Genetics & Molecular Biology

Endocannabinoids- Why You Can't Eat Just One Potato Chip

The image of a stoner always having the munchies is a stereotype because it's true- and it's true, say researchers, because it has a basis in biology. Daniele Piomelli, Nicholas DiPatrizio and colleagues found that fats in foods like potato chips ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 5 2011 - 11:50am

Naked Mole Rat Genome Sequenced: Key To Fighting Cancer And Old Age?

The naked mole rat (or Heterocephalus glaber) (see figure 1) is a strange mammal. As their name already implies, they have little hair. Furthermore, their eyes are very small and their visual abilities are mediocre at best. This naked rat is one of only t ...

Article - Gunnar De Winter - Jul 6 2011 - 7:20am

What the experts think about epigenetics

In a letter to Nature, Mark Ptashne, Oliver Hobert, and Eric Davidson question an editorial that appeared in the journal (Nature). The editorial, focused on the International Human Epigenome Consortium, and says that it is “clear that epigenetics … could e ...

Blog Post - Kenneth Niebling - Jul 11 2011 - 10:16am

Rewriting The Genetic Code

Editing DNA holds great promise, but like all new technologies that are still in their infancy, it’s still slow, expensive and hard to use. However, researchers are developing genome-scale editing tools that might aid in quickly and easily rewriting the g ...

Article - Gunnar De Winter - Jul 15 2011 - 8:00am

Haplotype Study Says That Non-Africans Are Part Neanderthal- And Humans Interbred With Them

New research has found that some of the human X chromosome originates from Neanderthals and is found exclusively in people outside Africa. Neanderthals, whose ancestors left Africa somewhere in the range of 400,000 to 800,000 years ago, evolved in what is ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 18 2011 - 10:51am

Artificial Neural Network, Made Out Of DNA

Most previous neural networks consisted out of a physically connected network of neural cells. But can a soup of interacting molecules also show brain-like behavior? Apparently, it can. ...

Article - Gunnar De Winter - Jul 21 2011 - 6:28am

PLANT TISSUE CULTURE AND APPLIED PLANT BIOTECHNOLOGY

PLANT TISSUE CULTURE AND APPLIED PLANT BIOTECHNOLOGY A Kumar and S Roy Plant biotechnology, especially genetic transformation, represents one of powerful tools for the improvement of various important crops through introduction of foreign genes into the p ...

Blog Post - Ashwani Kumar - Jul 22 2011 - 10:12pm

Biofortification

More than half of the world’s population, especially women and preschool children are victim of micronutrient malnutrition, primarily resulting from the consumption of diets with lower bio-available vitamins and mineral. The costs of these deficiencies in ...

Blog Post - Ashwani Kumar - Jul 23 2011 - 2:56pm

BIOTECHNOLOGICAL IMPROVEMENT OF NEEM

BIOTECHNOLOGICAL IMPROVEMENT OF NEEM Priyanka Srivastavaa, Mithilesh Singha and Rakhi Chaturvedi*a *aDepartment of Biotechnology Indian Institute of Technology- Guwahati Guwahati- 781039, Assam, India *Corresponding Author *Department of Biotechnology Indi ...

Blog Post - Ashwani Kumar - Jul 23 2011 - 3:03pm

Regenerative Medicine- Scientist Converts Human Skin Cells Into Functional Brain Cells

Sheng Ding, PhD, has shown a new method for transforming adult skin cells into neurons that are capable of transmitting brain signals- one of the first documented experiments for transforming an adult human's skin cells into functioning brain cells. D ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 28 2011 - 2:50pm