The first integrated understanding of how the human genome functions will be published this week -- the triumphant result of a collaborative five-year project involving more than 440 researchers working in 32 labs worldwide. The Encyclopedia of DNA Elements project, known as ENCODE, will publish simultaneously on 6 September 2012 a massive number of scientific papers, including 1 main integrative paper and 5 others in Nature; 18 in Genome Research; 6 in Genome Biology; and other affiliated papers in Science, Cell, and other scientific journals. During the ENCODE study, ...

Within the genome, sex does matter Yale researchers studying the human genome say they can now tell how much "mom" and how much "dad" is genetically active in each of us. These gender-specific markers may not determine which parent can take credit — or the blame — for the successes or shortcomings of their offspring; however, they could help explain differences in human populations. "We can now track the relative genetic contribution of mom and dad," said Gerstein. All human beings are born with two copies of the genome — one from the mother and one from the father. ...

Deforestation can have a significant effect on tropical rainfall, new research confirms. The findings have potentially devastating impacts for people living in and near the Amazon and Congo forests. A team from the University of Leeds and the NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology found that for the majority of the Earth's tropical land surface, air passing over extensive forests produces at least twice as much rain as air passing over little vegetation. In some cases these forests increased rainfall thousands of kilometres away. By combining observational data with predictions ...

Cambridge, MA. Wed. September 5, 2012 – Most of the DNA alterations that are tied to disease do not alter protein-coding genes, but rather the "switches" that control them. Characterizing these switches is one of many goals of the ENCODE project – a sweeping, international effort to create a compendium of all of the working parts of the human genome that have not been well studied or well understood. The function of the vast majority of the human genome has remained largely unknown, but the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project, launched in 2003, set out to change ...

WORCESTER, MA — The first comprehensive decoding and annotation of the human genome is being published today by the ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project, an international consortium of scientists from 32 institutions, including the University of Massachusetts Medical School. The groundbreaking ENCODE discovery appears in a set of 30 papers in Nature, Genome Research and Genome Biology. Using data generated from 1,649 experiments – with prominent contributions from the labs of UMMS professors Job Dekker and Zhiping Weng – the group has assigned biochemical functions ...

Doctors are calling for improved safety warnings and childproof packaging for laundry and dishwasher detergent liquitabs, following a cluster of incidents in which toddlers have inadvertently swallowed the capsules. The five cases, all of which occurred within the space of 18 months, are reported online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood. The youngest child was just 10 months old, and all the children were under the age of 2. All five children were admitted to one hospital in Glasgow as emergencies, emitting a high pitched wheeze (stridor) indicative of a blockage ...

SANTA CRUZ, CA--A massive international collaboration has enabled scientists to assign specific functions for 80 percent of the human genome, providing new insights into the mechanisms of gene regulation and giving biomedical researchers a solid genetic foundation for understanding how the body works in health and disease. The results of the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project are described in a coordinated set of 30 papers published in several journals on September 5, 2012. Scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have operated the Data Coordination ...

Most professional English football teams don't comply with international guidelines on concussion among players, which ensure they are safe to return to play, indicates research published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. The Consensus in Sport (CIS) guidelines were developed following the first international conference on concussion in sport in 2001. This was convened by the International Ice Hockey Federation, FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association), and the International Olympic Committee Medical Commission in recognition of the inevitability ...

Tests to screen for "silent" neck artery narrowing in a bid to curb the risk of a stroke result in many unnecessary and costly surgical procedures, and ultimately save very few lives, concludes an editorial in the Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery. In 2-6% of European men aged 60 plus, the major arteries supplying the brain (carotid arteries) are narrowed by 50-99%. This condition, termed carotid stenosis or atherosclerosis, accounts for 10-15% of strokes (data not in paper). Carotid atherosclerosis is commonest in those with mild peripheral arterial disease in ...

Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. – Most people understand genes to be specific segments of DNA that determine traits or diseases that are inherited. Textbooks suggest that genes are copied ("transcribed") into RNA molecules, which are then used as templates for making protein – the highly diverse set of molecules that act as building blocks and engines of our cells. The truth, it now appears, is not so simple. As part of a huge collaborative effort called ENCODE (Encyclopedia of DNA Elements), a research team led by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor Thomas Gingeras, ...

The locations of millions of DNA 'switches' that dictate how, when, and where in the body different genes turn on and off have been identified by a research team led by the University of Washington in Seattle. Genes make up only 2 percent of the human genome and were easy to spot, but the on/off switches controlling those genes were encrypted within the remaining 98 percent of the genome. Without these switches, called regulatory DNA, genes are inert. Researchers around the world have been focused on identifying regulatory DNA to understand how the genome works. ...

Boston, MA – Each year, nearly 2 million people die from tuberculosis – a treatable disease that has been brought under control in the United States, but continues to ravage other parts of the world. This health inequity should prompt a complete rethinking of the way tuberculosis is fought on a global level, argue Salmaan Keshavjee, MD, PhD, and Paul Farmer, MD, PhD, from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH). Their argument appears in an essay published September 6 in the New England Journal of Medicine. "The global approach to fighting tuberculosis has been lacking," ...

