News by Subject Biology

Relying strictly on genetic data from those of European descent, rather than more diverse populations, can exacerbate existing disease and increase health care disparities, according to new research.

A drug that helps regulate bone development has boosted growth rates in children with achondroplasia -- the most common type of dwarfism -- in a trial by Melbourne's Murdoch Children's Research Institute. Phase 2 trial results in children aged 5 to 14 years are published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. The project is now in Phase 3 to test the drug, vosoritide, in a larger group of patients aged 5 to 18 years.

A therapeutic gene delivered into the spinal canal of infant rhesus monkeys was still being expressed after nearly 4 years, with no evidence of acute or chronic neuronal tox-icity, according to a new study published in Human Gene Therapy.

A UCLA-led research team has developed a faster and more accurate way to determine where the many bacteria that live in, and on, humans come from. Broadly, the tool can deduce the origins of any microbiome, a localized and diverse community of microscopic organisms.

Scientists at Columbia have developed a gene-editing tool -- using jumping genes -- that inserts any DNA sequence into the genome without cutting, fixing a major shortcoming of existing CRISPR technology.

A China-US joint research team reported the generation of germline-transmittable cynomolgus macaques with Shank3 mutations, known to cause a form of autism.

An international team of researchers led by the University of British Columbia has made a scientific advance they hope will lead to the development of preventative treatments for multiple sclerosis (MS).