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Study Unveils Surprising Cause of Brain Cell Death in Huntington's Disease

Scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Harvard Medical School, and McLean Hospital have discovered a surprising mechanism by which the inherited genetic mutation known to cause Huntington's disease leads to the death of brain cells.

17 Jan 2025

New study reveals how genes switch on and off in human cells

An international group of scientists has made a significant advancement in their understanding of the regulation of gene expression throughout the human genome.

17 Jan 2025

Researchers Develop Strategy to Boost Pharmaceutical Production in CHO Cells

An international team of researchers led by the University of California San Diego has developed a new strategy to enhance pharmaceutical production in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, which are commonly used to manufacture protein-based drugs for treating cancer, autoimmune diseases and much more.

16 Jan 2025

Long Reads Show Promise for Diagnosing Rare Genetic Disorders

The cause of rare diseases is increasingly being detected through genome sequencing, which involves reading the entire human DNA by first breaking it into small pieces-short reads.

16 Jan 2025

Protein Shapes Reveal Deeper Evolutionary Relationships

According to a study published in the journal Nature Communications, the three-dimensional form of a protein can be utilized to determine long-standing evolutionary relationships in the tree of life.

16 Jan 2025

Unrepaired DNA Damage Can Persist for Years and Lead to Cancer Mutations

While most known types of DNA damage are fixed by our cells’ in-house repair mechanisms, some forms of DNA damage evade repair and can persist for many years, new research shows. This means that the damage has multiple chances to generate harmful mutations, which can lead to cancer.

15 Jan 2025

Base Editing Technique Extends Lifespan in Prion Disease Mouse Model

Researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have developed a gene-editing treatment for prion disease that extends lifespan by about 50 percent in a mouse model of the fatal neurodegenerative condition.

15 Jan 2025

Understanding RapA's Function in E. coli R-loop Control

From a genetic perspective, it is the worst-case scenario for a bacterium: during transcription, freshly created RNA adheres to its DNA template to form a three-stranded structure called an R-loop.

15 Jan 2025

Outer Ears Evolved From Fish Gills Through Unique Genetic Mechanism

The outer ear is unique to mammals, but its evolutionary origin has remained a mystery. According to a new study published in Nature from the USC Stem Cell lab of Gage Crump, this intricate coil of cartilage has a surprisingly ancient origin in the gills of fishes and marine invertebrates.

10 Jan 2025

Researchers Discover How Protein Instability Drives Heritable Diseases

Most mutations which cause disease by swapping one amino acid out for another do so by making the protein less stable, according to a massive study of human protein variants published today in the journal Nature.

10 Jan 2025

UK Biobank to Study Protein Changes Across 600,000 Samples

UK Biobank has today announced the launch of the world's most comprehensive study of the proteins circulating in our bodies, which will transform the study of diseases and their treatments.

10 Jan 2025

Novel Targets for Modulating the Gut Microbiota and Human Health

Researchers at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research and the Julius-Maximilians-Universität in Würzburg have discovered a protein and a class of small ribonucleic acids (sRNAs) in Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron that control the metabolism of sugar.

10 Jan 2025

Arabidopsis Study Finds that Centromeres Call the Shots in Retrotransposon Integration

Centromeres play a crucial role in cell division, with CENH3 guiding retrotransposon Tal1 integration, revealing insights into genome evolution and stability.

10 Jan 2025

Echidna Genome Sheds Light on Complex Sex Chromosome Evolution

A nearly gapless genome sequence of the echidna, an egg-laying mammal with multiple sex chromosomes, helps researchers to track genomic reorganization events that gave rise to a highly unusual sex determination system.

9 Jan 2025

Rewriting History: Advanced Genetic Analysis Uncovers Ancient Ancestry Shifts in Europe

High-resolution analysis of ancient genomes reveals key Scandinavian ancestry movements in early medieval Europe, highlighting complex genetic interactions.

9 Jan 2025

New Genomic Evidence Sheds Light on Early Migration into Wallacea

A new study from the University of Adelaide and The Australian National University (ANU) has outlined the first genomic evidence of early migration from New Guinea into the Wallacea, an archipelago containing Timor-Leste and hundreds of inhabited eastern Indonesian islands.

8 Jan 2025

Uncovering the Ancient Genetic Secrets of Hornworts

Over 450 million years ago, plants began the epic transition from water to dry land. Among the first pioneers were the ancestors of humble hornworts, a group of small, unassuming plants that have persisted to this day.

7 Jan 2025

Unexpected Role for CDKN2A Gene in Esophageal Cancer Progression

Scientists from the Barts Cancer Institute and the Francis Crick Institute have demonstrated that a genetic flaw that has long been thought to cause esophageal cancer may actually protect against the disease in its early stages.

6 Jan 2025

Genetic Discovery Offers Potential for Higher Crop Yields and Biofuel Production

A team of scientists with two Department of Energy Bioenergy Research Centers -; the Center for Bioenergy Innovation, or CBI, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation, or CABBI, at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign -; identified a gene in a poplar tree that enhances photosynthesis and can boost tree height by about 30% in the field and by as much as 200% in the greenhouse.

6 Jan 2025

Bacteria in Lake Mendota Evolve with Changing Seasons

Like Bill Murray in the movie "Groundhog Day," bacteria species in a Wisconsin lake are in a kind of endless loop that they can't seem to shake. Except in this case, it's more like Groundhog Year.

6 Jan 2025