Alzheimer's memory loss due to gene blockade reversed in mice
An enzyme associated with memory loss can be blocked to reverse symptoms of Alzheimer's disease in mice, a study has shown...
An enzyme associated with memory loss can be blocked to reverse symptoms of Alzheimer's disease in mice, a study has shown...
Unhealthy lifestyles associated with social deprivation may have detrimental effects on DNA before birth, say scientists. A study of adults living in Glasgow shows a correlation between deprivation and DNA methylation - a normal process that occurs mainly during embryonic development and regulates gene activity...
Living conditions during childhood may have a long-term effect on DNA, according to new research by British and Canadian scientists. The findings, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, may explain why some people who grow up in socioeconomic deprivation have health disadvantages later in life, despite improvements in their living conditions in adulthood...
The European Commission (EC) is investing €30 million in BLUEPRINT, a project to map the human epigenome - the sum total of the non-coding, but inherited, modifications to DNA...
The immediate impact of environmental factors like diet, smoking and stress on health are well understood. But less is known about how your lifestyle can directly effect the health of your unborn children and grandchildren...
by Ruth Pidsley
Forget 'you are what you eat'. Rather 'you are what your mother ate'. That is the dramatic message of the BBC's latest episode of Horizon 'The Nine Months That Made You', broadcast on Monday 22 August. The documentary was an account of the Barker Theory that birth weight determines health in later life...
In this first episode of a new documentary series, medical correspondent Dr Mark Porter investigated how developmental events in the womb have an astonishing impact on long-term adult health...
by Ruth Pidsley
Scientists have shown that the effects of stress can be passed from one generation to the next via chemical changes to the DNA which turn genes on or off without altering the code itself....
Promiscuity may increase the fertility of male offspring, a new study has found. Australian researchers demonstrated that males from polygamous breeds of mice out-compete monogamous males in the race to fertilise females and produce offspring....
A father's diet can affect the way his offspring's genes function, according to the authors of a study on mice. Scientists found information about the diet of male mice can be passed to their offspring, causing changes to the 'switching on and off' of genes involved in processes like metabolism. The research could one day help identify people at higher risk of illnesses like diabetes and heart disease...
BioNews, published by the Progress Educational Trust (PET), provides news and comment on genetics, assisted conception, embryo/stem cell research and related areas.