Genetics & Molecular Biology

Sonic Hedgehog Found In Ectoderm Of Mice Embryos

Sonic hedgehog, a gene that plays a crucial rule in the positioning and growth of limbs, fingers and toes, has been found in the ectoderm- the cell layer that gives rise to the skin- in the embryos of developing mice. The gene was previously thought to be ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 9 2010 - 7:13pm

Scientists Solve Puzzle Of Half-Male, Half-Female Chickens

Some chickens appear to be male on one side of the body and female on the other, and researchers writing in Nature this week say they know why. It was previously thought that sex chromosomes in birds control whether a testis or ovary forms, with sexual tra ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 10 2010 - 2:16pm

Individual Genome Sequencing Now Feasible As Diagnostic Tool

Physicians have long recognized that pinpointing specific causes of disease in individual patients enables therapies that are the most likely to confer benefit with the fewest adverse effects. We also recognize the potential for disease prevention through ...

Blog Post - Richard Mankiewicz - Mar 10 2010 - 11:00pm

Molecular Image Reveals How Electricity Moves Through Cells

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have created a molecular image of a system that moves electrons between proteins in cells. The achievement is a breakthrough for biology and could provide insights to minimize energy loss in other systems, from na ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 11 2010 - 7:56pm

Free Energy And The Purpose Of Life

Sean Carroll at Cosmic Variance on Entropy and the Meaning of Life: We know that entropy increases as the universe evolves. But why, on the road from the simple and low-entropy early universe to the simple and high-entropy late universe, do we pass through ...

Article - Michael White - Mar 15 2010 - 4:58pm

Inactive P21 Gene Spurs Cell Regeneration In Mice

In a report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from The Wistar Institute suggest that mice that lack the p21 gene gain the ability to regenerate lost or damaged tissue. The team says their findings provide solid e ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 15 2010 - 5:52pm

The Cost Of Biological Entropy Management

Information processing and entropy management- that's what organisms are about, right? Information and entropy are terms that get people excited, and yet it's extremely difficult to integrate formal ideas about information, free energy, entropy, ...

Article - Michael White - Mar 17 2010 - 4:39pm

Our Genes Don't Make Us Unique?

Our genes may not be the basis for human individuality, according to new studies in Science and Nature. The key may actually lie in the sequences that surround and control our genes. The interaction of those sequences with a class of proteins, called trans ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 18 2010 - 2:12pm

Spinophilin- Master Regulator In Protein-Protein Reactions

Protein phosphorylation, the process by which proteins are flipped from one activation state to another, is a crucial function for most living beings, since it controls nearly every cellular process, including metabolism and gene transcription. ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 8 2010 - 7:05pm

The Trouble With Biology

I've heard a senior colleague say that there is nothing fundamental left to be discovered in biology. It's a nagging worry some people have, including myself. What's left, according to some (including one of molecular biology's founders ...

Article - Michael White - Mar 25 2010 - 9:15pm