Latest Lynn Zechiedrich Stories

Minivectorâ„¢ DNA "“ very small circular therapeutic DNA molecules "“ survive the stress of aerosolization (being forced into suspension in air) and can carry gene therapy deep into the lungs, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in a report that appears online in the journal Gene Therapy.The ability to get deep in the lungs means that the Minivectors could be a potential treatment for a host of lung diseases, including...

A long-standing barrier to successful gene therapy in humans has been the lack of a non-toxic and effective tool or vector to carry the gene into the cell.Now a Baylor College of Medicine researcher and her colleagues think they may have a solution "“ at least in the quest for a way to silence cancer genes. Their invention consists of tiny wound-up circular bits of DNA that carry a short "hairpin" of RNA.The researchers from BCM and The Methodist Hospital Research Institute called...

Tiny wound-up circular bits of DNA that carry a short "hairpin" of RNA could prove a solution to the quest for a non-toxic, long-lived gene therapy vector designed to silence cancer genes in tumor cells, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and The Methodist Hospital Research Institute in a report that appears in the current issue of the journal Gene Therapy.At a minimum, this Minivectorâ„¢ DNA will prove a valuable laboratory tool, said Dr. Lynn Zechiedrich,...

An iconic photograph (http://img.timeinc.net/time/80days/images/530228.jpg) of Nobel laureates Drs. Francis Crick and James Watson show the pair discussing with a rigid model of the famous double helix.The interaction represented produced the famous explanation of the structure of DNA, but the model pictured is a stiff snapshot of idealized DNA. As researchers from Baylor College of Medicine (www.bcm.edu) and the University of Houston (www.uh.edu) note in a report that appears online in the...