News by Subject Biology

A weighty new study shows that CRISPR therapies can cut fat without cutting DNA. In a paper published Dec. 13, 2018, in the journal Science, UC San Francisco researchers describe how a modified version of CRISPR was used to ramp up the activity of certain genes and prevent severe obesity in mice with genetic mutations that predispose them to extreme weight gain. Importantly, the researchers achieved long-lasting weight control without making a single edit to the genome.

For the first time ever, biomedical researchers from Aarhus University, Denmark, have unveiled cellular defects that lead to the rare disease hereditary angioedema (HAE), where patients experience recurrent episodes of swelling that requires immediate treatment. This new understanding is an important step towards gene therapy for patients.

Chondral defects caused by tumor, trauma, infection, congenital malformations are very common in clinical trials. It seriously affects the patient's physical function and quality of life. Through this review, the researchers aimed to review the progress of the types and preparation techniques of scaffold materials in cartilage tissue engineering.

The largest study of its kind, led by international researchers including scientists at RCSI (Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland), has discovered 11 new genes associated with epilepsy. The research is published in today's issue of Nature Communications. It greatly advances knowledge of the underlying biological causes of epilepsy and may inform the development of new treatments for the condition.

A team from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) led by Dr. Donald Vinh, the RI's so-called "Dr. House" because of his research into rare diseases, has discovered a new human disease and the gene responsible for it, paving the way for the proper diagnosis of patients globally and the development of new therapies. Their findings are published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Scientists revealed how DNA damage influences mutations. Turned out that its contribution to mutagenesis was underestimated and many of the inheritance mutations are caused not by errors in DNA doubling, but by damage to this fragile molecule. The study was conducted by an international research group and published in Nature Genetics.

Delivering gene-regulating material to cells that live deep in our bone marrow and direct the formation of blood cells. That would be a major step forward in gene therapy and a team of UD researchers has taken that step.