ENCODE, an international research project led by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), has produced and analyzed 1649 data sets designed to annotate functional elements of the entire human genome. Data on transcription starting sites (TSS) contributed by a research team at the RIKEN Omics Science Center provided key anchor points linking the epigenetic status of genes observed at the 5' end directly to their RNA output. The ENCODE (Encyclopedia of DNA Elements) project aims to delineate all functional elements encoded in the human genome. Thirty-two institutes ...

This press release is available in German. Physicists at the University of Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences have achieved quantum teleportation over a record distance of 143 km. The experiment is a major step towards satellite-based quantum communication. The results have now been published in "Nature" (Advance Online Publication/AOP). An international team led by the Austrian physicist Anton Zeilinger has successfully transmitted quantum states between the two Canary Islands of La Palma and Tenerife, over a distance of 143 km. The previous record, set ...

Cambridge, Mass. - September 5, 2012 - A team of experts in mechanics, materials science, and tissue engineering at Harvard have created an extremely stretchy and tough gel that may pave the way to replacing damaged cartilage in human joints. Called a hydrogel, because its main ingredient is water, the new material is a hybrid of two weak gels that combine to create something much stronger. Not only can this new gel stretch to 21 times its original length, but it is also exceptionally tough, self-healing, and biocompatible—a valuable collection of attributes that opens ...

Genome Research publishes online and in print today a special issue dedicated to The ENCODE (ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements) Project, whose goal is to characterize all functional elements in the human genome. Since the completion of the pilot phase of the project in 2007, covering 1% of the genome, The ENCODE Consortium has fanned out across the genome to study function and regulation on an unprecedented scale. This special issue presents novel findings, methodologies, and resources from ENCODE that bring extensive insight to gene regulation and set the stage for future ...

(Boston) – Results of a study led by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and the Veterans Affairs (VA) Boston Healthcare System indicate that the proposed changes to the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) will not substantially affect the number of people who meet criteria for the disorder. Mark W. Miller, PhD, associate professor at BUSM and a clinical research psychologist at the National Center for PTSD at VA Boston Healthcare System served as lead author of the study, which is published online in Psychological Trauma: Theory, ...

Windows to the past, stars can unveil the history of our universe, currently estimated to be 14 billion years old. The farther away the star, the older it is — and the oldest stars are the most difficult to detect. Current telescopes can only see galaxies about 700 million years old, and only when the galaxy is unusually large or as the result of a big event like a stellar explosion. Now, an international team of scientists led by researchers at Tel Aviv University have developed a method for detecting galaxies of stars that formed when the universe was in its infancy, ...

Scientists have completed a comprehensive map of genetic mutations linked to an aggressive and lethal type of lung cancer. Among the errors found in small cell lung cancers, the team of scientists, including those at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, found an alteration in a gene called SOX2 associated with early embryonic development. "Small cell lung cancers are very aggressive. Most are found late, when the cancer has spread and typical survival is less than a year after diagnosis," says Charles Rudin, M.D., Ph.D., professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Aiming to cut expenses and improve care, a 2008 Medicare policy stopped paying hospitals extra to treat some preventable, hospital-acquired conditions – including urinary tract infections (UTIs) in patients after bladder catheters are placed. But a statewide analysis by the University of Michigan shows there was very little change in hospital payment due to removing pay for hospital-acquired catheter-associated UTIs. For all adult hospital stays in Michigan in 2009, eliminating payment for this infection decreased hospital pay for only 25 hospital ...

RICHLAND, Wash. – Today's light-emitting diode light bulbs have a slight environmental edge over compact fluorescent lamps. And that gap is expected to grow significantly as technology and manufacturing methods improve in the next five years, according to a new report from the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and UK-based N14 Energy Limited. "The light-emitting diode lamp is a rapidly evolving technology that, while already energy efficient, will become even more so in just a few short years," said Marc Ledbetter, who manages PNNL's solid-state ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—The rhetoric is relentless: America is a place of unparalleled opportunity, where hard work and determination can propel a child out of humble beginnings into the White House, or at least a mansion on a hill. But the reality is very different, according to a University of Michigan researcher who is studying inequality across generations around the world. "Especially in the United States, people underestimate the extent to which your destiny is linked to your background. Research shows that it's really a myth that the U.S. is a land of exceptional social ...

JEJU, SOUTH KOREA (September 5, 2012) — Will the tiger go the way of the passenger pigeon or be saved from extinction like the American bison? The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) today released a list of Asian species that are at a conservation crossroads calling for governments to take immediate action with The Three R's Approach: Recognition, Responsibility, Recovery. The list includes: the tiger, orangutans, Mekong giant catfish, Asian rhinos, Asian giant river turtles, and Asian vultures. The announcement was made at the IUCN's World Conservation Congress convening ...

Attention men: The day may be coming soon when you can take your own birth control pill with no side effects, according to a study done by a group of scientists that includes a Texas A&M University researcher. Qinglei Li, an assistant professor in Texas A&M's College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, is part of a team of researchers led by Martin Matzuk at Baylor College of Medicine and James Bradner at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute who made the discovery, and their work is published in the journal Cell. Working on mice, the team found that a compound called ...

The National Human Genome Research Institute today announced the results of a five-year international study of the regulation and organization of the human genome. The project is named ENCODE, which stands for the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements. In conjunction with the release of those results, the Journal of Biological Chemistry has published a series of reviews that focus on several aspects of the findings. "The ENCODE project not only generated an enormous body of data about our genome, but it also analyzed many issues to better understand how the genome functions in ...