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Tag Archives: genetics
New study: Tracking proteins that repair DNA
There are some lines of research in the development of science that in all likelihood will not have a ‘breakthrough’ – a big rush of discovery. Instead, the discovery will be piecemeal; sometimes it will be discovery in very small pieces accumulating until a hypothesis is verified. Not all tracks like this are important, but [...]
Posted in News: Proteomics Also tagged DNA, genes, proteins, proteomics, repair complex, UvrA Leave a comment
Can culture change the genome?
Almost from the beginning of our knowledge of genetics, it’s been asked, “Can the way we (humans) live change our genetics?” These days this is much the same as asking if culture can change the genome. It’s actually a relatively old question. The question got its biggest boost from one who is now a boogeyman [...]
Posted in Impact: Genetic Modification Also tagged biology, culture, DNA, EDAR, epigenetics, evolution, genes, genetic modification, genome, Lamarck, molecular biology, RNA 1 Comment
Small RNA: New pathways for gene regulation?
Sometimes research discovers more than expected. (It could be called serendipity.) In this case, researchers from the Max Planck Institute in Berlin (Germany) were exploring the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, which is a microscopic beasty that lives in the gut of about 50% of humanity. H. pylori, as it is abbreviated, has been linked to a [...]
Posted in Impact: DNA Decoding Also tagged biochemistry, DNA, Helicobacter pylori, junk DNA, pathogen, RNA, sRNA, transcription Leave a comment
New medical paradigm: Growing human organs in animals
The ability to manipulate genetics cuts in a number of ways. This way may sound a little strange: Take a mouse; implant human liver cells in it; watch them grow into a mouse-sized but human liver. It’s more complicated than that, but it works. There are reasons to do this. A lot of tests for [...]
Posted in News: Synthetic Biology Also tagged DNA, Hepatitis-C, liver cells, microbiology, NBTC, synthetic biology Leave a comment
Follow-up: Another ‘junk DNA’ study
The blog Science Life (University of Chicago Medical Center) has an excellent follow-up piece to the story about the discovery of non-coding DNA that contributes to heart disease (SciTechStory: More ‘junk DNA’ that actually does something) The Science Life post mentions that work and details another study done by the University of Chicago and the [...]
Posted in News: DNA Decoding Also tagged base pairs, chromosomes, DNA, heart cells, junk DNA, sequence Leave a comment
More ‘junk DNA’ that actually does something
This is not a screed, or it shouldn’t be. However, the next time you read something about ‘junk DNA’ – check its provenance. It’s true that for years researchers have looked at the huge tracts of genetic material that doesn’t appear to do anything vital (that is, coding for proteins) – which is about 98% [...]
Posted in Impact: DNA Decoding Also tagged 9p21, coronary artery disease, DNA, genes, junk DNA, non-coding Leave a comment
Disease linked genes have environmental factors too
Within the human body there are few diseases that aren’t influenced by some kind of environmental factors (stress, obesity, smoking, lack of sleep). Put another way, even diseases that have a genetic link (cancer, heart disease, diabetes) are not fully explained by genetics – environmental factors also play a role. Teasing apart the ‘who does [...]
Posted in News: Cell Biology Also tagged biochemistry, DNA, environmental factors, gene expression, genes, microbiology Leave a comment
Follow-up: iGEM and BioBricks
Chet at his Science Musings blog has a good piece of satire on the story of iGEM 2010 (SciTechStory: iGEM: Proselytizing for synthetic biology). Here’s a sample: June 11, 2012. Hasbro-Mattel, the toy division of Monsanto Universal, today announced a product that will likely be found under many a Christmas tree later this year: The [...]
Posted in News: Synthetic Biology Also tagged BioBricks, DNA, iGEM, synthetic biology Leave a comment
Four-letter codons: A new synthetic biology playground
All life (that we know of) is built from the 4 nucleotides of DNA (Adenine, Guanine, Cytosine, Thymine and in RNA Uracil instead of Thymine), which provide the code for creating 22 amino acids, which are then combined into proteins. An important part of the process is the reading of the DNA code by RNA [...]
Posted in Impact: Proteomics Also tagged codons, DNA, microbiology, nucleotides, proteomics, RNA, transcription, tRNA Leave a comment
DNA for fun and nobody’s profit
Scientists in Scotland cloned a sheep. “Dolly” became very famous, but was rarely seen in public. There are rumors. It is said there was a mistake in the lab when they worked on the clone DNA. Somebody reversed a small portion of the DNA (probably a gene or two were backwards). Unfortunately, as a result [...]
