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Foundation for Prader-Willi Blog | Research (43)

What's new with ghrelin??

Since its first description in 1999 by Kojima and co-workers, ghrelin has been the subject of intense interest in the scientific community, as evidenced by the more than 2,500 published papers to date. This is good news for those with PWS, who have a...

Topics: Research

Sibutramine evaluated in PWS

Individuals with PWS are, in many ways, perfect subjects for studying the effectiveness of candidate obesity drugs. Excessive weight gain is a common and critical issue, frequently leading to a multitude of medical complications.

Topics: Research

FTO - a new gene influencing obesity

A new article sheds a little bit of light on the latest player in obesity: the FTO gene (the fat-mass and obesity-associated gene). FTO was implicated as a gene important in determining who is more likely to be obese and at risk for diabetes in two g...

Topics: Research

Abstracts from the 6th International IPWSO Conference

The 6th Annual International Prader-Willi Syndrome Organization (IPWSO) Conference was held in Romania in June 2007. The research abstracts from the conference are available online at the Asociacin Madrile para el SÃndrome de Prader-Willi (AMSPW) web...

Topics: Research

Fat Fish

Zebrafish are hot - these little fish are all the rage in the research world these days. They develop very quickly (embryo to fish in just a couple of days) and scientists are developing better ways to manipulate their genes and use them to study hum...

Topics: Research

Mice show the way to fix genetic disorders (updated)

It's not often that words such as "rescue of neurological deficits", "therapy for cognitive impairment" and "reversal of neurological defects" are used in the titles of papers studying genetic disorders like Angelman, Down, and Rett syndromes, but a ...

Topics: Research

Psychiatric illness in adults with PWS

One of the most troubling features of PWS is the high risk of mental illness in adults with the syndrome. Although a considerable amount has been written on obsessive-compulsive traits, stubbornness and maladaptive behaviors associated with PWS, less...

Topics: Research

Deletion vs. UPD: 70/30 or 50/50?

Most information about PWS starts out with a brief overview of the genetics of the condition. Deletion of chromosome 15 is listed as the most common cause of PWS, accounting for roughly 70% of cases.

Topics: Research

A genetic basis for autism

Progress in understanding the basis of autism is relevant to PWS for a number of reasons, including the high incidence of autistic behaviors in those with PWS (see, for example: Descheemaeker MJ, et al Pervasive developmental disorders in Prader-Will...

Topics: Research