Humans and chimpanzees share almost all their genes. Despite this, our brains have developed in different ways. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have now shown that a viral pandemic dating back several million years ...
Human cells hold about two meters (6.6 feet) of DNA, folded and compacted to fit inside a nucleus. That packing is essential for life, but it creates a problem for scientists. Some of the genes that control a cell's identity ...
By turning a patient's own immune cells into stronger cancer-fighting cells, CAR T-cell therapy has transformed how some blood cancers are treated. But it's been harder to extend this approach to solid tumors, including cancer ...
Paired appendages—the pectoral and pelvic fins of fishes and the forelimbs and hindlimbs of tetrapods—were a major innovation in vertebrate evolution. Their emergence greatly expanded the ways vertebrates could move through ...
Scientists have long used a powerful gene-editing tool called CRISPR to make precise changes to DNA. But a different version of the technology, known as Cas13a, targets RNA, the genetic material found in viruses such as HIV. ...
Researchers at Gladstone Institutes have uncovered an unusual bacterial immune system that operates in reverse of known defenses. The discovery, published in Molecular Cell, details the mechanics of "type VI retrons"—a counterintuitive ...
A new antiviral defense system discovered by Columbia scientists could be adapted in the future into a gene editor that slows down aging in our cells and improves cancer therapies. At the same time, the discovery also sheds ...
For decades, scientists have believed that a protein called interferon tau (IFNT) is indispensable for pregnancy in cattle. Produced by the early embryo, it was thought to signal its presence to the mother and prevent the ...
AI company Anthropic recently announced that its popular system Claude had identified an unusual family of biological molecules. These molecules were enzymes, a type of protein that speeds up chemical reactions in living ...
A new engineered gene-editing system, proven in bacteria and showing promise for use in plants, animals and humans, addresses some limitations of current gene-editing tools, with the goal of improving their use in research, ...
