Genetics & Molecular Biology

Did Science Build A Better Turkey?

'Tis the season for the local supermarkets to feature delicately balanced displays of gravy, stuffing mix, and cranberry sauce. Thanksgiving is almost upon us, and the centerpiece of the upcoming meal for 95% of families will be the traditional roast ...

Article - Kimberly Crandell - Nov 14 2008 - 1:06pm

Making Sense Of Biological Networks

Molecular biologists have long operated on the principle that knowing the structure of a biological entity is critical for understanding how it works. Most famously, this was the premise behind one of biology's most iconic discoveries, Watson and Cri ...

Article - Michael White - Nov 14 2008 - 7:02pm

Genetic Cross-talk: Sicilian Enters British Genetic Language

A scientific team from the John Innes Centre and University of St Andrews has identified a key gene that was transferred from a Sicilian plant into a close relative in Britain, showing how genetic cross-talk between species can be important for evolution.  ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 16 2008 - 12:45pm

Clinical Trial Will Use Patients' Own Adult Stem Cells To Treat Heart Failure

Researchers at the University of Utah are enrolling people in a new clinical trial that uses a patient's own stem cells to treat ischemic and non-ischemic heart failure.   The one-year Cardiac Repair Cell Treatment of Patients with Dilated Cardiomyopa ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 17 2008 - 11:19am

Science by press release

With apologies to Jonathan Eisen for encroaching on his annoyance specialty, here is yet another case of science via press release. Big hop forward: Scientists map kangaroo's DNA Taking a big hop forward in marsupial research, scientists say they have ...

Blog Post - T. Ryan Gregory - Nov 18 2008 - 4:30pm

The Death of Junk DNA and Birth of the Junkome

Not so long ago, geneticists considered the vast stretches of non-coding regions in DNA to be “junk,” nothing more than the remnants of our evolutionary history. If it wasn’t a traditional gene, and didn’t produce a protein, it wasn’t of interest to most s ...

Blog Post - Michael Windelspecht - Nov 18 2008 - 5:25pm

Tissue-Engineered Trachea Transplant Is Adult Stem Cell Breakthrough

The first tissue-engineered trachea (windpipe), utilizing the patient's own stem cells, has been successfully transplanted into a young woman with a failing airway. The bioengineered trachea immediately provided the patient with a normally functioning ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 19 2008 - 11:54am

Generic genome sequence press release (by Andy)

This comment by Andy was too good not to repost. Generic press release for genome sequencing Scientists map genome of (insert name). A team of researchers from (insert university/institute/lockup garage) has completed mapping the genome of (animal/plant/sq ...

Blog Post - T. Ryan Gregory - Nov 19 2008 - 12:29pm

First Genome Wide Sequence Of Extinct Animal- The Woolly Mammoth

Scientists are reporting the first genome-wide sequence of an extinct animal, according to Webb Miller, Penn State professor of biology, one of the project's two leaders. The animal is the woolly mammoth, an extinct species of elephant that was adapte ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 19 2008 - 2:54pm

How DNA Unwind (It Doesn't Involve TV And A Beer)

Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute writing in Nature Structural&Molecular Biology say they have figured out how a macromolecular machine is able to unwind the long and twisted tangles of DNA within a cell's nucleus so that genetic infor ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 24 2008 - 8:40pm