Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have discovered a novel cause of iron overload in patients with thalassemia, a genetic blood disorder that causes anemia. According to the study, thalassemia patients overproduce a protein called GDF15, which suppresses the production of a liver protein, hepcidin, which in turn leads to an increase in the uptake of dietary iron in the gut. [click link for full article]

A molecular diagnostic test that detects chromosome abnormalities associated with 85 developmental disorders affecting children now is commercially available from a national diagnostic testing company, affording testing and reimbursement by leading health plans across the U.S. [click link for full article]

The Conaway Lab -- led by Joan Conaway, Ph.D., and Ron Conaway, Ph.D., Investigators -- has published findings that shed light on the role of the much-studied transcription factor YY1 in gene expression. Yong Cai, Ph.D., Research Specialist I, and Jingji Jin, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate, are the paper's coequal first authors.The paper, "YY1 Functions with INO80 to Activate Transcription," has been posted to the Web site of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. 26. [click link for full article]

Some scientific results are hard to spot, especially in genetic research. Often scientists are unable to physically see if the gene they inserted into a cell has produced the desired trait. To overcome this problem researchers use various genetic markers that contain pieces of foreign DNA that cause cells to, for example, glow when exposed to ultraviolet light. [click link for full article]

A research team has for the first time ever discovered DNA from living bacteria that are more than half a million years old. Never before has traces of still living organisms that old been found. The exceptional discovery can lead to a better understanding of the ageing of cells and might even cast light on the question of life on Mars. The discovery is being published in the current issue of PNAS (Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences of The United States of America). [click link for full article]

The Johns Hopkins scientist who first showed that the absence of the protein myostatin leads to oversized muscles in mice and men has now found a second protein, follistatin, whose overproduction in mice lacking myostatin doubles the muscle-building effect. [click link for full article]

Aperts syndrome is a condition caused by a mutation that produces fused fingers and toes, and alters cranial development in affected children. It arises spontaneously, but why the mutation that causes this syndrome appears so frequently has been a mystery. In a new study published this week in the open-access journal [click link for full article]