Genetics & Molecular Biology

Gattaca Lite: First IVF Babies Born After Genetic Screening

Two women who took part in the world's first controlled study of a genetic screening test before IVF have given birth to healthy babies. The babies are the first deliveries in a pilot study of comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) by microarray, a n ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 15 2010 - 10:51am

Why CNVs Explain My Kid's Grades

'Copy Number Variants' (CNVs) are hot. A CNV is a sizeable chunk of DNA that's either missing from your genome or present in extra copies. Chunks of DNA get copied or deleted on a surprisingly frequent basis. We've all got CNVs, most ca ...

Article - Michael White - Oct 17 2010 - 9:11am

Response To Alcohol Changes With Dopamine D2

Is alcoholism genetic as well as behavioral?  Studies have suggested it in the past and scientists at Brookhaven National Lab say they have the first experimental evidence of it. Their study compared the brain's response to long-term alcohol drinking ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 20 2010 - 10:00am

Really, Scientific American? A Doozy of an Ozzy Headline

The jokes write themselves, really: "Ozzy Osbourne's Genome Reveals Some Neandertal Lineage " The idea itself is fascinating, though, and I am interested to see what more they can mine from the PoD (Prince of Darkness, to the uninitiated). I ...

Blog Post - Becky Jungbauer - Oct 27 2010 - 2:04pm

DRD4 And Dopamine: Liberals Are Born Genetically Different, Says Study

Can there be a genetic difference between progressives and conservatives?   Certainly we have had the discussion many times about studies, both sociological and biological, seeking to make the case that politics might be nature as well as nurture. ...

Article - News Staff - May 16 2012 - 7:33pm

Invisible Man: Closer To Reality?

'Agouti' is a family of genes previously identified in humans and the first two members are responsible for skin and hair color. I dentified by Vanderbilt scientists, AgRP2 the newest member of the family, exclusively found in bony fishes and is ...

Blog Post - Raghuveer Ramacha... - Nov 14 2010 - 4:28pm

Molecular Fossil Shows How RNA Is Made

Proteins are the indispensable catalytic workhorses, carrying out the processes essential to life in today's sophisticated organisms, but long ago ribonucleic acid (RNA) reigned supreme. Researchers have produced an atomic picture that shows how two o ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 15 2010 - 10:55am

Oxytocin- Beyond The 'Cuddle Hormone' And Into Marketing

Oxytocin, dubbed the "cuddle hormone" because of its importance in bonding,  is best known for its role in childbirth and breastfeeding, and animal studies have shown that it may also be important in monogamous social relationships. Recently, eco ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 16 2010 - 1:05pm

What is a Gene?

Not having had any serious biological training I have to go to Wikipedia and Google to learn the basics. And I’m often surprised to find that concepts everyone uses don’t have good consensus amongst scientists. When reading the  Wikipedia entry for “gene” ...

Blog Post - Rafe Furst - Nov 19 2010 - 8:33am

Stem Cells From Amniotic Fluid

The ethical issues surrounding unchecked human embryonic stem cell research are not going away any time soon, regardless of which political party occupies Congress or the White House.    Given that, researchers have devised various alternatives and now sci ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 19 2010 - 11:28am