Lorna Stewart was previously a Volunteer Writer at BioNews, having originally joined the publication under the auspices of its writing scheme. She is currently studying for a PhD in Psychology at University College London, conducting research into the links between attention and anxiety. She has a BSc and an MSc in Psychology, and has been employed in both academic and therapeutic settings.
An early stage trial of a new drug has given hope to skin cancer patients. The phase I trial, the results of which were presented at the European Cancer Organisation and the European Society for Medical Oncology conferences in Berlin, tested the drug PLX4032 for the treatment of advanced metastatic melanoma....
Turner Syndrome, a condition in which women have only one X chromosome instead of two, may be caused by a missing Y chromosome instead of a missing X as previously thought. Research published in Cell at the start of this month suggests that disruption in the Y chromosome can cause a range of male sex disorders including, surprisingly, Turner Syndrome which has always previously been considered a female sex disorder....
Research published earlier this month in Nature Genetics is the first to show that there is a genetic component to acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), the most common form of childhood cancer.
Lung cancer is currently the leading cause of cancer death in the UK. Although smoking is responsible for the vast majority of lung cancer cases, there is existing evidence for a genetic component as well. A study published last week in the journal Cancer Research sheds new light on genetic vulnerability to lung cancer....
Scientists at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, have discovered a gene which may mediate the cognitive effects of autism. After detecting a chromosomal rearrangement in one severely autistic boy, the team, headed by Dr Zosia Miedzybrodzka, was inspired to look for similar genetic faults in other autistic families. Thier findings are published in the latest issue of Journal of Medical Genetics....
Neuroblastoma, a form of paediatric cancer which affects the nervous system, may be caused by copy number variations (CNVs) in genes which control nervous system development. The research, published last week in Nature, suggests a different genetic mechanism for cancers than was previously proposed. Dr John Maris who led the study at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, US, said 'We can infer that it's not just going to be true for neuroblastoma. My expectation is that there will be ...
Screening the genetic material present in patients' urine could distinguish between aggressive from dormant prostate cancers, suggests a study published this month in the British Journal of Cancer. The research paper reports pilot findings from 11 prostate cancer patients and may provide new hope for the 34,000...
Research presented last month by a team from Brazil shows that married couples have less MHC (Major Histocompatibility Complex) similarity than randomly paired individuals selected from the same database. The study, led by Professor Maria da Graca Bicalho at the University of Parana, Brazil, compared MHC genes...
Having dark hair and tanning easily does not necessarily make you less likely to develop skin cancer, according to data presented last week at the annual meeting for the American Association for Cancer Research in Denver. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, US, found that people who...
Research published last week in Nature Genetics reports the discovery of two new genes which alter a woman's risk of developing breast cancer. The study, led by Cancer Research UK, was a collaboration between more than 100 scientists across 16 countries. It brings the total number of...
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