New fossil virus found in human genome
Around 8 per cent of human DNA is known to have come from retroviruses. This week, Nature reported scientists have discovered a second virus type can be passed between generations in our DNA...
BioNews
283 articles
So are we making progress?
The contemporary media is increasingly flooded with stories where the cause, explanation or hope involves genetics. With all the reporting of genetic findings and its 'potential' to improve clinical care - has genetics really led to a marked improvement in our healthcare? And should genetic determinism be the focus of scientific research?...
The new epigenetics
All cells in the body have the same complement of 25000 genes, yet different cells in different specific tissues - such as nerve, muscle or gut - have different characteristics phenotype. It follows that different subpopulations of genes within cells of differing function must be active or silenced depending on requirements for function in a particular tissue. Obviously, there will be genes concerned with metabolism, growth, and cell division - the so-cal
Nobel chemistry prize for structural biology
The 2009 Nobel Prize for Chemistry has been awarded to three structural biologists for their work exploring the functioning of ribosomes at the atomic level. The laureates, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas A Steitz and Ada E Yonath, have been recognized for the development and application of a novel X-ray technique known as X-ray crystallography in investigating the atomic level functioning of ribosomes....
Book Review: Genomes and What to Make of Them
A feature of science, perhaps a characteristic feature, is that over time some of its better 'ideas' have come increasingly to be seen as actual 'things'. From being (only) conceptual they become physically real with a definite measurable size and a three-dimensional structure. A process of materialisation is in evidence...
Scientists target rogue RNAs to correct muscular dystrophy in mice
US scientists have used a new technique to treat a type of muscular dystrophy in mice. The new method, published in the journal Science, targets the genetic mechanism underlying the disease and was found to improve muscle function and reverse the long term degenerative effects of the condition....
Hope for new prostate cancer test
Screening the genetic material present in patients' urine could distinguish between aggressive from dormant prostate cancers, suggests a study published this month in the British Journal of Cancer. The research paper reports pilot findings from 11 prostate cancer patients and may provide new hope for the 34,000...
Setback for Down syndrome prenatal blood test
The effectiveness of a prenatal test for Down syndrome has been thrown into doubt after its developers, Sequenom, admitted that study data had been 'mishandled' by its employees. The company, which had been producing apparently strong results in house for its DNA and RNA blood testing products...
Gene linked to hearing loss discovered
A link has been found between progressive hearing loss and a microRNA gene - the first time this type of gene has been implicated in any inherited disorder. The findings are the result of convergent research by scientists from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, England, and...
Expert recommendations for earlier, safer prenatal diagnosis
Cell-free fetal nucleic acids - DNA or the related molecule RNA - are present in the blood. As has previously been reviewed, the discovery that a small proportion of the cell-free nucleic acids in the mother's blood during pregnancy actually comes from the fetus paved the way for new techniques to exploit...