Genetics & Molecular Biology

Your Inner Fish Gets Literal- Gene Expression In Cell Types Even Between Mammal And Non-Mammal Vertebrates Conserved

A study of gene expression in chickens, frogs, pufferfish, mice and people has revealed surprising similarities in several key tissues. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access Journal of Biology have shown that expression in tissues with a ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 15 2009 - 10:35pm

Step Back Y Chromosome, X Is Getting Some Respect In The Evolution Of Sexual Reproduction

There's a perception among some that it's a man's world and they get all the attention.   If you've ever been in a bar or a library or a baseball game, you know this is not true- have a woman drop a napkin and see what happens whereas a ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 16 2009 - 1:12pm

Systems Biology Strikes Gold?

Many computational biologists are interested in taking gene expression data, and using that data to computationally infer the underlying regulatory network that controls the observed pattern of gene expression. Why? Because doing the experiments to determ ...

Article - Michael White - Apr 19 2009 - 11:51am

Heart Matters 'Cause We Love Them

Health and death have genetic risk factors. International research has linked ten gene variations to sudden cardiac death (SCD). What is SCD? It is death resulting from an abrupt loss of heart function-- cardiac arrest. Was this perhaps what the first fam ...

Article - Hatice Cullingford - Apr 17 2009 - 6:03pm

Unique Aspects Of Down Syndrome

Down syndrome is one of about twelve identified chromosomal disorders- some of which are caused by additional chromosome, in whole or in part.   With Down syndrome, that extra chromosome is added to the 21st chromosome during fetal development. Down syndr ...

Blog Post - Dan Abshear - Apr 20 2009 - 9:31am

Live cells in real time

Drs. Fred Cross and Eric Siggia have produced a steady stream of outstanding systems-level studies of one of the most important biological oscillators: the cell division cycle. I'll have more later today on their fascinating new paper on phase-locking ...

Blog Post - Michael White - Apr 20 2009 - 11:28am

Snipe hunting in the genome

Sigh- I was going to recommend this piece about recent human genome research in Scientific American, by a leading researcher in comparative genomics, Katherine Pollard, until I came to the last paragraph: Experimental and computational studies now under wa ...

Blog Post - Michael White - Apr 20 2009 - 4:34pm

Circadian Workday? 8 Hours On The Job May Have A Biological Basis

The circadian clock coordinates physiological and behavioral processes on a 24-hour rhythm, allowing animals to anticipate changes in their environment and prepare accordingly. Scientists already know that some genes are controlled by the clock and are tur ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 23 2009 - 1:31pm

Mooooove Over Neanderthals- Bos Taurus Is The Latest Genome Sequence On The Block

Genome sequencing is getting better and faster.  Two months ago we had the first draft of the neanderthal genome and now scientists from the University of Maryland have published their assembly of the Bos taurus- the domestic cow.  Sure that's not as ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 23 2009 - 1:40pm

Evolution In A Test Tube- Researchers Create 'Mini Galapagos' In The Lab

As you know, when different species directly compete for the same finite resource, only the fitter will survive.  A new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)  says they have demonstrated that in a laboratory environment, along wit ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 30 2009 - 11:23am