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Complex genetic ancestry of Americans uncovered: Genetic fingerprints of slave trade and colonization

By comparing the genes of current-day North and South Americans with African and European populations, an Oxford University study has found the genetic fingerprints of the slave trade and colonization that shaped migrations to the Americas hundreds of years ago. The team, which also included researchers from UCL (University College London) and the Universita' del…

Heart drug reduces risk of cancer spreading

Cancer is cruel: sometimes, life-saving surgery to cut out a tumour may be the very thing that spreads it to other parts of the body. But this spreading process can be hampered by giving a compound that is already used to treat heart failure. Most people who die from cancer do so because their tumour…

Parkinson’s Disease Linked to the Microbiome

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system characterized by alpha-synuclein aggregates that lead to loss of dopamine-generating cells in the substantia nigra. Symptoms such as hand shaking or difficulty walking drive patients to seek medical care, but these are not actually the earliest symptoms of the disease. It turns out…

‘Chain reaction’ spreads gene through insects

On 28 December 2014, Valentino Gantz and Ethan Bier checked on the fruit flies that had just hatched in their lab at the University of California (UC), San Diego. By the classic rules of Mendelian genetics, only one out of four of the newborn flies should have shown the effects of the mutation their mothers…

8 Incredible Facts You May Not Know About Human Evolution

Homo sapiens evolved about 200-150,000 years ago in Africa, but our story as a species stretches back much further than that with early human ancestors. And the evolution of Homo sapiens is itself a tangled tale, full of unanswered questions and gothic family melodrama. Here are a few facts you may not know about the…

Puzzle of Darwin’s ‘strangest animals’ finally solved

Charles Darwin called them perhaps the “strangest animal[s] ever discovered.” And evolutionary biologists have puzzled ever since over where to place certain odd-looking extinct South American hooved animals in the mammalian branches of the tree of life. Now, new molecular evidence from proteins preserved in fossilized bones reveals that the mammals—includingMacrauchenia, a leggy animal that…

Florida manatee count tallies record high

Two years after Florida tallied a record number of manatee deaths, state biologists announced Monday that they have documented a near stampede of wintering sea cows in recent months. An annual statewide survey, conducted over several days in February, counted a record high of 6,063 manatees in Florida waters. That’s about a thousand more manatees…

Some genes ‘foreign’ in origin and not from our ancestors

Many animals, including humans, acquired essential 'foreign' genes from microorganisms co-habiting their environment in ancient times, according to research published in the open access journal Genome Biology. The study challenges conventional views that animal evolution relies solely on genes passed down through ancestral lines, suggesting that, at least in some lineages, the process is still…

New class of drugs dramatically increases healthy lifespan, mouse study suggests

A research team from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), Mayo Clinic and other institutions has identified a new class of drugs that in animal models dramatically slows the aging process -- alleviating symptoms of frailty, improving cardiac function and extending a healthy lifespan. The new research was published March 9 online ahead of print by…

Mapping ‘switches’ that shaped the evolution of the human brain

Thousands of genetic "dimmer" switches, regions of DNA known as regulatory elements, were turned up high during human evolution in the developing cerebral cortex, according to new research from the Yale School of Medicine. Unlike in rhesus monkeys and mice, these switches show increased activity in humans, where they may drive the expression of genes…

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Recent Posts by Pangaea Biosciences

Complex genetic ancestry of Americans uncovered: Genetic fingerprints of slave trade and colonization

Heart drug reduces risk of cancer spreading

Parkinson’s Disease Linked to the Microbiome

‘Chain reaction’ spreads gene through insects

8 Incredible Facts You May Not Know About Human Evolution

Puzzle of Darwin’s ‘strangest animals’ finally solved

Florida manatee count tallies record high

Some genes ‘foreign’ in origin and not from our ancestors

New class of drugs dramatically increases healthy lifespan, mouse study suggests

Mapping ‘switches’ that shaped the evolution of the human brain

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