Loops or spirals? 150-year mystery of what happens to DNA in cell division solved
How DNA is accurately split between cells when they divide has finally been solved by researchers...
BioNews
Mitosis
The ordinary form of cell division, in which a cell divides to produce two new cells that both have the same number of chromosomes as the original cell.
23 articles
Preimplantation genetic screening: unvalidated methods discard healthy embryos
A seemingly brilliant hypothesis of preimplantation genetic screening arose in the 1990s when Dr Yuri Verlinsky proposed using polar body biopsies to detect chromosomal abnormalities in embryos prior to transfer in IVF...
Healthy embryos are discarded
Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false colour).
Healthy mice created from eggs and sperm without conventional fertilisation
Unfertilised mouse egg cells that have been made to divide can develop into healthy offspring by the injection of sperm, according to a new study...
Embryonic stem cell production breakthrough achieved in mice
A technique to generate mouse embryonic stem cells could, if repeated in human cells, improve access to stem cells by using fertilised eggs that would previously have been discarded...
Depression may speed up DNA ageing
Severe depression speeds up the ageing process of our cells, researchers have found...
Faulty gene leading to skin disorder spotted
Scientists have identified a gene involved in an incurable skin disease. Using advanced screening techniques they discovered several mutations in this gene in people with punctuate palmoplantar keratoderma (PPK)...
An eggsample of why it is hard to prove a negative
Earlier this year, a paper claimed to have found cells, called ovarian stem cells, in the adult ovaries of both mice and humans. These cells could apparently be grown in large numbers in the lab and could retain the ability to give rise to eggs. A new study finds no evidence for the existence of germline progenitors able to produce eggs in postnatal ovaries. Is a lack of evidence sufficient to win the argument?...
Aggressive brain cancer linked to gene fusion
Some cases of glioblastoma - a particularly aggressive form of brain cancer - may be due a genetic mutation where two separate genes fuse into one, scientists report...
By accident, scientists discover how commonest DNA replication error is corrected
Scientists have discovered the enzyme in our cells which corrects the most frequently occurring mistake in DNA as cells divide...
Common cancer gene may change chromosome numbers
Two US studies published this week have shed light on how a gene mutation can change the number of chromosomes present in the cells of more than 90 percent of cancers...