Mindzilla – DNA

DNA

Quantifying the Building Blocks of DNA is Now Easier Thanks to a Novel Technique

June 25, 2020
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Helsinki, Finland — DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, carries genetic information in the chromosomes of cell nuclei and in mitochondria. DNA is a double helix composed of two long, coiled strands of polynucleotide...

Tissues Protect Their DNA Under Mechanical Stress

April 23, 2020
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Halle (Saale), Germany — In everyday life, our tissues, for example skin and muscle, are stretched, pulled and compressed without causing damage to the cells or the DNA. A team of researchers led by...

DNA Riddle Unravelled: How Cells Access Data from ‘Genetic Cotton Reels’

March 26, 2020
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Sydney, Australia — Australian scientists have unravelled part of the mystery about how nature can usefully access genetic information in cells despite it being so tightly packed away. The discovery...

Computer-Generated Genomes

February 18, 2020
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Zürich, Switzerland — All organisms on our planet store the molecular blueprint of life in a DNA code within their genome. The digital revolution in biology, driven by DNA sequencing, enables us to...

Common Plasticizer Disrupts C. Elegans Egg Production

January 9, 2020
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Boston, MA — A new study published 9th January in PLOS Genetics by Mónica Colaiácovo of Harvard Medical School and colleagues reports that the most commonly used plasticizer, diethylhexyl phthalate...

Scientists Discover Mechanism of DNA High-Order Structure Formation

January 7, 2020
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Daejeon, South Korea — The genetic material of our cells–DNA–exists in a high-order structure called “chromatin”. Chromatin consists of DNA wrapped around histone proteins and...

Snake-Like Proteins can Wrangle DNA

January 3, 2020
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Houston, TX — It turns out the coiled snakes often used to symbolize medical knowledge are more than apt. They also mimic a key to life itself. Members of Rice’s Center for Theoretical Biological...

Researchers Create Synthetic Nanopores Made from DNA

December 16, 2019
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Aarhus, Denmark — In 2015, the first commercial nanopore DNA sequencing device was introduced by Oxford Nanopore Technologies. Based on a synthetically engineered transmembrane protein, nanopore sequencing...

Mitochondria are the ‘Canary in Coal mine’ for Cellular Stress

December 16, 2019
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La Jolla, CA — Mitochondria, tiny structures present in most cells, are known for their energy-generating machinery. Now, Salk researchers have discovered a new function of mitochondria: they set off...

Scientists Now Know what DNA’s Chaperone Looks Like

November 28, 2019
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Boulder, CO — It’s long been known that the proteins that package DNA, like students at a high school dance, require a chaperone. But what exactly that guardian looks and acts like has been a...

Researchers Find ‘Protein-Scaffolding’ for Repairing DNA Damage

October 29, 2019
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Copenhagen, Denmark — Every day, the body’s cells divide millions of times, and the maintenance of their identity requires that a mother cell passes complete genetic information to daughter cells...

Jumping Genes Can Cause Rare Developmental Disorders in Children, Says Study

October 11, 2019
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Cambridge, UK — The largest study of its kind into childhood developmental disorders has discovered that jumping genes cause genetic changes in some patients with undiagnosed neurodevelopmental diseases....

DNA is Held Together by Hydrophobic Forces

September 23, 2019
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Göteborg, Sweden — Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden disprove the prevailing theory of how DNA binds itself. It is not, as is generally believed, hydrogen bonds which bind together...

DNA ‘Origami’ Takes Flight in Emerging Field of Nano Machines

September 19, 2019
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Atlanta, GA — Just as the steam engine set the stage for the Industrial Revolution, and micro transistors sparked the digital age, nanoscale devices made from DNA are opening up a new era in bio-medical...

High-Precision Technique Stores Cellular ‘Memory’ in DNA

August 22, 2019
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Cambridge, MA — Using a technique that can precisely edit DNA bases, MIT researchers have created a way to store complex “memories” in the DNA of living cells, including human cells. The...

Lung Cell Patches Its Own DNA on the Fly to Survive Influenza

July 31, 2019
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Durham, NC — Scientists at Duke University have identified one kind of lung cell that can hustle to repair its damaged DNA and survive an attack of the influenza A virus while other kinds of cells...

DNA Replication Machinery Captured at Atom-Level Detail

July 16, 2019
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Memphis, TN — Life depends on double-stranded DNA unwinding and separating into single strands that can be copied for cell division. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have determined...

Breakthrough in Discovery of DNA in Ancient Bones Buried in Water

June 11, 2019
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Helsinki, Finland — During the Iron Age around 300 AD something extraordinary was initiated in Levänluhta area in Isokyrö, SW Finland. The deceased were buried in a lake, and this habit was continued...

How Mutations Lead to Neurodegenerative Disease

May 13, 2019
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Adelaide, Australia — Scientists have discovered how mutations in DNA can cause neurodegenerative disease. The discovery is an important step towards better treatment to slow the progression or delay...

Peanut Genome Sequenced with Unprecedented Accuracy

May 1, 2019
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Stoneville, MS —Improved pest resistance and drought tolerance are among potential benefits of an international effort in which Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and their collaborators...

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