A DNA-based screening test is more efficient at identifying the human papillomavirus (HPV) than the currently used method, the Pap test. The new test, which won't need a screening test as often, could soon replace the 50-year-old Pap in a matter of years, experts say.

In a new study conducted by McGill University in Montreal, both tests were conducted on more than 10,000 women between 30 and 69-years-old. The DNA test detected 94.6 percent of the abnormal growths that can lead to cervical cancer, while the Pap test found only 55.4 percent of the same growths

By targeting a site in a mouse brain well connected to other areas, researchers successfully were able to deliver a beneficial gene to the entire brain. What has scientists looking to the future is that it occurred after a single injection of gene therapy. If these results in animals can be realized in people, researchers may have a new tool for gene therapy allowing health officials the ability to treat a host of rare but devastating congenital human neurological disorders.

Gene therapy is the insertion of genes into an individual's cells and tissues to treat a disease, and hereditary diseases in which a defective mutant allele is replaced with a functional one. Although the technology is still in its infancy, it has been used in the medical and scientific fields with some success and future practical applications

Full term pregnancy and subsequent breastfeeding have been found to reduce the breast cancer risk in the mothers, a new study has found.

Cells with strong protective characteristics are transferred from the baby in the womb to the mother, researchers in Seattle showed

Scientists have uncovered the genetic link that for the first time explains why some people are shorter in height. Researchers now say that a single change in the gene's DNA code can determine if people will be taller or shorter by up to one centimeter.

The latest study, published in the journal Nature Genetics, has identified a single gene called HMGA2. The change of just a single base "letter" in HMGA2's genetic code -- a "C" (for cytosine) instead of a "T" (for thymine), adds nearly a centimeter (0.4 of an inch) in height to individuals who inherited this variant from both parents

Scientists in Canada are elated over the successful completion of the first human trial of a DNA-based vaccine to combat multiple sclerosis (MS). The vaccine, BHT-3009 works by reducing the damaging immune system attacks which cause the disease.

Researchers from the Montreal Neurological Institute in Canada carried out the trial on 30 patients by injecting three different doses of the vaccine into their muscles over few weeks