Kerry Grens
Commercialization without consent: Sanger Institute accused of violating agreements with African scientists
The Wellcome Sanger Institute in the UK had planned to commercialize a genetics array based on African DNA samples, whistleblowers ...
GMO mosquitoes produced hybrid offspring in the wild? New study says yes—but under fire from critics
A field experiment in Brazil that deployed genetically modified mosquitoes to control wild populations of the pest may be having ...
Can CAR-T cell therapy tackle solid tumors too?
Last summer, [Cecelia] Barron’s cancer went from stage 2 to stage 3 oligodendroglioma. Behnam Badie, her surgeon at City of Hope, ...
Genome destruction: CRISPR used to remove entire Y chromosome in mice
Researchers have managed to wipe out an entire mouse chromosome using CRISPR-Cas9. They aimed numerous double-strand breaks at either the ...
Not fool-proof: Gene drive’s greatest weakness is random DNA mutations
Gene drive is a technology that could squelch insect-borne diseases, by forcing deleterious traits engineered into the animals’ DNA to ...
Search for targeted pesticides leads scientists to eavesdrop on crosstalk between plants and fungi
In this conversation between plants and fungi, the organisms rely on a well-worn mechanism of gene-expression regulation that has stood ...
CEO who took gene therapy designed to treat aging reveals promising early results
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. In 2015, Elizabeth Parrish, ...
‘Anti-aging’ protein might not be key to youthfulness after all
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Growth differentiation factor 11 ...
‘Non-GMO’ genetic tool helps yogurt fend off bacterial viruses
Two years ago, a genome-editing tool referred to as CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) burst onto the scene ...
CRISPR corrects mutant gene for incurable blood disorder
The genome-editing method involving CRISPR and Cas9 has been called into duty for a wide variety of jobs, from cutting integrated HIV ...
Snipping HIV out of the genome
Like other retroviruses, the genetic material of HIV wedges itself into the genome of its human host. While antiretroviral therapies ...
Some see future of profit in stem cell line banking
About four years ago, Jay Tischfield, the director of RUDCR Infinite Biologics, a long-standing biorepository at Rutgers University, found himself ...
New job for RNA: Hold tight to proteins to turn genes on and off
The small RNA RsmZ is known to sequester proteins that repress translation in bacteria. A study published in Nature this ...
Sequencing cancer genomes, rather than testing specific genes is future of treatment
In the march toward personalized medicine, genotyping cancers has become more and more complex. Panels that pick up variations in ...
Further evidence stem cells injected into heart don’t grow new cardiac muscle
C-kit cells, which are found in the heart and supposedly act as cardiac stem cells, are the basis of a ...
50,000 generation experiment proves ‘adaptive evolution’ is relentless
In 1988, when evolutionary biologist Richard Lenski was an assistant professor at the University of California, Irvine, he started a ...
Many stem cell lines aren’t good enough for commercial use
Many of the stem cell lines used by academics and registered with the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) would ...
Judges reaffirm that stem cells fall under aegis of FDA
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week (February 4) that culturing a patient’s stem cells for therapeutic use ...
Genome editing paying off: Knockout human gene libraries help correct disease-causing genetic defects
CRISPR technology is an approach to genome editing that has skyrocketed to stardom because of its speed, ease of use, ...
Bacteria able to integrate ancient, damaged DNA into their genome
Bacteria are known to take in long fragments of DNA, discarded by the dead cells of other organisms, and incorporate ...
Another eczema gene identified
Eczema is a common skin problem that involves chronic inflammation and itching. Genetic studies of the disorder have homed in ...
Genomic analysis moves to the cloud
Baylor College of Medicine's Human Genome Sequencing Center (HGSC) is looking to the cloud for large-scale genomic analyses. According to ...
Bird, rish, and fly cells reprogrammed
The ability to reprogram differentiated cells toward pluripotency has been a remarkable achievement, though its application has mostly been limited ...
The epigenetics of body clocks and metabolism: why when you eat matters
Few environmental factors are as reliable as the 24-hour day, and an evolutionary argument can be made for why the ...
Researchers create single-gene knockout library
Using a technique called “gene trapping,” researchers have built a library of haploid human cell lines. The collection includes more ...
