messenger rna news from FierceBioResearcher

Two doctors engaged in RNA research--Dr. Joan Steitz, Ph.D., and Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, Ph.D.--became the first women to win the prestigious Albany Medical Center Prize, one of the richest awards Read more...

A researcher at the University of Oxford has found a piece of RNA that can act as a switch on cancer tumors, effectively turning them off. The "scrap" molecule inhibits a gene responsible for creating a protein needed in a chemical used in the division of tumor cells. According to Dr Alexandre Akoulitchev, inhibiting the DHFR gene could stop the growth of neoplastic cancerous cells which develop into tumor cells. That work in turn has helped shed new light on the "junk" DNA present which …

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ExonHit has developed a new messenger RNA map coming from human genome expression based on their discovery of alternative splicing events. This new map, they say, will allow scientists to easily characterize transcripts expressed from genes of their choice. Release

Researchers at the University of Virginia say that they've been able to reverse muscular dystrophy in mice using a therapy that could eventually be used in humans. The key was silencing toxic messenger RNA molecules--which are created by faulty DNA code--that create abnormalities which in turn causes a progressive weakening of muscles, wasting and heart ailments. Those are all common symptoms of myotonic dystrophy, the most common form of MD. The researchers first developed mice with …

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