Neuroscience
From a National Institutes of Health press release issued on the 29th:
After a Decades-Long Search, Scientists Identify New Genetic Risk Factors for Multiple Sclerosis
A pair of large-scale genetic studies supported by the National Institutes of Health has revealed two genes that influence the risk of getting multiple sclerosis (MS) — data sought since the discovery of the only other known MS susceptibility gene decades ago. The findings could shed new light on what causes MS — a puzzling mix of genes, environment and immunity — and on potential treatments for at least 350,000 Americans who have the disease.
"These studies describe the first genes conclusively linked to MS in more than 20 years," said Ursula Utz, Ph.D., a program director at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), a part of NIH. "This breakthrough was made possible through persistence, an elegant search strategy, and genomic data and techniques that were not available until recently."
Both studies involved scanning DNA samples from more than 20,000 MS patients and unaffected individuals in the U.S. and Europe, and looking for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which are single-letter variations in a gene's DNA code. Published simultaneously today in the New England Journal of Medicine and Nature Genetics, the studies demonstrate an association between MS and SNPs in two genes that encode interleukin receptors, proteins that serve as antennae on the surface of immune cells.
[ ... Read the full press release ... ]
- Parkinson's Disease: New Biomarker Effort
From the NIH: NIH launches collaborative effort to find biomarkers for Parkinson's New online resource will support data sharing NIH News 15 January 2013 [snip] "A new initiative aims to accelerate the search for biomarkers — changes in the body...
- Nobel Knockout!
From the Nobel Assemble press release: The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has today decided to award The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2007 jointly to Mario R. Capecchi, Martin J. Evans and Oliver Smithies for their discoveries of...
- Neurodegenerative Diseases: Progranulin (pgrn) Mutation And Tdp-43
From a National Institutes of Health (NIH) press release on the 26th: Scientists Suggest New Pathway Causing Cell Death in Dementia Scientists have discovered a link between a mutated gene and a protein found in dead brain cells of people who suffer...
- Primary Progressive Aphasia (ppa)
From an NIH press release from earlier today:Study Links Progressive Aphasia Syndrome to Prion Gene Most people with a rare type of dementia called primary progressive aphasia (PPA) have a specific combination of prion gene...
- Senator Jacob Javits Award In The Neurosciences
A press release from the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NINDS Javits Award Goes to Six Inventive Neuroscientists 07 September 2005 [ ... Read the full release ... ] The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), a part...
Neuroscience
Multiple Sclerosis
From a National Institutes of Health press release issued on the 29th:
After a Decades-Long Search, Scientists Identify New Genetic Risk Factors for Multiple Sclerosis
A pair of large-scale genetic studies supported by the National Institutes of Health has revealed two genes that influence the risk of getting multiple sclerosis (MS) — data sought since the discovery of the only other known MS susceptibility gene decades ago. The findings could shed new light on what causes MS — a puzzling mix of genes, environment and immunity — and on potential treatments for at least 350,000 Americans who have the disease.
"These studies describe the first genes conclusively linked to MS in more than 20 years," said Ursula Utz, Ph.D., a program director at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), a part of NIH. "This breakthrough was made possible through persistence, an elegant search strategy, and genomic data and techniques that were not available until recently."
Both studies involved scanning DNA samples from more than 20,000 MS patients and unaffected individuals in the U.S. and Europe, and looking for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which are single-letter variations in a gene's DNA code. Published simultaneously today in the New England Journal of Medicine and Nature Genetics, the studies demonstrate an association between MS and SNPs in two genes that encode interleukin receptors, proteins that serve as antennae on the surface of immune cells.
[ ... Read the full press release ... ]
- Parkinson's Disease: New Biomarker Effort
From the NIH: NIH launches collaborative effort to find biomarkers for Parkinson's New online resource will support data sharing NIH News 15 January 2013 [snip] "A new initiative aims to accelerate the search for biomarkers — changes in the body...
- Nobel Knockout!
From the Nobel Assemble press release: The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has today decided to award The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2007 jointly to Mario R. Capecchi, Martin J. Evans and Oliver Smithies for their discoveries of...
- Neurodegenerative Diseases: Progranulin (pgrn) Mutation And Tdp-43
From a National Institutes of Health (NIH) press release on the 26th: Scientists Suggest New Pathway Causing Cell Death in Dementia Scientists have discovered a link between a mutated gene and a protein found in dead brain cells of people who suffer...
- Primary Progressive Aphasia (ppa)
From an NIH press release from earlier today:Study Links Progressive Aphasia Syndrome to Prion Gene Most people with a rare type of dementia called primary progressive aphasia (PPA) have a specific combination of prion gene...
- Senator Jacob Javits Award In The Neurosciences
A press release from the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NINDS Javits Award Goes to Six Inventive Neuroscientists 07 September 2005 [ ... Read the full release ... ] The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), a part...