The first trial of a new treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) will start later this year in the UK. The treatment, which has been developed by using human cells and mice experiments, hopes to overcome the effects of the genetic defect that causes the muscle wasting...
A study carried out by a team of American researchers has revealed that not all embryonic stem (ES) cell lines are created equal. Led by UCLA's Yi Sun and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Thomas Sudhof at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, the study, which...
The universally accepted maxim that genes are transcribed into RNA and subsequently translated into proteins, a concept that has underwritten huge swathes of research in the last 40 years, has been significantly muddied. A groundbreaking Nature paper has shown the road from genome to protein is much...
Two US scientists have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for discovering a fundamental mechanism which regulates the expression of genes, called RNA interference (RNAi). Andrew Fire of the Stanford School of Medicine and Craig Mello of the University of Massachusetts Medical School won a shared...
US researchers have identified a gene that has evolved rapidly during human evolution, a discovery they say could shed light on what makes us different from animals. The team, based at the University of California, Santa Cruz, identified the crucial brain gene by comparing the human...
The first clinical trial based on a promising new technology called RNA interference (RNAi) has shown that it could soon be used to treat an eye disorder. The trial was designed to test the safety of the technique for treating a disease called wet age-related macular...
A team of scientists have found evidence that RNA in the sperm of mice is able to transmit a trait that is not coded for in the animal's DNA. The team, working at the University of Nice, France, were studying a gene called Kit. This gene occurs...
US, Canadian and German researchers have used a novel gene therapy approach to reduce blood cholesterol levels in monkeys by more than 60 per cent. The research, published in the journal Nature, uses a technique called RNA interference (RNAi). The scientists - based at biotech firms Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Protiva BioTherapeutics...
Japanese scientists have used laser light to activate genes delivered to rats' eyes, New Scientist magazine reports. The team, based at the University of Tokyo, says the method will help make gene therapy more effective, by allowing precise control over when and where the therapeutic genes are switched on. The...
German researchers have used a novel gene therapy approach to reduce blood cholesterol levels in mice. The research, published in the journal Nature, uses RNA - a close chemical relative of DNA. The scientists, based at biotech firm Alnylam Pharmaceuticals in Kulbach, describe their study as 'a historic step forward' in...
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