Genetics & Molecular Biology

Protein CD36 Promotes Diffusion Of Fatty Acids Into Cells

Obesity, along with diabetes and associated consequences like cardiovascular, neurological and renal diseases, is increasing worldwide. Along with focusing on smarting eating, research is on to understand the biological mechanisms.    In obesity, fatty ac ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 23 2013 - 10:00am

2 Types Of Bone Tumor Linked To 2 Gene Mutations

A discovery has allowed researchers to attribute two types of tumor almost entirely to specific mutations that lie in two related genes. These mutations are found in nearly 100 percent of patients suffering from two rare bone tumors; chondroblastoma and g ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 27 2013 - 7:42pm

Let's Un-Junk DNA

Ever since the term 'junk DNA' was coined (1)- like the 'God particle' it quickly spun out of control due to colloquial misunderstanding of what it meant scientifically- and even more so when the human genome was decoded and it was dis ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 11 2013 - 6:00am

HLA Receptor: 'Immune Gene' In Neanderthals Discovered

An international collaboration has discovered a novel receptor, which allows the immune system of modern humans to recognize dangerous invaders, and subsequently elicits an immune response. The blueprint for this advantageous structure was also identified ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 24 2013 - 3:18pm

Artificial Skin Grown Using Umbilical Cord Adult Stem Cells

Researchers from the University of Granada have grown artificial skin from the adult stem cells of an umbilical cord. The paper inl Stem Cells Translational Medicine shows the ability of Wharton jelly mesenschymal stem cells to turn to oral-mucosa or skin ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 22 2013 - 1:00pm

Happy Thanksgiving: If Kids Exercise, They Are Not Doomed By Maternal Epigenetics To Be Obese

Epigenetics has been used for rather comical effect in some cases, with a whole lot of things being correlated to the diets of parents and even grandparents. There is good news; your epigenetic heritage is not a prison. Rats whose mothers were fed a high- ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 28 2013 - 5:25pm

Folding: Bad Proteins Branch Out

A method to model the way proteins fold, and sometimes misfold, has revealed branching behavior that may have implications for Alzheimer's and other aggregation diseases.  In an earlier study of the muscle protein titin, Rice chemist Peter Wolynes an ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 4 2013 - 6:00am

New Genetics: Designer Sperm Fixes Faulty Genes

The "new genetics" promises to fix the faulty genes of future generations by introducing new, functioning genes using "designer sperm", according to a report appearing in The FASEB Journal. In a mouse model, introducing new genetic mat ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 2 2013 - 7:54pm

Stop Blaming Mom: Sperm Epigenome Shows You May Be What Your Father Eats

Mothers get all the blame these days but a new paper led suggests that the father's diet before conception may play an equally important role in the health of their offspring. It also raises concerns about the long-term effects of current Western die ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 10 2013 - 5:28pm

A New Alphabet: Carbon-14 Natural Radioactivity May Mutate DNA Outside The Four Letters

Recently, scientists have begun to make precise genetic modifications to genes in order to move a beneficial effect of one plant to another. This is not without controversy but far superior to prior methods of optimizing plant biology. The most random thi ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 17 2013 - 10:40am