Joseph Nadeau
PHILADELPHIA -- In a study comparing two strains of mice, one susceptible to developing cancer and the other not, researchers found that a high-fat diet predisposed the cancer-susceptible strain to liver cancer, and that by switching to a low-fat diet early in the experiment, the same high-risk mice avoided the malignancy.
Medical researchers know that most common human diseases, such as hypertension and diabetes, have a large genetic component. Many genes, interacting with the environment, contribute to these diseases. For researchers, a major challenge is finding all the genes involved with a particular disease. Researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, and Baylor College of Medicine have developed a new method that they believe will revolutionize the search for these genes. In a new research paper, they report that by swapping one chromosome at a time in mice, they can more simply, yet thoroughly, detect the locations of genes involved with complex medical conditions.
