http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Researchers at the University of Granada, Spain, have found a suicide gene, called 'gene E', which leads to the death of tumour cells derived from breast, lung and colon cancer, and prevents their growth. The importance of this new gene is that its use to fight cancer can reduce the potent drugs that are currently used, so that could mean more effective treatment for cancer. http://phys.org/news178279681.html Medicine & Health Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:08:19 EST news178279681 German scientist Paul Ehrlich found what he coined the "magic bullet" in the early 20th century upon developing the world’s first effective treatment of syphilis. http://phys.org/news178221774.html Medicine & Health Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:50:03 EST news178221774 The lipid that accumulates in brain cells of individuals with an inherited enzyme disorder also drives the cell death that is a hallmark of the disease, according to new research led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators. http://phys.org/news177253830.html Medicine & Health Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:11:16 EST news177253830 The AIDS virus inserts its genetic material into the genome of the infected cell. Scientists of the German Cancer Research Center have now shown for the first time that the virus almost entirely spares particular sites in the human genetic material in this process. This finding may be useful for developing new, specific AIDS drugs. http://phys.org/news177247951.html Medicine & Health Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:50:02 EST news177247951 A study appearing in Science Translational Medicine puts scientists one step closer to clinical trials to test a gene delivery strategy to improve muscle mass and function in patients with certain degenerative muscle disorders. http://phys.org/news177186395.html Medicine & Health Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:40:02 EST news177186395 (PhysOrg.com) -- About five years ago, Professor Janet Sawicki at the Lankenau Institute in Pennsylvania read an article about nanoparticles developed by MIT's Robert Langer for gene therapy, the insertion of genes into living cells for the treatment of disease. Sawicki was working on treating ovarian cancer by delivering -- through viruses -- the gene for the diphtheria toxin, which kills tumor cells. http://phys.org/news176720244.html Nanotechnology Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:58:32 EST news176720244 A strategy that combines gene therapy with blood stem cell therapy may be a useful tool for treating a fatal brain disease, French researchers have found. These findings appear in the 6 November 2009 issue of the journal Science. http://phys.org/news176655735.html Medicine & Health Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:03:11 EST news176655735 Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have shown that a highly specific intrabody (an antibody fragment that works against a target inside a cell) is capable of stalling the development of Huntington's disease in a variety of mouse models. http://phys.org/news176126406.html Medicine & Health Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:01:53 EST news176126406 Trophoblast stem cells (TSCs), cells found in the layer of peripheral embryonic stem cells from which the placenta is formed, are thought to exhibit "immune privilege" that aids cell survivability and is potentially beneficial for cell and gene therapies. Further, the survivability of TSCs has been thought to require the presence of ovarian hormones. However, none of these assumptions has ever been verified. This study, published in the current issue of the journal Cell Transplantation (18:7) has demonstrated that it is the absence of male hormones, rather than the presence of female hormones, that allows extended transplanted cell survivability. http://phys.org/news176047451.html Biology Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:10:01 EST news176047451 For the first time, scientists in the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine, University Health Network have successfully used gene therapy to repair injured human donor lungs, making them potentially suitable for transplantation into patients. This technique could significantly expand the number of donor lungs by using organs that are currently discarded, and improve outcomes after transplantation. http://phys.org/news175960285.html Medicine & Health Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:53:16 EST news175960285 Born with a retinal disease that made him legally blind, and would eventually leave him totally sightless, the nine-year-old boy used to sit in the back of the classroom, relying on the large print on an electronic screen and assisted by teacher aides. Now, after a single injection of genes that produce light-sensitive pigments in the back of his eye, he sits in front with classmates and participates in class without extra help. In the playground, he joins his classmates in playing his first game of softball. http://phys.org/news175692544.html Medicine & Health Sun, 25 Oct 2009 12:29:40 EST news175692544 Scientists from the Universities of Michigan and Minnesota show in a research report published online in the FASEB Journal that gene therapy may be used to improve an ailing heart's ability to contract properly. In addition to showing gene therapy's potential for reversing the course of heart failure, it also offers a tantalizing glimpse of a day when "closed heart surgery" via gene therapy is as commonly prescribed as today's cocktail of drugs. http://phys.org/news173965249.html Medicine & Health Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:10:02 EST news173965249 Dave Wilson was dissatisfied with blurry, low-sensitivity optical images of diseased tissues. So, four years ago he set out to create a better imager. http://phys.org/news173365747.html Medicine & Health Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:30:04 EST news173365747 (PhysOrg.com) -- Gene therapy holds promise in the treatment of cancer as well as a large number of other diseases. However, developing a scalable system for delivering genes to cells both efficiently and safely has been challenging. Now, two teams of researchers have developed versatile nanotechnology-enabled platforms that could get therapeutic genes safely and efficiently into cancer cells. http://phys.org/news173102090.html Nanotechnology Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:55:22 EST news173102090 (PhysOrg.com) -- Biomedical researchers suspect graphene, a novel nanomaterial made of sheets of single carbon atoms, would be useful in a variety of applications. But no one had studied the interaction between graphene and DNA, the building block of all living things. To learn more, PNNL's Zhiwen Tang, Yuehe