Huntington's Disease news from FierceBioResearcher

The UK's Wellcome Trust says it will pump up its research spending by 60 percent over the next five years as it ambitiously seeks a better understanding of diseases at a genetic level. The funding 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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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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Researchers at the University of Washington say they've found that the tissue that surrounds neurons in the central nervous system--known as glia-plays a role in neurodegeneration. Using a mouse model, the scientists found that the reduced transfer of glutamate into glial cells played a role in the degeneration of Purkinje neurons. The theory is that that may be the cause of neuronal death seen in diseases like Alzheimer's, Huntington's and prion disease. Their focus was on …

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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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More Research News

> Researchers at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, TN say that they have found that cell death occurs as a rapid event that occurs with the almost simultaneous release of apoptosis proteins. Researchers had believed that cell death was a sequential event. Apoptosis, they say, swiftly eliminates extraneous, damaged or harmful cells. …

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