How The Epigenetics Revolution Is Fostering New Medicines
Scientific insights that expand on the teachings of Mendel, Watson and Crick, and underpinnings of the Human Genome Project are moving drug companies along the path to development of new medicines based on deeper insights into how factors other than the genetic code influence health and disease. That's the topic of the cover story in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society.
Colon Cancer - New Mechanism Discovered
Researchers from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have discovered a new mechanism by which colon cancer develops. Whilst concentrating on 'junk DNA' i.e. DNA segments located between genes, the team found a set of master switches (gene enhancer elements) that turn key genes on and off. An alteration in the expression of these genes leads to colon cancers. To describe these master switches, the team has named them Variant Enhancer Loci or 'VELs'. The team points out that VELs are not mutations in the actual DNA sequence, but changes in proteins that bind to DNA.
Non-Surgical Test For Brain Cancer In The Pipeline
In a breakthrough for the way brain cancer is diagnosed and monitored, a team of researchers, lead by Anna M. Krichevsky, PhD, of the Center of Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), have demonstrated that brain tumors can be reliably diagnosed and monitored without surgery. Previously, an accurate non-surgical test to detect brain tumors was unavailable and methods of monitoring a brain tumor's progression or response to treatment were not reliable. The results from this pilot study are published in the online edition of Neuro-Oncology.