The Human Dynasty

Children of Alzheimer’s patients who are carriers of a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease have neurological changes that are detectable long before clinical symptoms may appear.

The race to ensure that scientists stop drug-taking athletes from damaging sport by using performance enhancing drugs or undergoing genetic manipulation is a constant challenge, according to a major four-decade review by three of the World’s leading experts on doping in sport.

(Wiley-Blackwell) Performance enhancing drugs and genetic manipulation are a constant threat to international sport and scientists need to be one step ahead of the athletes and their rogue scientific advisers. A major review of doping in sport has just been published, written by three of the most eminent doping in sport experts, including the current Chairman of the International Olympic Committee’s Medical Commission.

(University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine) While scientists and physicians know what happens if you don’t get six to eight hours of shut-eye a night, investigators have long been puzzled about what controls the actual need for sleep. Researchers might have an answer, at least in fruit flies. In a recent study of fruit flies, they identified a gene that controls sleep.

(The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research) Gene silencing techniques and induced pluripotent stem cell technology are among the cutting-edge approaches to Parkinson’s drug development funded through the Michael J. Fox Foundation’s Rapid Response Innovation Awards 2008.

(University of Western Ontario) A London, Canada, scientist studying cystic fibrosis has successfully corrected the defect which causes the overproduction of intestinal mucous in mice. This discovery by Dr. Richard Rozmahel, a scientist with the Lawson Health Research Institute, affiliated with the University of Western Ontario, has clear implications to understanding and treating this facet of the disease in humans. CF is a fatal, genetic disease characterized by an overproduction of mucous in the lungs and digestive system.

A new study of DNA from ancient and modern chickens has shed light on the controversy about the extent of prehistoric Polynesian contact with the Americas.

(NYU Langone Medical Center / New York University School of Medicine) NYU Langone Medical Center researchers have long been making important contributions to the understanding of Alzheimer’s disease. They were among the first to characterize amyloid, the plaque-forming protein implicated in Alzheimer’s, and the first to describe a genetic mutation in a familial form of the disease. They also developed the first successful intervention program to reduce the need for placing patients in nursing homes and alleviate caregivers’ depression.

Freely available tool aids genetic research and gene therapy

In the life of a cell, the response to DNA damage determines whether the cell is fated to pause and repair itself, commit suicide, or grow uncontrollably, a route leading to cancer. Scientists have now identified a way that cells respond to DNA damage through a process that targets proteins for disposal. The finding points to a new pathway for the development of cancer and suggests a new way of sensitizing cancer cells to treatment.