Reverse Transcriptase News and Research

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Bacterial Defense Mechanism Revealed Through RNA-Derived Gene Synthesis

Researchers have uncovered a surprising way bacteria defend themselves: when a bacterium is infected, bacterial enzymes that copy genetic information from RNA into DNA synthesize genes whose protein products help shut down cell growth.

12 Aug 2024

Discovery of Free-Floating Genes in Bacteria Challenges Genetic Code Assumptions

Since the genetic code was first deciphered in the 1960s, our genes seemed like an open book. By reading and decoding our chromosomes as linear strings of letters, like sentences in a novel, we can identify the genes in our genome and learn why changes in a gene's code affect health.

12 Aug 2024

Small Molecule Restores TERT Levels to Combat Aging-Related Decline

Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have demonstrated that therapeutically restoring 'youthful' levels of a specific subunit of the telomerase enzyme can significantly reduce the signs and symptoms of aging in preclinical models.

24 Jun 2024

Structural Insights into a Novel Gene-Editing Tool

Yutaro Shuto, Ryoya Nakagawa, and Osamu Nureki of the University of Tokyo conducted collaborative research to ascertain the spatial organization of different processes within a unique gene-editing instrument known as “prime editor.”

30 May 2024

RNAConnect, Inc. Formally Launched to Drive RNA Analysis

RNAConnect, a pioneering life science reagent company, officially launches today, promising groundbreaking solutions for exploring the real-world diversity of RNA sequence and structure.

From RNA Connect 29 May 2024

Retrotransposon-Based PRINT Technique Holds Potential for Precise Gene Insertion

The recent approval of a CRISPR-Cas9 therapy for sickle cell disease demonstrates that gene editing tools can do a superb job knocking out genes to cure hereditary disease.

22 Feb 2024

Unlocking Precise DNA Modifications With Cas12a Innovations

Caixia Gao’s group at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology has created a number of new prime editors based on the Cas12a protein, broadening the applications and targeting range of precision genome editing, as reported in a study published in Nature Biotechnology.

12 Jan 2024

Structural Insights Unmask Novel Adaptations and Functions of Human LINE-1 ORF2

Martin Taylor, MD, PhD, a physician investigator in the Department of Pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital and an instructor in Pathology at Harvard Medical School, is the lead corresponding author of a new study in Nature, Structural Analysis and Inhibition of Human LINE-1 ORF2 Protein Reveals Novel Adaptations and Functions.

20 Dec 2023

Pusan National University Scientists Explore OsMATL2 Gene as a Candidate for Haploid Induction in Rice

Double haploid technology can dramatically accelerate crop breeding with specifically chosen genetic traits.

13 Sep 2023

Prime Editing System Could Accelerate the Study of Cancer-Linked Mutations

Genomic studies of cancer patients have revealed thousands of mutations linked to tumor development.

12 May 2023

High correlation between the product of a gene in the majority of cancers

The product of a gene expressed in most cancers, including the most prevalent type of head and neck cancer, has been linked to elevated levels of white blood cells that produce antibodies inside tumors, according to researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center.

14 Mar 2023

Effective and faster methodology detects RNA viruses based on the triplex-forming probe technology

Experts from the University of Barcelona, the Institute for Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia (IQAC-CSIC), the Institute of Microelectronics of Barcelona (IMB-CNM-CSIC) and the Aragon Nanoscience and Materials Institute of Aragon (INMA) -;a joint institute of the CSIC and the University of Zaragoza-; have developed a new method to detect RNA viruses based on the triplex-forming probe technology.

28 Feb 2023

Newly developed tool helps snip out faulty genes in a safe manner

Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have come up with a new tool that has the potential to detach faulty genes and exchange them with new ones in a highly safe and effective way.

From Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 25 Nov 2022

Analyzing and acknowledging HIV protein may result in new treatments, study reveals

Researchers from Rutgers University and the Salk Institute defined the molecular structure of the HIV Pol polyprotein, a protein that helps the virus propagate and spread throughout the body, in an exploration that could lead to the formation of potential treatments for more than 40 million HIV patients globally.

From Rutgers University 11 Jul 2022

New technique shows how tRNA folding changes help to treat RNA-linked diseases

Researchers have developed a novel technique to analyze the composition and quantity of “transfer RNAs, which are tiny, chemically modified RNAs involved in protein synthesis.

From Penn State University 1 Jul 2022

Endogenous retroviruses in the human genome are likely to pose a risk in regenerative medicine

Scientists from Kumamoto University used next-generation sequencing to analyze human endogenous retrovirus (HERV) integration sites and found that these primitive retroviruses can retrotranspose (DNA sequence insertion with RNA mediation) into iPS cells.

31 May 2022

Human cells can convert RNA sequences into DNA

Cells include machinery that replicates DNA into a new set, and this, in turn, develops into a newly formed cell.

15 Jun 2021

New plasmofluidic chip could accelerate diagnosis during current and future pandemics

Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) has been the gold standard for diagnosis during the COVID-19 pandemic.

27 May 2021

Supercomputer simulations help uncover the mechanism for HIV replication

Viruses lurk in the grey area between the living and the nonliving, according to scientists. Like living things, they replicate but they don't do it on their own. The HIV-1 virus, like all viruses, needs to hijack a host cell through infection in order to make copies of itself.

1 Apr 2021

New highly sensitive RNA detection method advances in situ transcriptomics

Human cells typically transcribe half of their roughly 20,000 genes into RNA molecules at any given time. Just like with proteins, the function of those RNA species not only relies on their abundance but also their precise localization within the 3D space of each cell.

18 Mar 2021