Tag Archives: gene

Our ancestors are known to have gotten frisky with other, now-extinct species of humans, leaving traces in our DNA to this day. A new analysis has found that a certain genetic variant inherited from the Denisovans may have given modern humans (Homo sapiens) an edge in populating the American continents. “Typically, genetic novelty is generated through a very slow process,” …

CHRONIC PAIN wrecks the lives of more than 600m people around the world. One in five adults struggles with it. What causes it, however, is often a mystery. The prevailing hypothesis is that, after an injury, something goes wrong with the body’s pain receptors and the alarm system that reports injuries to the brain keeps ringing long after the body …

Study Population The UKB is a prospective cohort study that has collected extensive phenotypic and genetic data from approximately 500,000 participants across the United Kingdom21,45. All of the participants provided written informed consent. Phenotype description and assessment Phenotypes were defined using the ‘Experience of Pain’ UKB self-assessment questionnaire data under project ID 49572. This is part of the online UKB …

A baby benefits from personalized gene editing in the clinic  Nature Source link

A protein that helps synthesize DNA is different in modern humans than it is in Neanderthals and Denisovans — our closest extinct relatives — and new experiments in mice genetically modified to express the modern human version hint that this may have made us behave differently. That discovery, in turn, could shed light on why Neanderthals and Denisovans vanished, researchers …

Pioneering gene therapy tricks teen’s cells and transforms his life  The Times Source link

An unassuming green alga that has lived quietly in laboratory flasks for decades just revealed it carries a giant virus so large, and so stealthy, that nobody had noticed it before. The find rewrites what scientists thought they knew about how big a virus can grow while still hiding inside a single-celled host. The work, led by Maria …

Howard Chang wasn’t looking for a change from his job at Stanford, where he worked as both a genomic researcher and a dermatologist. His busy lab there was focused on understanding how regulatory programmes drive disease — unveiling for example how long-non-coding RNA (lncRNA) underpins autoimmunity in women and how extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) fuels cancer. And with five biotech startups …

New research suggests exposure to some common Pfas or “forever chemical” compounds causes changes to gene activity, and those changes are linked to health problems including multiple cancers, neurological disorders and autoimmune disease. The findings are a major step toward determining the mechanism by which the chemicals cause disease and could help doctors identify, detect and treat health problems for …

George Church A paper coauthored by geneticist George Church has been retracted following an internal review at a university where several coauthors are based. The article appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2022. The work supports an anti-aging gene therapy developed by BioViva, a company for which Church serves as an adviser. The paper’s authors …