A study led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) shows that genome-wide molecular profiling of kidney biopsies may be a key to catching organ rejection before it’s too late.
University of Utah scientists identified two genes that make some pigeon breeds develop feathered feet known as muffs, while others have scaled feet. The same or similar genes might explain scaled feet in chickens and other birds, and provide insight into how some dinosaurs got feathers before they evolved into birds.
University of Virginia scientists have demonstrated that neurons in the brain that have been supplemented with a synthetic gene can be remotely manipulated by a magnetic field. The finding has implications for possible future treatment of a range of neurological diseases, such as schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease.
Video: Rick Groleau As doctors and researchers explore the effectiveness of treating cancer patients with combinations of chemotherapy drugs, their attention has largely been focused on how much of each drug to give. A new study has found that achieving best results may also require looking into how much time should pass between delivering one drug and the next.
An international team of scientists has identified novel gene locations associated with childhood body mass index (BMI)—an important measurement related to childhood obesity. This largest-ever genetic study of childhood BMI may offer biological clues to designing future interventions.
The Genetics Society of America takes an active and collaborative role in the Promoting Active Learning & Mentoring (PALM) Network, along with our partners: the American Society for Cell Biology and the American Society of Plant Biologists.PALM Fellows work with mentors to develop, use and evaluate evidence-based active learning strategies in their own classroom.
An Indiana University biologist has been awarded $750,000 to identify the genetic mechanism that makes up a "switch" allowing some genetically identical species to develop strikingly different physical characteristics based on their environment, a phenomenon known as "polyphenism.
In the first known discovery of its kind, a Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine-led team has found that HIV patients in Africa with a certain genetic variant have a 63-percent lower chance of developing tuberculosis than HIV patients without the genetic variant.
Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) Professor H. Eric Xu will receive the prestigious Hans Neurath Award in recognition of a 2015 discovery that could lead to the development of better, more targeted therapies for many diseases.
Sometimes, a nematode worm just needs to take a nap. In fact, its life may depend on it. New research has identified a protein that promotes a sleep-like state in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Without the snooze-inducing molecule, worms are more likely to die when confronted with stressful conditions, report researchers in the March 7, 2016 issue of the journal GENETICS.
Genetic research on concussions is progressing in many different avenues. However, researchers presenting their work at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine’s (AOSSM) Specialty Day, believe there may be a new genetic connection regarding recovery rates following a sports-related concussion.
'Four-Flavored' Tetraquark, Planets Born Like Cracking Paint, New 2D Materials, The World's Newest Atom-Smasher in the Physics News Source sponsored by AIP.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of Gregor Mendel’s publication that—after sitting ignored for a few decades—helped launch the field of modern genetics. Today, we know that inheritance is far more complex than what Mendel saw in his pea plants. Our scientists who track progress in genetics research funded by NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences share some of the things researchers have learned about how traits are passed from one generation to the next.
In a finding with enormous implications for cancer diagnostics and therapeutics, Whitehead Institute scientists have discovered that breaches in looping chromosomal structures known as “insulated neighborhoods” can activate oncogenes capable of fueling aggressive tumor growth.
A research collaboration that combines novel “big-data” informatics tools with expertise in basic biology has uncovered details of an essential process in life: how a crucial enzyme locates the site on DNA where it begins to direct the synthesis of RNA. The finding may help scientists discover antimicrobial medicines, and shed light on other important cellular processes.
Researchers at the University of British Columbia have identified a common ancestral gene that enabled the evolution of advanced life over a billion years ago.
P53, a tumor suppressor gene that is mutated and inactivated in the vast majority of cancers, has often been described as the “guardian of the genome” because of its protective effects against cancer. Now, researchers at The Wistar Institute are also making the case for p53 as the “guardian of obesity,” having found that a variant of the gene is heavily implicated in metabolism, which may lead to obesity and the development of type 2 diabetes.
The research team, using head shapes and genetic analyses, recommend that six groups of subspecies of the western rattlesnake be elevated to full species status.
Most doctors and nurses review a patient’s family history to identify risk factors for heart disease and cancer, often through a paper checklist or brief interview. But more deliberate efforts to map a patient’s family tree could identify additional risks and drive patients to timely screenings for illnesses that may unknowingly affect them, according to a new study from Duke Health.
A new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has identified two genes that, when altered in specific ways, either promote or undermine cardiovascular health. The findings may help guide efforts to design new preventive drugs, similar to the way statins now are prescribed to lower “bad” cholesterol to reduce the risk of heart disease.
A dragonfly barely an inch and a half long appears to be animal world's most prolific long distance traveler – flying thousands of miles over oceans as it migrates from continent to continent – according to newly published research led by biologists at Rutgers University-Newark.
Latinas who eat processed meats such as bacon and sausage may have an increased risk for breast cancer, according to a new study that did not find the same association among white women.
A new discovery about ischemic stroke may allow to doctors to predict a patient’s risk of having a second stroke using a commonly performed blood test and their genetic profile.
Genetics and specific brain regions are linked to sex differences in chimpanzees’ scratching behavior, a common indicator of anxiety in humans and others primates, according to a research study led by Georgia State University that shows chimpanzees can be models of human mental illness.
The International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) announced today that its Data Access Compliance Office (DACO) authorized its 1,000th user, giving them access to the Consortium’s Controlled Access datasets.
A new clinical study from the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine shows that whole-exome sequencing (WES) could serve as a viable diagnostic approach for identifying rare inherited diseases and providing a resolution for patients on a diagnostic odyssey.
