Study uncovers new diabetes genes (UK)

Twelve new genes linked with type 2 diabetes have been found in a study into the differences in people's DNA and their risk of having the condition. A consortium including Edinburgh University scientists have identified "important clues to the biological basis of type 2 diabetes". It is hoped the findings will lead to better ways of treating the condition. The genes tend to be involved in working cells producing insulin, which controls levels of glucose in blood. The 12 new genes brings the total number linked with type 2 diabetes to 38. The study was led by researchers at Oxford University and forms part of the Wellcome Trust case control consortium

Scientists jump-start the heart by gene transfer (USA)

Scientists from the Universities of Michigan and Minnesota show in a research report published online in the FASEB Journal that gene therapy may be used to improve an ailing heart's ability to contract properly. In addition to showing gene therapy's potential for reversing the course of heart failure, it also offers a tantalizing glimpse of a day when "closed heart surgery" via gene therapy is as commonly prescribed as today's cocktail of drugs. "We hope that our study will lead some day to the development of new genetic-based therapies for heart failure patients," said Todd J. Herron, Ph.D., one of the researchers involved in the study and research assistant professor of molecular and integrative physiology at the University of Michigan. "The advent of molecular motor-based gene transfer for the failing heart will hopefully improve cardiac function and quality of life for heart failure patients." - EurekAlert