Category Archives: News & Archives

Technique aims to cut disease-causing mutations out of eggs and embryos

Your mother may have given you her eyes, but she could have also given you mitochondrial DNA that carries disease-causing mutations. A study in mice shows that two techniques can drastically reduce the amount of this potentially harmful DNA in eggs and embryos, thus potentially sparing children from the illnesses. The methods could provide alternatives…

An international team of scientists has sequenced the complete genome of the woolly mammoth. A US team is already attempting to study the animals' characteristics by inserting mammoth genes into elephant stem cells. They want to find out what made the mammoths different from their modern relatives and how their adaptations helped them survive the…

Designer’s toolkit for dynamic DNA nanomachines: Arm-waving nanorobot signals new flexibility in DNA origami

The latest DNA nanodevices created at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) -- including a robot with movable arms, a book that opens and closes, a switchable gear, and an actuator -- may be intriguing in their own right, but that's not the point. They demonstrate a breakthrough in the science of using DNA as a…

Common bacteria on verge of becoming antibiotic-resistant superbugs

Antibiotic resistance is poised to spread globally among bacteria frequently implicated in respiratory and urinary infections in hospital settings, according to new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The study shows that two genes that confer resistance against a particularly strong class of antibiotics can be shared easily among a family…

Phase 1 trial of first Ebola vaccine based on 2014 virus strain shows vaccine is safe and provokes an immune response

Results from the first phase 1 trial of an Ebola vaccine based on the current (2014) strain of the virus are today published in The Lancet. Until now, all tested Ebola virus vaccines have been based on the virus strain from the Zaire outbreak in 1976. The results suggest that the new vaccine is safe,…

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…

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…