Researchers seeking to better understand how our genes contribute to stroke risk have completed what is believed to be the largest and most comprehensive review of the human genome to identify genes that predispose people to ischemic stroke, the cause of approximately 85 percent of all strokes.
The development of every animal in the history of the world began with a simple step: the fusion of a spermatozoon with an oocyte. Despite the ubiquity of this process, the actual mechanisms through which fertilization occurs remain poorly understood. A new tool developed by a team of French biophysicists may soon shed light on this still-mysterious process, and has already captured highly detailed images of what happens when sperm and egg first touch.
Cells with higher fat content outlive lean cells, says a new study from Michigan State University.
This winter has provided several dramatic developments in the ongoing debate about whether altering the "germline" - that is, the genome of a new embryo - should be allowed. Employing the technique could permanently alter not just an individual, but also that person's future genetic lineage. In a new research essay in the journal Cell, a duo of medical and legal experts from Brown and Harvard Universities argues that if the U.S. decides to consider the practice, it has a well-drawn regulatory roadmap to follow, courtesy of the United Kingdom.
Sophisticated prenatal techniques, not yet in clinical practice, offer the potential to prevent a cruel multi-system genetic disease passing from mother to child long before birth. However, these emerging tools raise ethical and social questions.
There is a unique role for the United States medical community to play in determining the future application of, and ethically acceptable approach to, mitochondrial replacement techniques (MRTs), according to a commentary published online by the New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers have found the molecular marker -- a pattern in the plant's natural DNA -- for calcium in potatoes. This will save time in breeding high-quality, high-calcium potatoes that resist rot.
Copies of the mouse gene R2d2 can spread quickly through lab and wild mouse populations, despite the fact that the genes cause females to have fewer offspring. This is the first time scientists have used mice to show that a selfish gene responsible for infertility can become fixed in a population.
A new study reveals that the Kurly protein is required for the proper orientation and movement of tiny hair-like projections called cilia. Defects in cilia are linked to human disease.
A team of national laboratory and university researchers led by the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Argonne National Laboratory is growing large test plots of switchgrass crops with the farmer in mind. For the first time, researchers have mixed different genetic varieties of switchgrass on production-size plots, hypothesizing this could increase yield by extending the growing season, varying the size of the switchgrass plants to produce a fuller crop and potentially reducing the crop’s vulnerability to weather fluctuations. A seven-year study showed the switchgrass variety mixture was, most consistently, the highest yielding crop, as measured by the harvested dry weight from each plot.
Employing cutting edge bioinformatics & next generation sequencing techniques, scientists have reconstructed the spider ‘tree of life’ to come to intriguing new conclusions about the evolution of the web, something which has important implications for the overall story of spider evolution.
A newly discovered human gene mutation appears to contribute both to unusual sleep patterns and to heightened rates of seasonal depression, according to new research from UC San Francisco.
Researchers at the University of Georgia, working with the International Peanut Genome Initiative, have discovered that a wild plant from Bolivia is a “living relic” of the prehistoric origins of the cultivated peanut species.
”Now we want to examine the next stage: If we change the dynamics of the regulatory circuits, will we be able to change the body plan? For example, will a sea cucumber grow a skeleton like a sea urchin?” – Dr. Smadar Ben-Tabou de-Leon from the Department of Marine Biology at the University of Haifa, who undertook the study
Imagine exploring a wooded site along an Alaska stream or lake for evidence of animals. Maybe you’ll see moose prints in the soil or a bit of wolf fur in a berry bush. But some species don’t leave footprints. They still leave a clue. It’s their DNA.
Scientists at the University of Georgia have shown that a hormone instrumental in the aging process is under genetic control, introducing a new pathway by which genetics regulates aging and disease.
Researchers developed a mathematical model to estimate the rates of mutation as a function of the nearby sequences of DNA ‘letters’ -- called nucleotides. This new model not only provides clues into the process of mutation, but also helps discover possible genetic risk factors that influence complex human diseases, such as autism spectrum disorder.
Florida State University researchers are working on new approaches to deciphering genetic data that may lead to new, more targeted prostate cancer treatments.
Researchers at Ohio State University have pinpointed a human gene product that helps regulate wound healing and may control scarring in people recovering from severe injuries and damage to certain internal organs. The protein, MG53, travels throughout the bloodstream and helps the body fix injuries to the skin, heart, and other organs without causing scars. It's a discovery that could help heal open wounds, decrease recovery time after surgery and reduce the spread of infections.
Neuroscientists have discovered a specific enzyme that plays a critical role in spinal muscular atrophy, and that suppressing this enzyme’s activity, could markedly reduce the disease’s severity and improve patients’ lifestyles.
An international team of scientists, led by researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), have created the first comprehensive, cross-species genomic comparison of all 20 known species of Leptospira, a bacterial genus that can cause disease and death in livestock and other domesticated mammals, wildlife and humans.
Caltech biologists have performed the first large-scale screening in a vertebrate animal for genes that regulate sleep, and have identified a gene that when overactivated causes severe insomnia. Expression of the gene, neuromedin U (Nmu), also seems to serve as nature's stimulant--fish lacking the gene take longer to wake up in the morning and are less active during the day.
First genetic evidence of modern human DNA in a Neanderthal individual.
DNA results show that shelter workers are often mistaken when they label a dog as a pit bull, with potentially devastating consequences for the dogs, a new University of Florida study has found.
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