Plants, animals, and proteins between them
Horizontal movement of DNA (genes passing between species) is well-known and the basis of major research (and disagreement). Less known and much less researched is a similar sharing of proteins between species. Virtually unknown and probably under-researched is protein shared between plants and animals. New work by Wendy Peer at Purdue University (Indiana, USA) could [...]
Posted in News: Proteomics Also tagged DNA, epigenetics, genes, plants, protein, proteomics Leave a comment
Induced stem cells: Not such good news…
It’s one of the hazards of reading science journalism, most of the news is positive – this advance, that breakthrough, etc. It’s easy to get the impression that a particular science – in this case research that creates pluripotent stem cells from adult (non-embryonic) cells – is rushing headlong to great things. It might be, [...]
Stem cell epigenomic development mapped
Completing the map of the human genome, back in 2000 and 2003, was a monumental task and a milestone on the road to understanding our genetics. Here’s another milestone: A map that shows in detail how the human genome is modified during embryonic development. Just completed and published by a team of researchers from the [...]
Posted in News: Stem Cells Also tagged DNA methylation, genome, genome map, methyl, mRNA, pluripotent, stem cells Leave a comment
Common diseases: Rare gene mutations are important
Recall seeing a headline like this: “Gene discovered that causes cancer”? Over the past decade or so such headlines have been frequent. The advent of genome-wide association studies (GWAS), looking through the whole human genome to find variant genes, has uncovered literally thousands of relationships between common gene mutations and various forms of cancer and [...]
Posted in News: DNA Decoding Also tagged bioinformatics, DNA, genome, GWAS, mutations Leave a comment
New study: Males not at the end of genetic line
Sex, like vitamins, has no end of contradictory research findings. Not so long ago (two months?) it was common belief among scientists (if not among the female population) that males – in particular the Y chromosome – were degrading (evolutionarily speaking). Evidence seemed to show that the mammalian Y-chromosome is slowly deteriorating, or at least [...]
Posted in News: DNA Decoding Also tagged chimpanzees, homo sapiens, mammals, Y-chromosome Leave a comment
Heart disease linked to epigenetics
We’ve known for some time that if you abuse your body (smoke too much, drink too much, become obese, don’t sleep enough, stress-out a lot, don’t exercise), you’re more likely to develop heart disease. It’s also been known that heart disease has genetic effects, or that certain genes are involved with heart disease. A new [...]
Also tracking: Science and tech disappointments
Turning the year to a new decade is bound to produce a wide variety of retrospectives. Lists are always popular. I came across an interesting list the other day at the Scientific American site: 10 Science Letdowns of the New Millennium by Katherine Harmon. The original is presented as a slide show. Why, I’m not [...]
Posted in Impact: General Also tagged alternative energy, anti-science, brain, cancer, cars, climate change, electric cars, evolution, exobiology, global warming, HIV, neurology, paleontology, power grid, science, space, technology 1 Comment
Remembering faces, a specialized memory
It’s a familiar pattern in science, the more we learn about something, the more variations we see in the details. Take, for example, the human brain and its memory capacity. “Memory” used to be considered a unitary capability, that is, the ability to remember things was thought to be all part of the brain’s area [...]
Two genetic changes – bird flu becomes pandemic
Given all the uproar over H1N1 (‘swine flu’), does anyone remember H5N1? That’s ‘bird flu’ and only a couple years ago it was the bête noir of the world’s health organizations. Fortunately, although deadly (roughly a 60% fatality rate), bird flu was not readily transmitted human-to-human. Now we know why: It would need to make [...]
Study confirms telomere’s role in living longer
Confirmation is a vital part of the scientific process. In this case confirmation involves our knowledge of telomeres. We know that telomeres, the short strip of DNA found at the ends of chromosomes, play a big role in protecting the DNA from gene loss during the many replications within a cell. One of the 2009 [...]
Posted in News: Extending Lifespan Also tagged cancer, cell biology, DNA, lifespan, living longer, old-age, replication, senescence, telomeres Leave a comment
Important bacteria protein-DNA link discovered
It’s been known for a while that some bacteria produce proteins that can manipulate (turn on or off) the DNA of living cells. To find out which protein and how it works has been an area of intense research. Much of the significant work has been with plant disease bacteria, and now it appears that [...]
Posted in News: DNA Decoding Also tagged bacteria, DNA, nucleotide binding, plant pathology, TAL protein Leave a comment
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