Genetics & Molecular Biology

Shape-Changing Mitochondria Are Life Saving Mitochondria

Mitochondria are better known as the power factories of the cell but in fact they are much more interesting than that. Contrary to the old image in textbooks of round static structures, mitochondria are now known to be incredibly dynamic, shape changing, f ...

Article - Catarina Amorim - Apr 13 2011 - 12:19pm

One More Thing To Blame Your Mother For- Her Diet During Pregnancy May Have Made You Obese

In the 'we need to make sure all people can abdicate any responsibility for their actions' department, a new study makes obesity exculpatory by determining that a mother's nutrition during pregnancy influences the child's risk of obesit ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Apr 18 2011 - 4:29pm

SCARB1 Gene Variation Linked To Infertility In Women

In a complex system you never know what obscure change can modify things that wouldn't seem to be related.   A new study shows that variation of the scavenger receptor class B type 1 gene (SCARB1) involved in regulating cholesterol in the bloodstream ...

Article - News Staff - May 16 2011 - 1:42pm

Adult Kidney Cells Reverted To Precursor Stem Cells

Human embryonic stem cell research is limited in the US and Europe but creative researchers have made significant advances  using the existing hESC lines allowed under US federal guidelines along with induced pluripotent stem cells and adult stem cells. Sc ...

Article - News Staff - May 16 2011 - 2:32pm

DNA Computer Calculates Square Roots

Figuring out the structure of DNA, and the ongoing research into its workings, have provided scientists with a lot of new knowledge. One of the, perhaps unexpected, new areas of research that have sprouted forth from this knowledge, is the area of DNA com ...

Article - Gunnar De Winter - Jun 4 2011 - 11:30am

TFolder- Protein Folding Gets Easier

Protein folding is where the coiled strings of amino acids that make up proteins in all living things fold into more complex three-dimensional structures. Incorrectly folded proteins in humans result in such diseases as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 7 2011 - 10:44am

How To Build A Dinosaur

We've all seen Jurassic Park. An ancient petrified piece of tree sap (or amber) is found, containing a mosquito that has been sucking dinosaur blood before its demise. A little bit of this blood is gathered, and from it (Hocus Pocus) real dinosaur DNA ...

Article - Gunnar De Winter - Jun 8 2011 - 11:14am

Meet the Earless Fukushima Bunny

A cute little bunny has sparked renewed radiation fear in Japan. The rabbit was (allegedly) born near the severely damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant and has no ears (see video).   However, attributing this to the accidental radiation release after t ...

Blog Post - Gunnar De Winter - Jun 10 2011 - 9:03am

Variation In Recombination Rate

Recombination, the process by which a molecule of (usually) DNA is broken and joined to another one, is one of the main sources of genetic diversity in sexual organisms. Meiotic recombination takes place during the meiotic division (which gives rise to th ...

Article - Gunnar De Winter - Jun 11 2011 - 6:42am

New Discovery In The Aging Process

In 2009, Elizabeth. H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of telomerase, an enzyme that replenishes the telomeres (see figure 1), DNA sequences at the endings of the c ...

Article - Gunnar De Winter - Jun 15 2011 - 10:28am