Genetics & Molecular Biology

I had lunch today with Jim Anderson, a Professor in the Department of Cell and Systems Biology at the University of Toronto.  Jim asks questions about how genetic changes over time (evolution)…

Those of you who read Genomicon v1 or other blogs that discuss non-coding DNA will, for better or worse, be familiar with regular commenter Andras Pellionisz. Many people have concluded that Dr.…

If you're looking for genome news, the Nov. 6 issue of Nature is chock full. A news feature (subscription only) goes after why genome-wide association studies are failing to find genetic variants…

Researchers have carried out the largest study of differences between human and chimpanzee genomes, identifying regions that have been duplicated or lost during evolution of the two lineages. The…

Which species is more diverse, humans or chimps? Most of us would be tempted to answer 'humans'. Unless you're a primatologist or you work at a zoo, you would likely have trouble telling one chimp…

Transcription factors do a lot of things for us, like make arms and legs in the right places.  It turns out they may also make us go bald. We all know that being bald runs in families.…

Any time science  terms become colloquial, it leads to problems.    How often does someone make a speculation and call it a 'theory'?   Cars supposedly 'evolve' if their…

In the near future it will be possible to customize the food we eat  based on the genetic profile of the individual. Dutch researcher Amber Ronteltap suggests that the consumer market is not yet…

University of Cincinnati (UC) researchers have discovered a gene that helps control the secretion of acid in the stomach—information that could one day aid scientists in creating more efficient…

Not all enzymes that are assumed to require an RNA component in order to function do actually contain RNA, according to a study  that focused on the enzyme RNase P.   Contrary to accepted…