news archive genetic news - January 20, 2003

January 20, 2003

your information resource in human molecular genetics

-	Passing Inhibitory Small RNA To Your Progeny A paper in the February issue of Nature Structural Biology reports the creation of transgenic mice, in which inherited RNAi lowers the expression of a target gene.
-	Di’George’s Syndrome Demystified Peter Carmeliet in Leuven, Belgium and colleagues begin to answer why some individuals are only slightly affected by Di’George’s syndrome while for others the consequences are severely life-threatening, involving severe cardiac and vascular abnormalities.
-	Genes For 'STEMNESS' Stuart Orkin of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and colleagues report that the gene SCL/tal-1is essential for the generation of haematopoietic stem cell (HSCs), but surprisingly its continued expression is not essential for HSC functions.