News

Hypertension Lowers Survival in African American Women with Breast Cancer

January 27, 2009

Higher rates of hypertension in African American women compared with white women may account for some of the previously found racial disparities in overall survival among women with breast cancer, according to new research. UCSF epidemiologist Dejana Braithwaite, PhD, is among the significant number of ...

Cancer-causing Gene Discovery Suggests New Therapies

January 23, 2009

Scientists have discovered a novel way by which a much-studied cancer-promoting gene accelerates the disease. The finding suggests a new strategy to halt cancer's progress. Up to now, research has largely focused on how the mutated gene, Myc, disrupts the ability of DNA to be ...

In a Human Virus, New Method to ID MicroRNA Targets Proves Its Value

January 20, 2009

MicroRNAs are a very important, newly recognized type of molecule naturally encoded within the human genome. MicroRNAs, or miRNAs, help determine which gene products are produced in a cell. Some miRNAs have been found to act abnormally in cancers, and a few years ago miRNAs ...

UCSF Study Reveals Roots of Endothelial Cell Development

January 15, 2009

A team of UCSF researchers has for the first time identified a genomic regulatory mechanism behind the formation of the cells that line the interior of blood vessels. Their findings, published in the Dec. 12, 2008, issue of Cell, not only advance the study of ...

Study of Powerful Genes and Cancer Points to Vitamin D, Inflammation

January 13, 2009

Thanks to researchers like UCSF's Allan Balmain, PhD, today's accounts of research on genes and cancer are less likely to resemble a tale of blind men describing an elephant. Balmain is at the forefront among those helping other researchers to see more deeply into how ...

Looking Far Afield for Pancreas Cancer Clues

January 12, 2009

Consider the lab mouse. The rodent is used to model tumor growth in countless studies of genes and cancer. About 99 percent of mouse genes also appear in humans. Mouse and human also are similar when one compares the DNA code within these genes. Mice ...