Tag Archives: mitochondria

Overcoming mitochondrial diseases by having three parents

Impact: Genetic Modification    November 4, 2012
Whenever I hear about mitochondria, I think of midichlorians, “the force” of John Lucas’ Star Wars, the life energy that binds the universe by being part of every living thing, but especially concentrated in Jedi…and Sith. I don’t know if knowledge of mitochondria inspired Lucas, but there are strong parallels to midichlorians. Mitochondria are part [...]
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Small steps toward understanding the epigenome

Impact: Cell Biology    May 13, 2010
“You can think of it this way,” said Ren. “Neurons and skin cells share the identical set of genetic material – DNA – yet their structure and function are very different. The difference can be attributed to differences in their epigenome. This is analogous to computer hardware and software. You can load the same computer [...]
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Discovery: Cell protein transport and an approach to cancer

Impact: Cell Biology    May 5, 2010
The center of this story, in more ways than one, is the Golgi apparatus (pronounced ‘goal jee’). As a crude analogy, think of the Golgi apparatus as a re-packaging operation inside of living cells. It receives packages (called vesicles, which are like tiny bubbles) of proteins from the parts of the cell where proteins are [...]
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New technique: DNA transfer to overcome mitochondrial genetic diseases

Impact: Genetic Modification    April 28, 2010
Most of the time when something refers to genetics, it’s assumed this means the DNA found in the nucleus of cells. However, in one of the three domains of life, Eukarya (all plants and animals), DNA is also found in the mitochondria of cells. One or more mitochondria are found in all eukaryotic cells, where [...]
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Loricifera: Larger life without oxygen

News: Exogenous Life    April 7, 2010
Loricifera [drawing, NASA] Meet the loricifera. It’s not a neighbor; living 10,000 feet down in the muck at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. It’s not a relative, not even close, in fact, it doesn’t use oxygen. That in itself is not unusual for bacteria or viruses, but loricifera is neither bacteria nor virus. It [...]
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DNA Barcoding and the supermarket of genetic identification

News: DNA Decoding    November 8, 2009
It’s big enough to attract 350 attendees from 50 nations to a third annual conference in Mexico City. It’s called DNA barcoding, and though its results and spreading use are controversial, that’s proving to be not much of a barrier.
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