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Genes that act as brakes to stop the development of an aggressive form of leukaemia have been identified by researchers.

Their findings offer fresh insights into how to tackle the disease and could lead to new therapies that prevent relapses.

Scientists have found that two molecules - Hif-1alpha and Hif-2alpha - work together to stop the formation of leukemic stem cells in an aggressive type of blood cancer called Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML).

New results from a study performed at the University of Helsinki suggest that genomic information from circulating influenza viruses can help in producing more efficient seasonal vaccines. The researchers were able to develop a simple approach for reliable real-time tracking and prediction of viral evolution based on whole-genome sequences of influenza viruses.

It is not only size that matters when planning a protected area, other spatial features such as shape are also critical to the number of animal species found there. A new study from the University of Exeter assessed the spatial characteristics of more than 400 South American protected areas - places legally protected for the long term conservation of nature - to determine what affects the number of amphibians, birds and mammals present.

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology have for the first time reported the electrical detection of spin current on topological insulator surfaces at room temperature by employing a ferromagnetic detector. The findings have been published in the journal Nano Letters.

UPTON, NY-Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators at Stony Brook University and the Institute of Advanced Sciences in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, have discovered new details about how "cloaking" proteins protect the toxin that causes botulism, a fatal disease caused most commonly by consuming improperly canned foods. That knowledge and the cloaking proteins themselves might now be turned against the toxin-the deadliest known to humankind-to deliver vaccines or drugs that could prevent or treat the disease.

SAINT PAUL, Minn. (Dec. 7, 2015): The strongest forest carbon sinks in eastern forests are within landscapes not completely dominated by forests. Using a new framework for forest carbon accounting, a team of USDA Forest Service scientists found that landscapes with 50-60 percent forest land use had statistically the same sink strength as landscapes with 90-100 percent forest.

A new analysis indicates that certain characteristics may increase a breast cancer survivor's risk of developing leukemia after undergoing chemotherapy and/or radiation. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the findings are a first step toward finding ways to prevent this serious and potentially life-threatening treatment-related complication.

New Haven, Conn. - Yale Cancer Center researchers have developed a vaccine strategy that reduces the risk of flu infections in cancer patients at highest risk for influenza. The findings were presented Dec. 6 at the 57th annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology in Orlando, Florida.

ORLANDO--Mining the DNA of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients uncovered 12 mutations that may be targetable using therapies already available for other cancers, Penn Medicine researchers reported at the 57th annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (Abstract 2929).

PHILADELPHIA December 6, 2015 - Researchers from Cardiff University, the University of Liverpool and Swansea University presented a new study revealing that people with drug-resistant juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) have a 10 percent chance of having a common copy number variation (CNV). These findings, presented at the American Epilepsy Society's (AES) 69th Annual Meeting, are important for accurate genetic counselling in the early detection and treatment of JME.

ORLANDO, FL (Dec. 6, 2015) - Prophylactic antibiotics significantly reduce the risk of serious bacterial infections in children during the critical first month of treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common childhood cancer, according to a U.S. and Canadian study led by investigators from Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. While the overall cure rate for ALL is high, about one to two percent of children with this diagnosis die during the first month of therapy from treatment complications, primarily infection-related.

ORLANDO, FL (Dec. 6, 2015) - Researchers reported promising preliminary outcomes for the first four children enrolled in a U.S. gene therapy trial for Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome (WAS), a life-threatening genetic blood and immune disorder, at the 57th annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (abstract #260).

PHILADELPHIA, December 6, 2015 - Technological advances ranging from gene editing to next-generation sequencing offer unprecedented access to the human genome and promise to reshape the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy.

Four studies presented at the American Epilepsy Society's (AES) 69th Annual Meeting demonstrate how these innovative technologies are being used to identify and manipulate genes linked to epilepsy.

Researchers at the University of Iowa College of Dentistry are partnering with a private company to develop computer simulations that can help personalize cancer care by predicting how a patient will respond to a drug treatment.

The key is the creation of "virtual tumors" which are based on a patient's cancer cells and specific cancer genes.

WHAT:

Gene therapy can safely rebuild the immune systems of older children and young adults with X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID-X1), a rare inherited disorder that primarily affects males, scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, have found. NIAID's Suk See De Ravin, M.D., Ph.D., is scheduled to describe the findings at the 57th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida.