Genetics & Molecular Biology

The Epigenetic History Of Stress During Pregnancy

Your stress levels may be another thing you can blame on your mother. Scientists investigating pregnancies in four generations of rats show that inherited epigenetic effects of stress could affect pregnancies for generations.  The researchers believe that ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 7 2014 - 9:32am

Heads Up: New Technique Allows Population Scale Genetic Engineering

Hey, heads up Public: game-changing new science means we can probably make insects stop spreading malaria, dengue fever, and Lyme disease.  Or reverse pesticide resistance in agricultural pests.  Or even eliminate invasive (or otherwise undesired) species ...

Article - Robert Cooper - Aug 11 2014 - 9:02am

Synthetic Sperm Protein Is A Fertile Discovery

Researchers have come up with a promising method of treating male infertility; a synthetic version of the sperm-originated protein known as PAWP. PAWP has been shown to be required, they write, and their synthetic version was sufficient to initiate the fe ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 11 2014 - 1:00pm

No Excess: Antarctic Midge's Genome Is Smallest Insect's To Date

Scientists have sequenced the genome of Belgica antarctica, the Antarctic midge – the smallest in insects described to-date –  and believe it can explained by the midge's adaptation to its deep-freeze extreme living environment. The midge is a small, ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 12 2014 - 12:39pm

Inpp4b: Nerve Conduction Velocity Linked To Multiple Sclerosis

A new study identifies a novel gene, Inpp4b, that controls nerve conduction velocity. Investigators report that even minor reductions in conduction velocity may aggravate disease in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and in mice bred for the MS-like conditi ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 15 2014 - 8:53am

Genetically Engineered Fruit Flies Could Save Crops Better Than Sterilization

The Mediterranean fruit fly is a serious agricultural pest, it infests more than 300 types of cultivated and wild fruits, vegetables and nuts and causes extreme damage to crops all around the world.  The fly is currently controlled by a combination of ins ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 13 2014 - 6:30am

Killing Cancer Cells With Salt

Researchers have create a molecule that can cause cancer cells to self-destruct by carrying sodium and chloride ions into the cells. Synthetic ion transporters have been created before, but this is the first time researchers have demonstrated how an influx ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 13 2014 - 7:00am

How To Speed Up A Woman's Psychological Biological Clock

Not that you want to do this but there is an easy way to speed up a woman's reproductive timing- just get a clock. Not one of those modern digital things, an actual ticking clock will literally do it, says a paper upcoming in Human Nature. It turns o ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 13 2014 - 1:02pm

Lhx1 Is The Gene For Jet Lag

Scientists have identified a gene, Lhx1, that regulates sleep and wake rhythms. The discovery of the role Lhx1 provides scientists with a potential therapeutic target to help night-shift workers or jet lagged travelers adjust to time differences more quic ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 13 2014 - 3:42pm

Notch Signaling And New Blood: Tracing The Beginnings Of Hematopoietic Stem Cells

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are adult stem cells isolated from blood or bone marrow that can renew themselves and differentiate into a variety of specialized cells. They give rise to all other blood cell types but their development has long remained a ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 14 2014 - 11:00am