Genetics & Molecular Biology

Molecules Assemble In Water- A Hint About The Origins Of Life?

The base pairs that hold together two pieces of RNA, the older cousin of DNA, are some of the most important molecular interactions in living cells. Many scientists believe that these base pairs were part of life from the very beginning and that RNA was o ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 24 2013 - 6:04pm

Resolvins: How Aspirin And Omega-3 Fatty Acids Work Together To Fight Inflammation

The health benefits of low-dose aspirin and omega-3 fatty acids in foods like flax seeds and salmon are touted frequently but the detailed mechanisms involved in their effects are not fully known. A report in Chemistry&Biology says that aspirin helps ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 22 2013 - 10:25am

PiRNAs That Control Where Epigentic Factors Are Placed In Genome Discovered

If a genome is the blueprint for life, then the chief architects are  the molecular regulators of epigenetics, say Yale School of Medicine researchers. In the past 20 years, scientists have discovered that some proteins, epigenetic factors, traverse the s ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 21 2013 - 10:38pm

PICM-19: Pig Liver Cells Could Power Artificial Liver

Chronic or acute liver failure can be deadly. Toxins take over, the skin turns yellow and higher brain function slows. A line of special liver cells could change that, says Neil Talbot, a Research Animal Scientist for the USDA Agricultural Research Servic ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 28 2013 - 10:27am

Biological Soap Opera: 'Selfish' Gene May Undermine Genome's Police

The nucleic and amino acids caught up in the infamous "selfish" segregation distorter (SD) saga may be just inanimate chemical compounds to most of us, but they have put on a soap opera for biologists since the phenomenon was discovered in fruit ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 5 2013 - 5:38pm

Corrected Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Spark Muscle Regeneration

Human embryonic stem cells still get all of the attention- a company in California might be able to do a clinical trial for an applied hESC treatment and it was in the news everywhere, but researchers at the University of Minnesota's Lillehei Heart I ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 5 2013 - 6:00pm

Of Batman, Bacteria, And Yosemite Sam

In the past few centuries, our understanding of bacteria has progressed from mysterious medieval vapours, to the microscopic "animalcules" of van Leeuwenhoek, to the germ theory of disease à la  Pasteur, to the realizations that bacteria outnumbe ...

Article - Robert Cooper - Mar 11 2013 - 2:14pm

A Defense Of Plant/Crop Related Patents

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Article - Steve Savage - Mar 9 2013 - 1:35pm

Bone Mass And Fat Genetically Linked- Study

Is your body shape predetermined? Some role for heritage is obvious and there efforts to fix people into an epigenetic destiny as well but it may be that diet and exercise can only do so much. A new paper says body composition, including soft fat tissue a ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 11 2013 - 4:40pm

DNA 'Supercoiling' Caused By Protein In Cancer Cells

A protein known as mini-chromosome maintenance (MCM) has been found to change DNA topology and make DNA twist up into a so-called "supercoil". Supercoiling can be thought of as similar to twisting one end of a rubber band while holding the other ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 11 2013 - 1:37pm