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A buildup of chemical bonds on certain cancer-promoting genes, a process known as hypermethylation, is widely known to render cells cancerous by disrupting biological brakes on runaway growth. Now, Johns Hopkins scientists say the reverse process — demethylation — which wipes off those chemical bonds may also trigger more than half of all cancers. One potential consequence of the new research is that demethylating drugs now used to treat some cancers may actually cause new cancers as a side effect. "It's much too early to say for certain, but some patients could be at risk for additional primary tumors, and...

As the human genome gradually yields up its secrets, scientists are finding some genetic events, such as rearrangements in chromosomes, are less random than they had previously thought. Originating as structural weaknesses in unstable stretches of DNA, abnormal chromosomes may, rarely, result in a disabling genetic disease one or two generations later. A report in the Feb. 17 issue of Science by genetics researchers at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania analyzes genetic predisposition to the translocation t(11;22), a swapping of genetic material between chromosomes 11 and 22. They found an unexpectedly high frequency of new...

Environment can change the way our genes work Environmental factors such as stress and diet could be affecting the genes of future generations leading to increased rates of obesity, heart disease and diabetes.A study of people suffering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after the 9/11 attacks in New York made a striking discovery. The patients included mothers who were pregnant on 9/11 and found altered levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the blood of their babies. This effect was most pronounced for mothers who were in the third trimester of pregnancy suggesting events in the womb might be responsible....

Frederick T. Zugibe, M.S., M.D., Ph.D., FCAP,  FACC,  FAAFS      HOMECONTACT FORENSIC PATHOLOGY & MEDICINE Biography Publications News Public Health Psychotropic  Drugs Study   CRUCIFIXION and SHROUD STUDIES Crucifixion & Shroud Involvement Barbet Revisited Man of the Shroud was Washed Texas Lecture Paris  Lecture Turin 2000 Lecture MISCELLANEOUS: The Code for Human Life                                                          THE CODE FOR HUMAN LIFE  [Reprinted from the Catholic Answer 9: 40-45,1996]     A fertilized human egg at the moment of Conception, is the opinion of the creator that a human life at that instant, must begin.... F. Zugibe    ...

Published online: 24 October 2005Charlotte SchubertY chromosomes reveal founding fatherDid conquest and concubines spread one man's genes across Asia? The Manchu warriors took control of China in 1644. © Punchstock About 1.5 million men in northern China and Mongolia may be descended from a single man, according to a study based on Y chromosome genetics1. Historical records suggest that this man may be Giocangga, who lived in the mid-1500s and whose grandson founded the Qing dynasty, which ruled China from 1644 to 1912. The analysis is similar to a controversial study in 2003, which suggested that approximately 16 million men...

A detailed analysis of chromosomes 2 and 4 has detected the largest "gene deserts" known in the human genome and uncovered more evidence that human chromosome 2 arose from the fusion of two ancestral ape chromosomes, researchers supported by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), reported today. In a study published in the April 7 issue of the journal Nature, a multi-institution team, led by [load of names deleted, but available in the original article]. "This analysis is an impressive achievement that will deepen our understanding of the human genome and...

In 1927, Karpechenko made a hybrid of the common radish, Raphanus sativus, and cabbage, Brassica oleracea. Each parent has a diploid chromosome number of 2N=18. The hybrid also had 18 chromosomes, but because normal sperm and eggs could not be formed, the hybrid was sterile, as is common in such cases. However, some of the "sterile" hybrids produced a few viable seeds. These seeds were produced when the chromosome number spontaneously doubled. The doubling permitted the pairing of partner chromosomes and the formation of gametes with 1N=18. Karpechenko witnessed the birth of a new species in the passage of only...

Researchers working in Iceland said on Sunday they identified a genetic pattern that makes some Europeans more fertile. The genetic pattern, known as an inversion, is a stretch of the DNA code that runs backwards in people who carry it. Usually, such rearrangements of a chromosome are harmful to carriers. But this one causes carriers to have more children each generation -- giving them what is known as a selective advantage, the researchers reported. The finding, published in Monday's issue of the journal Nature Genetics, opens some interesting questions about human evolution, the team at Iceland's DeCODE Genetics said. "We...

