genetic testing news from FierceBioResearcher

Patients most likely to benefit from genetic testing are either avoiding it altogether or paying for it themselves to keep hereditary disease out of their health records--and most importantly, off Read more...

A research team at Genentech has identified two new genes that are linked to lupus, further advancing the biotech giant's work to identify new ways to identify and treat patients with the disease. Read more...

Scientists have developed a novel strategy for tackling neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington's disease: encouraging an individual's own cells to "eat" the malformed proteins that lead to the disease. Professor David Rubinsztein, Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Fellow at the University of Cambridge, has been studying the molecular biology underlying Huntington's and other neurodegenerative diseases. Huntington's occurs when a protein known as huntingtin builds up in the brain cells …

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Cynthia T. McMurray, Ph.D., a professor of pharmacology at the Mayo Clinic, led a research team which has shed new light on the way Huntington's disease develops and how it might eventually be treated or cured. The neurodegenerative disease is triggered by an extra segment of the huntingtin gene that expands and produces a destructive protein that afflicts the brain when it grows too large. The researchers determined that the segment grows when cells try to eliminate oxidative lesions. …

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An international team of scientists including Professor Philippe Froguel of Imperial College, London has identified a group of genetic variants that they believe can flag the risk of type 2 diabetes in 70 percent of all cases. The research points the way to new genetic tests that will be able to identify most of the population at risk of adult-onset diabetes. Once they are identified, a combination of diet and exercise could head off the disease. Their work could also advance fresh …

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Scientists at Taiwan University have developed a five-gene test that can help illuminate which lung cancer patients are likely to benefit from chemotherapy. Standard therapy calls for chemotherapy after surgery to remove a tumor, but some early-stage patients may not gain much benefit from chemo. Others have such aggressive cases that they're unlikely to benefit either.

The scientific team led by Hsuan-Yu Chen studied 125 patients and identified 16 genes that figured into their …

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Working with a team of scientists, neurologist Ira Shoulson, M.D., of the University of Rochester Medical Center has been undertaking a study of Huntington's disease that provides some real insight into how people will respond to a wave of genetic tests that are being developed and marketed. The group is repeatedly testing a group of 1,001 people who are at high risk of developing Huntington's, an incurable disease. These people, who have at least one parent who had the disease, have a 50 …

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