Cancer Research UK The immune system protects the body against illness and infection caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasites. It is a collection of reactions and responses that the body makes to damaged cells or infection. So it is sometimes called the immune response. The immune system is important to cancer patients in many ways because: ...

Genetics Home Reference  Genome editing (also called gene editing) is a group of technologies that give scientists the ability to change an organism's DNA. These technologies allow genetic material to be added, removed, or altered at particular locations in the genome. Several approaches to genome editing have been developed. A recent one is k...

Nature  Chromosomal translocations that generate in-frame oncogenic gene fusions are notable examples of the success of targeted cancer therapies1,2,3. We have previously described gene fusions of FGFR3-TACC3 (F3–T3) in 3% of human glioblastoma cases4. Subsequent studies have reported similar frequencies of F3–T3 in many other cancers, indicat...

NHS UK   MRSA is a type of bacteria that's resistant to several widely used antibiotics. This means infections with MRSA can be harder to treat than other bacterial infections. The full name of MRSA is meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. You might have heard it called a "superbug". MRSA infections mainly affect people who are stay...

HGP  The Human Genome Project (HGP) was one of the great feats of exploration in history - an inward voyage of discovery rather than an outward exploration of the planet or the cosmos; an international research effort to sequence and map all of the genes - together known as the genome - of members of our species, Homo sapiens. Completed in Apr...

US National Cancer Institute,  BRCA1 and BRCA2: Cancer Risk and Genetic Testing, April 1, 2015  BRCA1 and BRCA2 are human genes that produce tumor suppressor proteins. These proteins help repair damaged DNA and, therefore, play a role in ensuring the stability of the cell's genetic material. When either of these genes is mutated...

By Meera Senthilingam, CNN ​ ​ For the first time, an experimental drug has reduced levels of the toxic protein that causes Huntington's disease in humans. Huntington's disease is an inherited disorder in which mutant forms of the huntingtin protein damage nerve cells in the brain. The new drug, Ionis-HTTRx, was shown to be safe in humans and lower...