[Alcock] uncritically accepts the conclusions from highly contested studies of the genetics of human behavior, such as the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart of Thomas J. Bouchard and his colleagues. In fact, the field of human behavior genetics is in a crisis stage, as the great hope of finding behavioral genes with the new DNA technologies has disappointed. Many of the concerns about this field of research parallel those offered by the critics of sociobiology -- that researchers have paid too little attention to nongenetic factors in collecting and analyzing their data. Alcock is at his worst when describing...

According to the written and oral traditions of the three major religions of the Western world, Abraham was a real person who lived in the Middle East nearly 4,000 years ago. According to each respective tradition, he was the first of the Fathers of the Jewish people, fathered the Arab nations and Islam, and laid the conceptual basis for Christianity. Tradition relates that he may have influenced early Eastern religion, as well.Abraham is the first to be called a Hebrew - Ivri -- one who passes over from one side to the other. He received this title because he actually...

Every species seems to come and go. Some last longer than others, but nothing lasts forever. Humans are a relatively recent phenomenon, jumping out of trees and striding across the land around 200 000 years ago. Will we persist for many millions of years to come, or are we headed for an evolutionary makeover, or even extinction? According to Reinhard Stindl, of the Institute of Medical Biology in Vienna, the answer to this question could lie at the tips of our chromosomes. In a controversial new theory he suggests that all eukaryotic species (everything except bacteria and algae) have an...

He is blond and 3 years old, 33 pounds of compressed energy wrapped in OshKosh overalls. In an evaluation room at Yale's Child Study Center, he ignores Big Bird, pauses to watch the bubbles that a social worker blows through a wand, jumps up and down. But it is the two-way mirror that fascinates him, drawing him back to stare into the glass, to touch it, to lick it with his tongue. At 17 months, after several ear infections and a bout of the flu, the toddler's budding language skills began to deteriorate, his parents tell the evaluators. In the...

Source:   University Of California - San Diego Date:   2003-10-13 From Genome Comparisons, UCSD Researchers Learn Lessons About Evolution And Cancer San Diego, Oct. 10, 2003 -- In 1905, American astronomer Percival Lowell predicted the existence of a new planet he called Planet X. Lowell proved that this new planet existed even though no one had been able to see it in the sky. Twenty-five years later, astronomer Clyde Tombaugh stumbled on images of X photographed from the Flagstaff Observatory in Arizona. Today, that planet is known as Pluto.While it took twenty-five years for astronomers to go from theory to...

Y chromosomes rewrite British historyAnglo-Saxons' genetic stamp weaker than historians suspected 19 June 2003 HANNAH HOAG Some Scottish men's Y's are remarkably similar to those of southern England. © GettyImages A new survey of Y chromosomes in the British Isles suggests that the Anglo-Saxons failed to leave as much of a genetic stamp on the UK as history books imply1. Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Danes, Vikings and Normans invaded Britain repeatedly between 50 BC and AD 1050. Many historians ascribe much of the British ancestry to the Anglo-Saxons because their written legacy overshadows that of the Celts. But the Y chromosomes of...

Picture an imperfect hall of mirrors, with gene sequences reflecting wildly: That's the human genome. The duplications that riddle the genome range greatly in size, clustered in some areas yet absent in others, residing in gene jungles as well as within vast expanses of seemingly genetic gibberish. And in their organization lie clues to genome origins. "We've known for some time that duplications are the primary force for genes and genomes to evolve over time," says Evan Eichler, director of the bioinformatics core facility at the Center for Computational Genomics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland. For three decades, based largely...

Faulty Genes Explain Why Cloning Is So DifficultMon May 27, 3:07 PM ETCloning may not always completely reprogramme an egg cell the way sexual reproduction does, which might explain why the process fails more often than it works, experts say. Dolly, the world's first cloned animal, stands in her pen at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh in this February 23, 1997, file photo. REUTERS WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cloning may not always completely reprogram an egg cell the way sexual reproduction does, which would explain why the process fails so often, researchers reported on Monday. While lawmakers around the world debate...