Category Archives: Transhuman News

Gene publishes papers that focus on the regulation, expression, function and evolution of genes in all biological contexts, including all prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms, as well as viruses.

Gene strives to be a very diverse journal and topics in all fields will be considered for publication. Although not limited to the following, some general topics include:

DNA Organization, Replication & Evolution -Focus on genomic DNA (chromosomal organization, comparative genomics, DNA replication, DNA repair, mobile DNA, mitochondrial DNA, chloroplast DNA). Expression & Function - Focus on functional RNAs (microRNAs, tRNAs, rRNAs, mRNA splicing, alternative polyadenylation) Regulation - Focus on processes that mediate gene-read out (epigenetics, chromatin, histone code, transcription, translation, protein degradation). Cell Signaling - Focus on mechanisms that control information flow into the nucleus to control gene expression (kinase and phosphatase pathways controlled by extra-cellular ligands, Wnt, Notch, TGFbeta/BMPs, FGFs, IGFs etc.) Profiling of gene expression and genetic variation - Focus on high throughput approaches (e.g., DeepSeq, ChIP-Seq, Affymetrix microarrays, proteomics) that define gene regulatory circuitry, molecular pathways and protein/protein networks. Genetics - Focus on development in model organisms (e.g., mouse, frog, fruit fly, worm), human genetic variation, population genetics, as well as agricultural and veterinary genetics. Molecular Pathology & Regenerative Medicine - Focus on the deregulation of molecular processes in human diseases and mechanisms supporting regeneration of tissues through pluripotent or multipotent stem cells.

Gene encourages submission of novel manuscripts that present a reasonable level of analysis, functional relevance and/or mechanistic insight. Gene also welcomes papers that have predominantly a descriptive component but improve the essential basis of knowledge for subsequent functional studies, or provide important confirmation of recently published discoveries.

The primary criteria for acceptance are that the work is original and scientifically sound. The journal appreciates that standards of novelty are arbitrary, differ among disciplines and geographic locations, as well as change with time. In partnership with Editors, Referees and Authors, the journal will promote the revision of papers to ensure that accepted papers are reasonably complete and competitive with concurrent submissions in a given field.

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Gene - Official Site

An Obama initiative seeks to channel a torrent of gene information into treatments for cancer, other diseases.

President Barack Obama is proposing to spend $215 million on a precision medicine initiative the centerpiece of which will be a national study involving the health records and DNA of one million volunteers, administration officials said yesterday.

Precision medicine refers to treatments tailored to a persons genetic profile, an idea already transforming how doctors fight cancer and some rare diseases.

The Obama plan, including support for studies of cancer and rare disease, is part of a shift away from one-size-fits-all medicine, Jo Handelsman, associate director for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said in a briefing yesterday. She called precision medicine a game changer that holds the potential to revolutionize how we approach health in this country and around the world.

The White House said the largest part of the money, $130 million, would go to the National Institutes of Health in order to create a population-scale study of how peoples genes, environment, and lifestyle affect their health.

According to Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, the study will recruit new volunteers as well as merging data from several large studies already under way. Details still need to be sorted out, said Collins, but the study could eventually involve completely decoding the genomes of hundreds of thousands of people.

Officials indicated that patients might have more access to data generated about them than is usually the case in research studies. That is partly because scientists will need the ability to re-contact them, should their genes prove interesting.

We arent just talking about research but also about patients access to their own data, so they can participate fully in decisions about their health that affect them, said John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

The Obama initiative, which the president first announced during his State of the Union address, also allocates $70 million for DNA-driven research on cancer and another $10 million for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which has struggled to regulate genome tests.

Collins said the U.S. is not seeking to create a single bio-bank. Instead, the project would look to combine data from among what he called more than 200 large American health studies that are ongoing and together involve at least two million people. Fortunately, we dont have to start from scratch, he said. The challenge of this initiative is to link those together. Its more a distributed approach than centralized.

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U.S. to Develop DNA Study of One Million People

President Obamas $215 million plan to expand research for cancer treatments to fit each individuals genetic makeup could mark a major shift in modern medicine, according to local geneticists.

I think there may be a tipping point soon when people realize genomic medicine is valuable, and this may be part of it, said George Church, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School. This seems to be part of a grass-roots groundswell that will lead to everyone wanting to have access to their genomic data.

The effort, which Obama called the precision medicine initiative, would study the genes of about a million volunteers to figure out how to personalize treatments for patients instead of using the same approach for each condition.

Doctors have always recognized that every patient is unique, and doctors have always tried to tailor their treatments as best they can to individuals, Obama said yesterday at the White House as he announced the initiative. You can match a blood transfusion to a blood type. That was an important discovery. What if matching a cancer cure to our genetic code was just as easy, just as standard?

The initiative will be in the budget Obama sends to Congress on Monday.

The president said the effort would provide the National Cancer Institute funds to identify genetic factors that cause cancer to help develop sophisticated new treatments. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration would also receive money to evaluate next-generation genetic tests.

Dr. Robert Green, a medical geneticist and physician-scientist at Brigham and Womens Hospital and Harvard Medical School, said the effort is something that the field has yearned for for many years.

Itll be a wonderful accelerator of progress, he said.

He added that while there is some skepticism about whether the field is solid enough now to invest in, this is exactly what is needed to take us to the point where we can start proving the worth of genomic medicine.

Local biotech executives, including from Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Foundation Medicine, were at the White House event.

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Barack Obama eyes gene therapy growth