News by Subject Biology

An international team of scientists at Indiana University School of Medicine, University of Kansas and the U.K. Medical Research Council have dismantled the belief that Alzheimer's disease and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy have made a discovery that offers options for improved diagnosis and potential targeted treatments.

Scientists have harnessed powerful data analysis tools and three-dimensional studies of genomic geography to implicate new risk genes for osteoporosis, the chronic bone-weakening condition that affects millions of people. Knowing the causative genes may later open the door to more effective treatments.

The creation of new library of mutants of the single-celled photosynthetic green alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii enabled a Carnegie- and Princeton University-led team of plant scientists to identify more than 300 genes that are potentially required for photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the process by which plants, algae, and some bacteria convert energy from sunlight into carbohydrates -- filling our planet's atmosphere with oxygen as a byproduct.

Researchers from the Czech Academy of Sciences and Charles University constructed an artificial chemical DNA switch and made the first step towards artificial epigenetics -- targeted switching on and off of genes. Their paper was recently published in the journal Chemical Science.

A study from researchers in Italy suggests that there could be a way to bypass barriers to making CRISPR gene-editing treatments a viable option. The team found that using more-precise gene-editing technology that induces fewer breaks in DNA may keep stem cells' natural damage-response pathways under control. The findings are published March 21 in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

Scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago have developed a way to identify the beginning of every gene -- known as a translation start site or a start codon -- in bacterial cell DNA with a single experiment and, through this method, they have shown that an individual gene is capable of coding for more than one protein.

By conjuring the spell 'Lumos!' wizards in the mythical world of Harry Potter could light up the tip of their magic wands and illuminate their surroundings. So, too, does LumosVar, a computer program developed by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), 'light up' cancer-causing genetic Var-ients, or mutations, illuminating how physicians might best treat their patients.

Researchers have engineered nanoscale protein micelles capable of both delivering chemotherapeutic drugs and of being tracked by MRI. The innovation allows researchers to administer therapy while noninvasively monitoring the therapeutic progress and drastically reducing the need for surgical intervention. They biosynthesized a protein block copolymer containing amino acid building blocks with fluorinated thermoresponsive assembled protein (F-TRAP), which assembles into a nanoscale micelle with the noteworthy abilities.

A study by the University of Liverpool reveals new insights into how cells respond to oxygen deprivation. Published in the prestigious journal Science, the researchers found that chromatin, the complex of DNA and proteins where all genes reside, quickly changes in response to low oxygen.