News & Commentaries

Leuven, Belgium – Vincent Pasque and his team at KU Leuven have unravelled parts of a mechanism that may one day help to treat Rett syndrome and other genetic disorders linked to the X chromosome. Women and most female mammals have two X chromosomes, but only one of these is active in any given cell. This active X chromosome is selected through a flip-of-the-coin process in the very early stages of embryonic development: each chromosome has a 50/50 chance of remaining active and getting to express its genes, or to be inactivated through a process called X chromosome inactivation.

San Franciso, CA, USA – UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals have successfully treated a months-old infant with a rare childhood leukemia using a targeted therapy approved for adults with inoperable liver cancer and advanced kidney cancer. The decision to use the drug, sorafenib, was made after pathologists identified a unique mutation in the form of two genes being fused together instead of on separate chromosomes – according to a case study publishing in the journal Leukemia on Sept. 11, 2019

Joensuu, Finland – The expression of many genes that have previously been associated with autism is abnormal also in violent psychopathy, a new study shows. The researchers used stem cell technology to analyze the expression of genes and proteins in the brain cells of psychopathic violent offenders. Published in Molecular Psychiatry, the findings may open up new avenues for the treatment of psychopathy. The study was carried out in collaboration between the University of Eastern Finland, the University of Helsinki and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.

Chicago, IL, USA – The development of new bone can be a multistep process: first, stem cells differentiate into cartilage cells. Next, the cartilage cells become bone cells. But that's not all: the cells must experience some mechanical stresses during the transformation in order to transform efficiently from stem cells to bone cells. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania and Case Western University, have been working on a unique system that delivers stem cells to sites of bone defects and uses flexible fixators – pins and rods that are used to hold bones together – to provide tunable amounts of mechanical stress.