Francis Thackeray, a South African anthropologist and the director of the Institute for Human Evolution at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, has asked permission from the Church of England to exhume the remains of William Shakespeare. This would allow a team of researchers to study the cause of death of the Bard of Avon, as well as look for evidence of drug use, which depends on the presence of hair and finger or toe nails.

Parental stress seems to influence the progeny of organisms. For example, studies have shown that, if mice are stressed, their offspring will show signs of anxiety, even if they receive the usual levels of maternal care. Such epigenetic effects do not alter the DNA sequence, but leave genetic ‘marks’ on genes that influence how active these are. There are some ideas that health issues such as obesity or mental illness could be the result of stress on the parents.

But the changes in the inherited DNA that might give rise to these effects have proved difficult to identify. Now, research  on fruit flies appears to have elucidated a mechanism that allows the effects of stress to be passed on without having to alter genes.

An innovative gene therapy technique, known as genome editing, ‘searches’ a specific mutated gene and fixes it. Now, for the first time, it has been shown to work in living animals. In the study, the researchers used two versions of a genetically engineered virus (AAV, or adeno-associated virus). One of these versions carried the enzyme that cut the DNA in the right spot, and the other one transported the gene meant to replace the mutated one.

All this was done in liver cells of living mice that suffered from the blood-clotting disorder hemophilia, which is caused by a single-gene mutation and comes in two forms: hemophilia A and hemophilia B, caused by, respectively a lack of clotting factor VIII and IX. In this study, the mice suffered from the B variant.

A fairly new method in genetic research, known as optogenetics (selected as Method of the Year in 2010 by Nature Methods, see video for a great explanation), uses light to control gene expression. Now, researchers form EHT Zürich have engineered human cells (implanted in mice) so that the expression of a gene that plays a role in diabetes can be controlled by light. Instead of creating a whole new genetic network, they combined existing signal pathways, one from the immune system, and one from the eye.