News & HighlightsNews
Misreading of histone code linked to human cancer
The development of blood from stem cell to fully formed blood cell follows a genetically determined program. When it works properly, blood formation stops when it reaches maturity. But when it doesn’t, genetic mutations can prevent the stop signal and cause the developing cells to turn cancerous....
Genetic profiling reveals genes active in the earliest brain circuit construction
Long before the brain’s neurons can facilitate life’s big decisions, they have to find their own destiny in the rapidly developing embryo. In the lingo of neurobiologists, they are “fated” very early on to become certain types of cells, over time traveling to and organizing the various struc...
To spread, skin cancer attacks immune dendritic cells
Dendritic cells are the sentinels of the immune system. When they’re alert and on guard, they will marshal the body’s immunosoldiers, T cells, to battle at the sight of harmful pathogens. But some diseases, such as cancer, are able to escape their watchful eye. By knocking out or beguiling dendr...
For different species, different functions for embryonic microRNAs
When evolution has lucked into efficient solutions for life’s most fundamental problems, it adopts them as invaluable family heirlooms, passing them down as one species evolves into another. So it was reasonable to expect that a key regulator of embryonic development — a strand of RNA that sheph...
Scientists develop a tool to study deadly parasite's histone code
n the Japanese art of paper folding, a series of folds can make the same sheet of paper into a ballerina or baby elephant. But try unfolding the baby elephant and making it into a ballerina. It’s like trying to make a neuron from a kidney cell. Epigenetics, it turns out, isn’t much different fro...
New tag could enable more detailed structural studies of mammalian proteins
To say our genes are resourceful is a gross understatement. Through ingenious combinations of a paltry 20 amino acids, the basic building blocks of life, genes engineer all of the tissues and organs that are the marvel of our working bodies. Now scientists are adding to the parsimonious genetic r...
New sequencing technique to prod benefits from killer venom
King Kong toxin, a component of the venom in some poisonous marine snails, has a peculiar power to go with its peculiar name. When injected into a meek little lobster in a tank full of superiors, the poison induces delusions of grandeur; the little guy starts marching around like he’s king of the...
New clinical study probes how light fights psoriasis
Ultraviolet light is a proven treatment for psoriasis, one of humanity’s oldest known diseases. Sunshine can also beat back the chronic autoimmune disorder of the skin. But explaining light’s therapeutic effects has been difficult. “We know it works, but we want to know how,” says Michelle L...
Levels of cellular stress determines longevity of retinal cells
Stress can be adaptive. It can make you sharper, help you focus and it can even improve your performance. But too much of it can tax cells to the point where they can no longer cope and slowly self-destruct. Scientists at Rockefeller University now show that when the protein-making factory of the...
New nucleotide could revolutionize epigenetics
Anyone who studied a little genetics in high school has heard of adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine — the A,T,G and C that make up the DNA code. But those are not the whole story. The rise of epigenetics in the past decade has drawn attention to a fifth nucleotide, 5-methylcytosine (5-mC), th...
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