Molecular diagnostics and bioinformatics company OpGen which focuses on infectious disease, announced an investigator-initiated collaboration with Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, to identify bacterial co-infections in patients admitted to the ICU for COVID-19 pneumonia. High-risk COVID-19 patients, which includes the elderly and others with co-morbidities including diabetes and obesity, are also at…

Researchers believe a combination of health factors and type II diabetes puts some patients at a higher risk than others for suffering more severe effects of COVID-19. A new study from the National Institute of Health (NIH) may explain why certain populations in the US are more prone to develop…

Sarah H. Elsea, Ph.D. Sarah H. Elsea has been elected to the board of directors of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics Foundation  (ACMGF). Elsea, Ph.D., FACMG, is professor of molecular and human genetics at Baylor College of Medicine and senior director of biochemical…

The coming decade is guaranteed to bring a panoply of emerging fields will help us better understand the intersection between genetics and health and how to incorporate them into routine medical practice. Polygenic risk scores (PRS) is, perhaps, at the top of the “must watch” list. With a firm footing…

ProSciento said today it will combine its predictive screening methodology and clinical protocol with Nordic Bioscience’s biomarker technology in a collaboration designed to improve the diagnosis, prognosis and development of therapeutics for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Under their collaboration—whose value was not disclosed—the companies plan…

The results of studies in mice by researchers at Georgia State University suggest that targeted immunization against bacterial flagellin, the major structural protein of bacterial flagella, could represent a new strategy to protect against chronic inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. The scientists, headed by a team at the Institute…

Some people wake early every morning to run, bike, swim, or lift. For others, finding the motivation to work out can be more of a challenge. A new study shows that the difference between the two may be held in the epigenetic control of the expression of certain genes. And,…

Although it is recommended for most people to get 7 to 9 hours of sleep, there are some people who can sleep for just 4 to 6 hours and feel well-rested. The team that identified two known human genes that promote this “natural short sleep” have now discovered a third,…

Two independent sets of research published in Science Immunology have demonstrated how a subset of immune cells in the gut, known as group 3 innate lymphoid cells (ILC3), are tuned to the body’s daily circadian clock as they sense and interact with gut microbes. Collective results from the research indicate…

Gene-editing pioneers based at the University of California (UC) are partnering with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to establish a new laboratory that will explore how gene mutations cause disease, and develop new CRISPR-based technologies aimed at speeding up drug discovery. Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D., of UC Berkeley, and Jonathan Weissman, Ph.D., of UC…

The transfer of human microbiota to mice has successfully transplanted phenotypes of obesity, depression, Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, and multiple sclerosis. Now, we can add autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to the list. A new study suggests that the gut microbiome and its metabolites contribute to hallmark ASD behaviors and associated neuronal…

Sleep isn’t just a lazy way to spend your weekend morning time, it’s an essential biological function associated with good health (when appropriately obtained) or disease (when deficient). While humans spend roughly one-third of our lives sleeping, our understanding of how this biological process is regulated is poorly understood. Yet,…

The identification of obesity-associated genes has been a growing area of research over the last two decades, altering our understanding of obesity. A new study broadens our understanding of genes’ role in obesity by targeting body-fat distribution. Specifically, the researchers present the first association of body-fat distribution, assessed by waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) adjusted…

The risk of death, like the risk of disease, rises with age. That much is obvious. What is less obvious is that for mortality and disease, the underlying risk dynamics—what might be called the actuarial contours of decline—are closely associated. In fact, the contours are so similar that scientists suspect…

The risk of developing diseases such as cardiovascular and metabolic diseases has been linked with where in our bodies we tend to accumulate fat. A large-scale genome-wide association study carried out by researchers at Uppsala University has now identified dozens of genetic factors that influence the distribution of fat, and…