Hijacking the double helix for replication

For years, scientists have puzzled over what prompts the intertwined double-helix DNA to open its two strands and then start replication. Knowing this could be the key to understanding how organisms - from healthy cells to ...

Engineers make nanoscale 'muscles' powered by DNA

The base pairs found in DNA are key to its ability to store protein-coding information, but they also give the molecule useful structural properties. Getting two complementary strands of DNA to zip up into a double helix ...

Base-pairing protects DNA from UV damage

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich researchers have discovered a further function of the base-pairing that holds the two strands of the DNA double helix together: it plays a crucial role in protecting the DNA from the ...

Cutting cancer to pieces: New research on bleomycin

A variety of cancers are treated with the anti-tumor agent bleomycin, though its disease-fighting properties remain poorly understood. In a new study, lead author Basab Roy—a researcher at Arizona State University's Biodesign ...

How a shape-shifting DNA-repair machine fights cancer

(Phys.org) —Maybe you've seen the movies or played with toy Transformers, those shape-shifting machines that morph in response to whatever challenge they face. It turns out that DNA-repair machines in your cells use a similar ...

Electronic zippers control DNA strands

A research team from NPL and the University of Edinburgh have invented a new way to zip and unzip DNA strands using electrochemistry.

Programming cells: The importance of the envelope

In a project that began with the retinal cells of nocturnal animals and has led to fundamental insights into the organization of genomic DNA, researchers from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich show how the nuclear ...

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