prior to chemotherapy. Specific genetic profile within tumor cells may indicate increased patient benefit from a particular drug.

(University of Washington) A pair of researchers have developed a model that suggests shuffling emerged millions of years ago as a precursor to walking on two feet as a way of saving metabolic energy by a common ancestor of today primates.

A pair of researchers have developed a model that suggests shuffling emerged millions of years ago as a precursor to walking on two feet as a way of saving metabolic energy by a common ancestor of today’s primates.

Although “Viking” literally means “pirate,” recent research has indicated that the Vikings were also traders to the fishmongers of Europe. Stereotypically, these Norsemen are usually pictured wearing a horned helmet but in a new study, researchers from the University of Copenhagen, investigated what went under the helmet; the scientists extracted authentic DNA from ancient Viking skeletons, avoiding many of the problems of contamination faced by past researchers.

The molecular profile of cancer stem cells that initiate metastatic colon tumors is significantly different from those responsible for primary tumors, according to new research. New data, generated by analysis of human colon cancer cells and mice, have shed doubt on the recently proposed designation of the protein CD133 as a marker of colon cancer stem cells — a term given to the small number of cells within a colon cancer that are thought to be able to give rise to a new tumor and that therefore are responsible for tumor recurrence and metastasis.

A gene therapy invented at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center is the first to succeed in a US phase III clinical trial for cancer.