Junk DNA in birds may hold key to safe, efficient gene therapy

The recent approval of a CRISPR-Cas9 therapy for sickle cell disease demonstrates that gene editing tools can do a superb job of knocking out genes to cure hereditary disease. But it's still not possible to insert whole genes ...

How one of nature's most fundamental molecules forms

Life runs on ribosomes. Every cell on Earth needs ribosomes to translate genetic information into all the proteins needed for the organism to function—and to in turn make more ribosomes. But scientists still lack a clear ...

Scientists discover new rules about 'runaway' transcription

On the evolutionary tree, humans diverged from yeast roughly 1 billion years ago. By comparison, two seemingly similar species of bacteria, Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis, have been evolving apart for roughly twice ...

Miniaturized version of ribosome found in microsporidia

A research team lead by MIMS/SciLifeLab research group leader Jonas Barandun, Umeå University, Sweden, uses cryo-electron microscopy to provide near atomic details of the smallest known eukaryotic cytoplasmic protein synthesis ...

Newfound groups of bacteria are mixing up the tree of life

University of California, Berkeley, scientists have identified more than 35 new groups of bacteria, clarifying a mysterious branch of the tree of life that has been hazy because these microbes can't be reared and studied ...

Human cells' protein factory has an alternate operating manual

Working with a gene that plays a critical role in HIV infection, University of Maryland researchers have discovered that some human genes have an alternate set of operating instructions written into their protein-making machinery. ...

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