The Scientist
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 ...
Human ‘tree rings’? Neuroimaging predicts life span and brain age
In recent years, scientists have plumbed the molecular depths of the body and surfaced with tell-tale biomarkers of aging, some ...
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 ...
Hemophilia cure? First attempt at in vivo human genome editing
Researchers have edited the human genome before, but always in cells outside the body. Now, biotech company Sangamo Therapeutics is ...
Sour or sweet? Your genes guide your food preferences
Every one of us, I learned through my preliminary research for Flavor: The Science of Our Most Neglected Sense, probably ...
Gene therapy breakthrough for age-related macular degeneration
Wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) occurs when blood vessels grow and leak fluid into the macula, the central portion of ...
Genetic secrets of farming’s most notorious and persistent pest: Aphids
Aphids are some of nature’s most notorious pests...which causes physical damage and transmits pathogens that often render plants unsuitable for ...
Fish farm problem? Salmon diseases evolving more virulently in farms
Fish farming is one of the fastest growing food production sectors in the world, but infections caused by bacteria, viruses, ...
Jack in the corn stalk: Record 45-foot-tall corn plant created by New York breeder
Gason Karl has been growing corn since he was a teenager. Starting in 1996, he began planting the crop on ...
Cancer’s evolution hinders new drug treatments
While immunotherapies provide a better chance for a long-term and durable response, [Retired Major League Baseball administrator Bill] Murray’s story ...
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 ...
Is aging a preventable disease?
The concept of aging is undergoing a rapid transformation in medicine. The question has long been asked: Is aging a ...
Cuban lung-cancer vaccine reaches United States, starting clinical trials
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced [Oct. 26] that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has green-lighted the first ...
Neurologists identify how bridge between brain hemispheres forms
Researchers have discovered key steps in the development of the corpus callosum, a cable of neurons connecting the two hemispheres ...
Looking back on gene editing’s thirty years of development
In the mid-1980s, Oliver Smithies, then at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Mario Capecchi of the University of Utah independently ...
Could natural genetic transfers from bacteria to humans contribute to cancer?
People have long been intrigued by the prospect of foreign DNA within our own genomes. Human genomes harbor evidence of ...
Pharmaceutical giant Novartis shuts down its gene therapy research
Healthcare company Novartis has either fired or reassigned roughly 400 researchers previously tasked with developing cell and gene therapies. While ...
Specific neurons may code for social learning in humans
At least one type of social learning, or the ability to learn from observing others’ actions, is processed by individual ...
‘Frankenfood’ characterization stifles real discussion of social issues raised by GMOs
. . . Frankenstein. . . [articulates] the public’s visceral fears of scientific and technological innovation. Indeed, the pejorative prefix Franken- has taken ...
Brains of schizophrenics may repair themselves over time
[Psychiatrist] Lena Palaniyappan...and other mental health professionals have noticed is that, unlike those with degenerative neurological disorders[,]...sometimes schizophrenia patients eventually start ...
While no gene ‘causes’ mental illness, some genes make people more sensitive to environment
The same genes could make a person feel happy or depressed, depending on their environment. Combining research on genetics and ...
Recent cultural differences accelerated evolutionary changes in modern humans
The first solid evidence of natural selection in recent human populations was found in blood. In addition to blood type, ...
Autism-gene connections deepen, undermining GMO and vaccine claims
A large proportion of autism research begins with and is centered upon external presentations of the disorder, primarily behavioral manifestations ...
Short bursts of brain activity during sleep may be key for memory consolidation
Sleep is essential for memory. Mounting evidence continues to support the notion that the nocturnal brain replays, stabilizes, reorganizes, and ...
Neonicotinoids may reduce sperm count, lifespan in male honeybees
Exposure to neonicotinoids. . . reduced the percentage of viable sperm in male honeybees (drones) and also shortened the insects’ ...
Primates, bacteria of microbiome evolved together
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. The symbiotic relationship between ...
Synthetic bacteria programmed to deliver cancer drugs inside body directly to tumor
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. A synthetic genetic circuit ...
Same genes can make someone happy or depressed, depending on environment
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Combining research on genetics ...
