Category Archives: Transhuman News

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

18-Dec-2014

Contact: Vithya Selvam vithya_selvam@a-star.edu.sg 656-826-6291 Biomedical Sciences Institutes (BMSI) @astarhq

Scientists at A*STAR's Institute of Medical Biology (IMB) and Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology (IMCB) have identified a genetic pathway that accounts for the extraordinary size of the human brain. The team led by Dr Bruno Reversade from A*STAR in Singapore, together with collaborators from Harvard Medical School, have identified a gene, KATNB1, as an essential component in a genetic pathway responsible for central nervous system development in humans and other animals.

By sequencing the genome of individuals of normal height but with a very small head size, the international team revealed that these individuals had mutations in the KATNB1 gene, indicating that this gene is important for proper human brain development. Microcephaly (literally meaning "small head" in Latin) is a condition often associated with neurodevelopmental disorders. Measured at birth by calculating the baby's head circumference, a diagnosis of microcephaly is given if it is smaller than average.

Microcephaly may stem from a variety of conditions that cause abnormal growth of the brain during gestation or degenerative processes after birth, all resulting in a small head circumference. In general, individuals with microcephaly have a reduced life expectancy due to reduced brain function which is often associated with mental retardation.

The team also carried out further experiments to determine the function of KATNB1, whose exact mode of action was previously unknown in humans. Using organisms specifically designed to lack this gene, they realised that KATNB1 is crucial for the brain to reach its correct size. Zebrafish and mice embryos without this gene could not live past a certain stage and showed dramatic reduction in brain and head size, similar to the human patients. Their results were published in the 17 December 2014 online issue of Neuron, the most influential journal in the field of Neuroscience.

Sequencing and screening for this particular gene before birth or at birth might also help to detect future neurocognitive problems in the general population. Dr Reversade said, "We will continue to search for other genes important for brain development as they may unlock some of the secrets explaining how we, humans, have evolved such cognitive abilities."

Prof Birgit Lane, Executive Director of IMB, said, "This is one of a small number of genes that scientists have found to be vital for brain development. The work is therefore an important advance in understanding the human brain. The team's findings provide a new platform from which to look further into whether - and how - this gene can be used for targeted therapeutic applications."

Prof Hong Wanjin, Executive Director of IMCB, said, "This coordinated effort shows the increasingly collaborative nature of science. As the complexity and interdisciplinary nature of research evolves, so do the networks of collaborations between research institutes at A*STAR and across continents."

Read more here:
A*STAR scientists discover gene critical for proper brain development

Provided by Stuart Wolpert, UCLA

A new research institute at UCLA may eventually provide doctors with tools to more accurately tailor medicines for individual patients, which could both improve quality of care and minimize the side effects associated with todays medicine.

TheInstitute for Quantitative and Computational Biosciences (QCB) will employ multidisciplinary researchto study how molecules and genes interact. Its goal: unlocking the biological basis of health and disease by tapping the power of big data and computational modeling.

UCLAs Institute for Quantitative and Computational Biosciences will have a major, positive impact on human health, said UCLA Chancellor Gene Block. It will engage exceptional faculty from the life sciences and physical sciences, and our David Geffen School of Medicine and Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science to ensure that UCLA is at the forefront of research that will help usher in a new era of personalized health care, and to transform research and education in the biosciences.

The institute is led by Alexander Hoffmann, professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics in the UCLA College, whose research aims to understand how our genes interact to ensure health or produce disease and the roles played by such factors as food, environmental stresses, infectious agents and pharmaceuticals. Among the diseases for which Hoffmanns research may lead to significant progress are cancer and immune disorders, because they are caused by errors in cellular decision-making.

Hoffmann says that biologys million-dollar question is how genes and environment interact to ensure health or cause disease, he said. As UCLA researchers work to answer that question, they will collaborate with UCLA mathematicians who will create mathematical models that help them make sense of a tsunami of biological data.

Biology is entering a new phase, Hoffmann said. So far, biology has been much less math-based than the other sciences. Since the sequencing of the human genome in the early 2000s, there has been an irreversible change in the way biology and biomedical research are being done. At UCLA, we will lead research in that direction and connect basic and applied sciences in an unprecedentedly productive collaboration.

Victoria Sork, dean of the UCLA Division of Life Sciences, said the institutes approach represents the new life sciences and predicts that the new center will accelerate discovery and translational application in many areas, including medicine, the environment, energy, and food production and food safety.

Technological breakthroughs are enabling scientists to analyze not only one gene at a time, but how hundreds or thousands of genes work together, Sork said. Combined with big data, new knowledge of critical gene networks will lead us to a better understanding of what makes humans healthy.

The road to precision medicine

Original post:
UCLA launches revolutionary "big-data" research institute