Category Biology/Biotechnology

When offspring are in the womb, what their mothers experience environmentally (for example, diet, stress, smoking), influences the attributes of offspring when they are adults. This ‘developmental programming’ is understood to be a large contributor to the obesity epidemic seen today. Credit: © highwaystarz / Fotolia

The process by which a mother’s diet during pregnancy can permanently affect her offspring’s attributes, such as weight, could be strongly influenced by genetic variation in an unexpected part of the genome, according to research led by Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). The discovery could shed light on why many human genetic studies have previously not been able to fully explain how certain diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and obesity, are inherited.

The study shows g...

Cleavage of an RNA-containing D2C by an RCD.

New platform detects traces of everything from bacteria to viruses, cocaine and metals. DNA is best known as a genetic material, but is also a very programmable molecule that lends itself to engineering for synthetic applications. The new method shapes separately programmed pieces of DNA material into pairs of interlocking circles. The first remains inactive until it is released by the second, like a bicycle wheel in a lock. When the second circle, acting as the lock, is exposed to even a trace of the target substance, it opens, freeing the first circle of DNA, which replicates quickly and creates a signal, eg colour change.

“The key is that it’s selectively triggered by whatever we want to detect,” says Brennan, who holds the Canada Research Ch...

AAV2/8 mediates sustained transgene expression in the mouse abdomen and thorax.

Researchers have developed a new strategy using lung-targeted gene therapy that may lead to improved treatments for inherited diseases including emphysema. Alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency (AATD) is the most common genetic cause of emphysema, a chronic lung disease that leads to significant morbidity and mortality. AATD, which affects up to 100,000 Americans, is caused by inheritance of a single gene mutation.

The current treatment for patients affected by AATD involves weekly intravenous infusion of the normal AAT protein – an inconvenient, invasive and expensive option. Delivery of a normal copy of the gene, known as gene therapy, is an experimental approach to treating some genetic conditions including AATD...

Andrew West. Credit: UAB

Stored samples of urine and CSF from patients with Parkinson’s disease hold a brand-new type of biomarker – a phosphorylated protein that correlates with the presence and severity of Parkinson’s disease. “Nobody thought we’d be able to measure the activity of this huge protein called LRRK2 in biofluids since it is usually found inside neurons in the brain,” said Prof. West. “New biochemical markers like the one we’ve discovered together with new neuroimaging approaches are going to be the key to successfully stopping Parkinson’s disease in its tracks...