A team of researchers led by biomedical scientist Declan F. McCole at the University of California, Riverside, has found that the drug tofacitinib, also called Xeljanz and approved by the FDA to treat rheumatoid arthritis and ulcerative colitis, can repair…
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Scientists ID gene responsible for deadly glioblastoma
Scientists have identified an oncogene (a cancer-causing gene) responsible for glioblastoma, the deadliest brain tumor. The discovery offers a promising new treatment target for a cancer that is always fatal. The researchers say the oncogene is essential to the survival…
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Silencing of an ALS gene safely delivered to patients in new study
UMass Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital are the first to safely treat two research participants with a synthetic microRNA, delivered into the spinal fluid, designed to silence a human disease-causing gene. Details of the treatment, which targeted the mutant…
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Light-activated ‘CRISPR’ triggers precision gene editing and super-fast DNA repair
In a series of experiments using human cancer cell lines, scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine say they have successfully used light as a trigger to make precise cuts in genomic material rapidly, using a molecular scalpel known as CRISPR, and…
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Scientists rescue mini retinas from eye disease via new gene therapy approach
Scientists have developed a new gene therapy approach that offers tremendous promise for one day treating an eye disease that leads to blindness and affects thousands of people across the globe. Researchers from Trinity College Dublin and University College London…
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Researchers discover a novel role for dopamine that impacts gene expression related to cocaine abuse
Scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have discovered a new role for the brain chemical dopamine that is independent of classic neurotransmission. The new role appears to be critical to changes in gene expression related to…
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Gene responsible for controlling activity of T follicular cells identified
A team of researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center has identified the gene responsible for controlling the activity of T follicular helper (TFH) cells. In their paper published in the journal Science Immunology, the group describes their…
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Preclinical study links human gene variant to THC reward in adolescent females
A common variation in a human gene that affects the brain’s reward processing circuit increases vulnerability to the rewarding effects of the main psychoactive ingredient of cannabis in adolescent females, but not males, according to preclinical research by Weill Cornell…
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