How invading jumping genes are thwarted

Since Carnegie Institution's Barbara McClintock received her Nobel Prize on her discovery of jumping genes in 1983, we have learned that almost half of our DNA is made up of jumping genes—called transposons. Given their ...

Biologists discover source for boosting tumor cell drug sensitivity

DNA-damaging agents, or "DDAs," make up the most widely used group of cancer drugs. Yet their therapeutic success has been curtailed by drug resistance—either present in cancer cells from the disease onset or arising during ...

Cellular trash cans reveal the roles of proteins in disease

If we really want to know how our body's cells work—or don't work, in the case of disease—we might need to look beyond their genes and even beyond the proteins they are made of. We may need to start going through the ...

CRISPR-based tool maps gene function in human cells

UC San Francisco scientists have used a high-throughput CRISPR-based technique to rapidly map the functions of nearly 500 genes in human cells, many of them never before studied in detail.

Mayo researchers find off/on switch for DNA repair protein

Damage to DNA is a daily occurrence but one that human cells have evolved to manage. Now, in a new paper published in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Mayo researchers have determined how one DNA repair protein gets ...

Timing is key for bacteria surviving antibiotics

For bacteria facing a dose of antibiotics, timing might be the key to evading destruction. In a series of experiments, Princeton researchers found that cells that repaired DNA damaged by antibiotics before resuming growth ...

Molecular brake on human cell division prevents cancer

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, and the University of Sussex, England, have discovered that the process of copying DNA generates a brake signal that stalls cell division. This molecular brake ensures that the ...

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