You can think of DNA as a string of letters—As, Cs, Ts, and Gs—that together spell out the information needed for the construction and function of cells. Each cell in your body shares the same DNA. So, for cells to take ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jan 16, 2019
0
50
In 2013, Broad Institute member Cigall Kadoch, then a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, discovered that approximately 20 percent of all human cancers involve mutations in a group of proteins called BAF, a complex ...
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 22, 2018
0
18
The ability to translate the genetic code into proteins is an essential step in all living organisms. A cornerstone of this molecular process is the ability of transfer RNA (tRNA) molecules to couple recognition of the genetic ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Oct 19, 2018
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29
Evolution by Darwinian natural selection is immensely powerful—both in nature and within laboratories. Using 'laboratory evolution', we can take an enzyme which combines random mutations and functional selection, and improve ...
Biochemistry
Sep 12, 2018
12
280
Accumulating evidence suggests that new genes can arise spontaneously from previously non-coding DNA instead of through the gradual mutation of established genes. Bioinformaticians at the University of Münster (Germany) ...
Evolution
Sep 12, 2018
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101
It was long thought that DNA, together with the genes encoded in it, determined genetic destiny. But equally important is coordinating when genes are turned on and off. In fact, the regulation of gene expression defines life ...
Evolution
Sep 11, 2018
1
15
One of the biggest helpers in our bodies' ongoing efforts to prevent DNA mutations—mutations that can lead to cancer—is actually rather tiny. Electrons, as it turns out, can signal proteins that repair DNA to patch up ...
Biochemistry
Jun 18, 2018
0
54
University of Oregon scientists theorized that they could manipulate a protein one mutation at a time and predict its evolution. They sought to prove it. And failed.
General Physics
Nov 2, 2017
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39
When hemoglobin undergoes just one mutation, these protein complexes stick to one another, stacking like Lego blocks to form long, stiff filaments. These filaments, in turn, elongate the red blood cells found in sickle-cell ...
Cell & Microbiology
Aug 23, 2017
0
7
Some genetic mutations can cause a virus to flourish. Others make the virus wither away, unable to function normally and reproduce. Yet other genetic mutations only show their hand under certain conditions.
Biochemistry
Mar 31, 2017
0
107
