(Press-News.org) This news release is available in French.
Recent technological developments in genomics have revealed a large number of genetic influences on common complex diseases, such as diabetes, asthma, cancer or schizophrenia. However, discovering a genetic variant predisposing to a disease is only a first step. To apply this knowledge towards prevention or cure, including tailoring treatment to the patient's genetic profile –also known as personalized medicine – we need to know how this genetic variant affects health.
In a study published today in Nature Communications, Dr. Constantin Polychronakos from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC), and collaborators from McGill University and The University of Texas, propose a novel approach for scanning the entire genome that will help us understand the effect of genes on human traits.
"This completely new methodology really opens up different ways of understanding how the genome affects the biology of the human body", says Dr. Polychronakos, corresponding author of the study and Director of the Endocrine Genetics Laboratory at the Montreal Children's Hospital and Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Human Genetics at McGill University.
DNA is the blueprint according to which our body is constructed and functions. Cells "read" this blueprint by transcribing the information into RNA, which is then used as a template to construct proteins – the body's building blocks. Genes are scanned based on the association of their RNA with ribosomes – particles in which protein synthesis takes place.
"Until now, researchers have been focusing on the effects of disease-associated genomic variants on DNA-to-RNA transcription, instead of the challenging question of effects on RNA-to-protein translation," says Dr. Polychronakos. "Thanks to this methodology, we can now better understand the effect of genetic variants on translation of RNA to protein – a powerful way of developing biomarkers for personalized medicine and new therapies."
INFORMATION:
About this study:
Supported by the McGill University and Genome Québec Innovation Centre, the research team applied this method to a diabetes gene and discovered that at least one of the 50 genetic loci that confer risk to type-1 diabetes shows an effect on the human body by altering RNA translation to protein.
This paper is one of six that were chosen, from approximately 4000, for presentation at the plenary session of the 2012 conference of the American Society of Human Genetics.
This work was funded by Genome Canada, Génome Québec (GRiD project) and the DP3
program of the USA National Institutes of Health (NIDDK).
To access the online study: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2013/130731/ncomms3260/full/ncomms3260.html
The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) is a world-renowned biomedical and health-care hospital research centre. Located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the Institute is the research arm of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University. The Institute supports over 600 researchers, over 1,100 graduate students and post-docs and fellows devoted to a broad spectrum of fundamental and clinical research. Over 1,800 clinical research studies are conducted within our hospitals each year. The Research Institute of the MUHC is supported in part by the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Santé (FRQS). For more information, visit http://www.muhc.ca/research/
About McGill University
Founded in Montreal, Quebec, in 1821, McGill is a leading Canadian post-secondary institution. It has two campuses, 11 faculties, 11 professional schools, 300 programs of study and some 39,000 students, including more than 9,300 graduate students. McGill attracts students from over 150 countries around the world, its 8,200 international students making up 21 per cent of the student body. Almost half of McGill students claim a first language other than English, including approximately 40 per cent whose first language is French or who speak it fluently. http://www.mcgill.ca
About Génome Québec
Since May 2000, Génome Québec has been the driving force behind the development of genomics in Québec. By supporting nearly 80 projects and 800 researchers and managing the operations of the McGill University and Génome Québec Innovation Centre, Génome Québec is helping to accelerate the discovery of new applications for genomics in strategic areas, such as human health, forestry and the environment.
The funds invested by Génome Québec are provided by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, the Government of Canada, through Genome Canada, and private partners. For more information, visit http://www.genomequebec.com
Media contact:
Julie Robert
Public Affairs and Strategic Planning
McGill University Health Centre
514 934 1934 ext. 71381
julie.robert@muhc.mcgill.ca
muhc.ca | facebook.com/cusm.muhc
END
(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– Chanel, UC Santa Barbara's corpse flower, has finally spread her odiferous wings, broadcasting a stench that smells like a cross between rotting flesh and Limburger cheese. "It's disgusting," said UCSB junior Connor Way, who visited Wednesday morning. "It's pretty nasty."
Other visitors said Chanel smelled like "French cheese" or "a dead rat in a wall." Alex Feldwinn, a computer technician in the Life Science Computing Group at UCSB said, "It really smells like a dead animal –– not just a dead animal, but a rotting one." Edith Ogella, a longtime ...