Lin and colleagues from both PNNL and Princeton University built nanostructures of graphene and DNA. http://phys.org/news172896200.html Nanotechnology Wed, 23 Sep 2009 03:43:56 EST news172896200 Researchers in the Memory Disorders Program at Georgetown University Medical Center are now recruiting volunteers for a national gene therapy trial - the first study of its kind for the treatment of patients with dementia due to Alzheimer's disease. http://phys.org/news172845091.html Medicine & Health Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:50:01 EST news172845091 The blood brain barrier is generally considered an obstacle to delivering therapies from the bloodstream to the brain. However, University of Iowa researchers have discovered a way to turn the blood vessels surrounding brain cells into a production and delivery system for getting therapeutic molecules directly into brain cells. http://phys.org/news172762279.html Medicine & Health Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:32:13 EST news172762279 Scientists have identified how a protein enables sections of so-called junk DNA to be cut and pasted within genetic code - a finding which could speed development of gene therapies. http://phys.org/news172754474.html Biology Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:21:34 EST news172754474 In 2004, Jeremy Luban and colleagues from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, reported that New World owl monkeys (Aotus genus) make a fusion protein - AoT5Cyp - that potently blocks HIV-1 infection. The human genome encodes the equivalent of the 2 components of AoT5Cyp (i.e., TRIM5 and cyclophilin A), but humans unfortunately do not make the T5Cyp fusion protein. http://phys.org/news171649700.html Medicine & Health Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:50:02 EST news171649700 A research report featured on the cover of the September 2009 print issue of The FASEB Journal describes how Australian scientists developed a new gene therapy vector that uses the same machinery that viruses use to transport their cargo into our cells. As a result of this achievement, therapeutic DNA can be transferred to a cell's nucleus far more efficiently than in the past, raising hopes for more effective treatment of genetic disorders and some types of cancers. http://phys.org/news170938216.html Biology Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:00:01 EST news170938216 A common antibiotic can function as an "off switch" for a gene therapy being developed for Parkinson's disease, according to University of Florida researchers writing online in advance of September's Molecular Therapy. http://phys.org/news170689468.html Medicine & Health Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:20:01 EST news170689468 A new study from the University of Missouri may shed light on how to increase the level and quality of activity in the elderly. In the study, published in this week's edition of Public Library of Science - ONE, MU researchers found that gene therapy with a proven "longevity" gene energized mice during exercise, and might be applicable to humans in the future. http://phys.org/news169915661.html Medicine & Health Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:10:02 EST news169915661 Jichi Medical University has succeeded in restoring the motor function of patients suffering from Parkinson's disease by injecting their brains with a virus with a built-in gene that has an enzyme to produce dopamine, it has been learned. http://phys.org/news169483653.html Medicine & Health Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:00:01 EST news169483653 Scientists have discovered that even in adults born with extremely impaired sight, the brain can rewire itself to recognize sections of the retina that have been restored by gene therapy. http://phys.org/news169316342.html Medicine & Health Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:19:48 EST news169316342 University of Florida researchers have safely given new, functional genes to patients with a hereditary defect that can lead to fatal lung and liver diseases, according to clinical trial findings slated to appear this week in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://phys.org/news169140806.html Medicine & Health Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:10:03 EST news169140806 An international team of scientists and clinicians from the United States and Saudi Arabia are working to develop gene therapy for treating a rare, hereditary retinal disease. The therapy has been shown to restore lost vision in animal models of retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Their work is being funded in part by a $1.5 million grant from the Prince Salman Center for Disability Research in Saudi Arabia, where the recessive gene mutation that leads to the eye disease RP has been found in children from several families. http://phys.org/news168094180.html Medicine & Health Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:20:02 EST news168094180 While repair of the central nervous system has long been considered impossible, French researchers from Inserm, the CNRS and the UPMC have just developed a strategy that could promote neuronal regeneration after injury. The in vitro studies have just been published in the journal PLoS ONE. http://phys.org/news167655773.html Medicine & Health Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:03:34 EST news167655773 In 1989 scientists identified the gene mutation that causes cystic fibrosis (CF), which led to the hope that CF lung disease could be 'cured' using gene therapy. The premise of gene therapy is that modified viruses or other gene-based systems could be used to deliver a corrected version of a gene into affected tissues. However, the projected cure has been hampered by the natural ability of the lung to limit the introduction of foreign genes into its cells. http://phys.org/news167375993.html Medicine & Health Tue, 21 Jul 2009 06:40:01 EST news167375993 Gene therapy has emerged as a novel approach to combat HCV infection in the last few years. However, one of the most important obstacles to overcome is "targeting": the appropriate genes must be delivered and expressed in HCV infected hepatocytes without harming normal tissues. http://phys.org/news166970597.html Medicine & Health Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:43:34 EST news166970597 A specific biomarker, a protein released by dying tumor cells, has been identified as an effective tool in an animal model to gauge the response to a novel gene therapy treatment for glioblastoma mulitforme. The finding, reported in the July 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research, paves the way for a Phase 1 clinical trial expected to begin in late 2009. http://phys.org/news165645776.html Medicine & Health Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:10:01 EST news165645776