Can we live longer? Physicist makes discovery about telomeres

With the aid of physics and a minuscule magnet, researchers have discovered a new structure of telomeric DNA. Telomeres are sometimes seen as the key to living longer. They protect genes from damage but get a bit shorter ...

Remnant of cell division could be responsible for spreading cancer

Once thought to be the trash can of the cell, a little bubble of cellular stuff called the midbody remnant is actually packing working genetic material with the power to change the fate of other cells—including turning ...

Newly discovered protein prevents DNA triplication

Every time a cell divides, its DNA is duplicated so that the two daughter cells have the same genetic material as their parent. This means that, millions of times a day, a biochemical wonder takes place in the body: the copying ...

Mapping the kinks in faulty DNA

Here is a challenge for you: copy letter-by-letter, word-for-word a document that is 1,200,000 pages long—that's a stack of paper higher than the Statue of Liberty. And don't make any typos  or miss any punctuation.

Bacteria must be 'stressed out' to divide

A new study from EPFL scientists has found that bacteria use mechanical forces to divide, along with biological factors. The research, led by the groups of John McKinney and Georg Fantner at EPFL, came after recent studies ...

Scientists detail how chromosomes reorganize after cell division

Researchers have discovered key mechanisms and structural details of a fundamental biological process—how a cell nucleus and its chromosomal material reorganizes itself after cell division. The new findings in chromosomal ...

Study identifies how blood stem cells maintain their fate

Understanding the molecular mechanisms that specify and maintain the identities of more than 200 cell types of the human body is arguably one of the most fundamental problems in molecular and cellular biology, with critical ...

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