Administering the drug rituximab once weekly for one month provides the same benefits as 18 months of daily immunosuppressive therapy in people with severe forms of vasculitis, or inflammation of the blood vessels, a study has found.
Researchers from the Immune Tolerance Network (ITN), an international clinical trials group funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), found that rituximab is as effective as the standard therapy at inducing and maintaining disease remission. The findings appear ...
Women who gave birth following fertility treatment had no long-term increased risk of death or major cardiovascular events compared to women who gave birth without fertility therapy, according to new research by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) and Women's College Hospital.
The findings, published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, are the first to show fertility medications, which can cause short-term pregnancy complications, are not associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease later in life.
"The speculated ...
Principal Investigator George Ricker likes to call it the "Goldilocks orbit" — it's not too close to Earth and her Moon, and it's not too far. In fact, it's just right.
And as a result of this never-before-used orbit — advanced and fine-tuned by NASA engineers and other members of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) team — the Explorer mission led by Ricker will be perfectly positioned to map the locations of more than 500 transiting exoplanets, extrasolar planets that periodically eclipse each one's host star. When the two-year mission begins in the 2017-2018 ...
Traveling to remote locations sometimes involves navigating through stop-and-go traffic, traversing long stretches of highway and maneuvering sharp turns and steep hills. The same can be said for guiding spacecraft to far-flung destinations in space. It isn't always a straight shot.
A NASA technologist has developed a fully automated tool that gives mission planners a preliminary set of detailed directions for efficiently steering a spacecraft to hard-to-reach interplanetary destinations, such as Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, and most comets and asteroids.
The tool, the ...
No sooner had Tropical Storm Flossie dissipated then another tropical cyclone called Tropical Depression 7E formed yesterday, July 30, in the eastern Pacific Ocean. NASA's TRMM satellite saw "hot towers" in the storm's center early on July 31, that indicated it would likely strengthen, and it became Tropical Storm Gil hours later.
NASA and the Japan Space Agency's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite traveled above intensifying tropical storm Gil on July 31, 2013 at 0455 UTC or 12:55 a.m. EDT. The TRMM satellite pass showed that Gil was already very well ...
Tropical Depression Flossie fizzled fast on July 30 in the Central Pacific Ocean. Satellite imagery on July 31 showed remnant clouds northwest of the Hawaiian Island chain.
NOAA's Central Pacific Hurricane Center issued the final advisory on the remnants of Tropical Depression Flossie on July 30 at 1500 UTC/11 a.m. EDT. At that time Flossie's remnant low pressure area was centered near 22.3 north latitude and 159.8 west longitude, about 140 miles west-northwest of Honolulu, Hawaii. The low pressure area was still moving to the west-northwest at 16 knots and the maximum ...
Probing the preformation of the α-particle in the α-decay process is a very attractive subject in studies of nuclear structure. Recently, this crucial α-preformation probability was empirically deduced and exhibits a new feature that had been inferred to some extent by Professor REN Zhongzhou and his group from Department of Physics, Nanjing University. This work, titled "Model-independent trend of α-preformation probability", was published in SCIENCE CHINA Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy 2013, Vol. 56(8).
Dating back to the end of the 19th century, ...
Partners of new mothers often experience shifts in sexuality, and these shifts are often unrelated to biological or medical factors pertaining to childbirth. The findings, which are published in a recent issue of The Journal of Sexual Medicine, expand current understanding of postpartum sexuality, and may help health professionals as they counsel new parents.
Research on postpartum sexuality has typically focused on female reproductive biology in birth mothers—for example, how hormonal changes that accompany pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding affect sexual desire, or ...
The American Thoracic Society has released new clinical practice guidelines on the classification, evaluation and management of childhood interstitial lung disease (chILD) in infants. Childhood ILD includes a diverse group of rare lung diseases found in infants, children and teens that involve the interstitial tissues of the lung, which surround the air sacs (alveoli) in the lung and airways (breathing tubes). It is not known how many children have these disorders. Some types of chILD are caused by other diseases, while the cause is unclear in others, and prognosis varies ...
