First functional 'designer' chromosome synthesized in yeast

An international team of scientists led by Jef Boeke, PhD, director of NYU Langone Medical Center's Institute for Systems Genetics, has synthesized the first functional chromosome in yeast, an important step in the emerging ...

Virology: A marker for a cancer-causing virus

(Phys.org)—Depending on the strain, or genotype, of the human papillomavirus (HPV) (see image), the lesions it causes can range from relatively benign to cancer-causing. Differentiating between lesions caused by low-risk ...

Scientists uncover how immune cells sense who they are

Scientists at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), a part of the National Institutes of Health, have demonstrated that DNA previously thought to be "junk" plays a critical role ...

Nineteen species of ferns named for Lady Gaga

Pop music megastar Lady Gaga is being honored with the name of a new genus of ferns found in Central and South America, Mexico, Arizona and Texas. A genus is a group of closely related species; in this case, 19 species of ...

Study uncovers how DNA unfolds for transcription

(PhysOrg.com) -- The human genome contains some 3 billion base pairs that are tightly compacted into the nucleus of each cell. If a DNA strand were the thickness of a human hair, the entire human genome would be crammed into ...

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