A protein that targets the effects of a faulty gene could offer the first treatment targeting the major genetic cause of pulmonary arterial hypertension, according to research funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and carried out at the University of Cambridge.
Our immune systems vary with the seasons, according to a study led by the University of Cambridge that could help explain why certain conditions such as heart disease and rheumatoid arthritis are aggravated in winter whilst people tend to be healthier in the summer.
The largest genetic study of tuberculosis (TB) susceptibility to date has led to a potentially important new insight into how the pathogen manages to evade the immune system. Published today in the journal Nature Genetics, the study advances understanding of the biological mechanisms involved in TB, which may open up new avenues to design efficient vaccines for its prevention.
Many animals, including humans, acquired essential ‘foreign’ genes from microorganisms co-habiting their environment in ancient times, according to research published in the open access journal Genome Biology. The study challenges the conventional view that animal evolution relies solely on genes passed down through ancestral lines and suggests that, at least in some lineages, the process is still ongoing.
Scientists have discovered 15 previously unknown genetic ‘hot-spots’ that can increase a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer, according to research published today in Nature Genetics.
The order in which genetic mutations are acquired determines how an individual cancer behaves, according to research from the University of Cambridge, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Scientists have explained, for the first time, how transposition is regulated in the bodies of humans and other living organisms.
New research is helping to unveil how the parasite that causes sleeping sickness uses stealth tactics to escape detection by the human immune system.
Dr Robin Hesketh, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Biochemistry and author of Betrayed by Nature, explains how advances in inexpensive, rapid gene sequencing and expression analysis is revolutionising cancer research and the development of new treatments.
New gene therapy methods accurately correct mutation in patient’s stem cells, bringing personalized cell therapies one step closer.
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