Complex reaction cascades can be triggered in artificial molecular systems: Swiss scientists have constructed an enzyme than can penetrate a mammalian cell and accelerate the release of a hormone. This then activates a gene ...
Biochemistry
May 22, 2018
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5
In the air, beneath the ocean's surface, and on land, microbes are the minute but mighty forces regulating much of the planet's biogeochemical cycles. To better understand their roles, scientists work to identify these microbes ...
Biotechnology
May 16, 2018
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73
The first animals emerged on Earth at least 541m years ago, according to the fossil record. What they looked like is the subject of an ongoing debate, but they're traditionally thought to have been similar to sponges.
Biotechnology
May 3, 2018
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23
Much of the research in the field of plant functional genomics to date has relied on approaches based on single reference genomes. But by itself, a single reference genome does not capture the full genetic variability of ...
Biotechnology
Dec 20, 2017
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74
Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital have discerned that different tissue functions arise from a core biological machinery that is largely shared across tissues, rather than from their own individual regulators. In ...
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 27, 2017
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2
A team of Université Laval researchers has cast into doubt a tenet of evolutionary biology according to which organisms with more than one copy of the same gene in their genome are more resilient to genetic perturbations. ...
Evolution
Feb 9, 2017
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31
Although mutations in the PARK2 gene that encodes the Parkin protein are associated with developing early-onset Parkinson's disease (PD), much remains to be discovered about how Parkin functions in cells and how loss of Parkin ...
Biochemistry
Dec 13, 2016
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6
Social insects such as ants, bees and wasps appear to be blessed with a genetic 'super switch' that designates both gender and their status as either a queen or worker, scientists have discovered.
Plants & Animals
Apr 12, 2016
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50
It's well known that genetic differences among individuals influence lifespan, but a new study appearing February 24 in Cell Systems suggests that differences in patterns of gene expression in youth may also predict longevity. ...
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 24, 2016
0
60
The University of Massachusetts Medical School has been awarded a five-year, $15 million grant from the National Institutes of Medicine Common Fund to establish the Center for 3-D Structure and Physics of the Genome. The ...
Biotechnology
Nov 3, 2015
0
39
