Genetics
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- Genetics
Contest brings out the biohackers
Mix one part enthusiasm, two parts engineering and three parts biology — and you’ve got a recipe for do-it-yourself genetic engineering. Every November, college kids from Michigan to Munich descend on MIT, eager to show off their biohacking skills. In the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition, teams battle one another to build the coolest synthetically altered organisms. If you want to create a microbe that will sniff out and destroy contaminants in mining waste ponds, or a cell that will produce drugs right in your body, iGEM is for you.
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- Anthropology
Highlights from the American Society of Human Genetics annual meeting
Iceman’s origins, DNA fingerprinting, microRNAs and cancer risk, and growth genes and obesity risk.
- Genetics
Cloning-like method targets mitochondrial diseases
Providing healthy ‘power plants’ in donor egg cells appears feasible in humans, a new study finds.
- Genetics
Genetic mutations may explain a brain cancer’s tenacity
DNA damage may transform adult cells in glioblastoma, making the malignancy harder to kill.
- Genetics
Convenience shoulders tomato taste aside
Decades of breeding for uniform color in unripe fruit may accidentally have reduced flavor.
- Genetics
Poppies make more than opium
A 10-gene cluster controls the flowers’ production of a valuable cough suppressant and antitumor compound.
- Anthropology
Frozen mummy’s genetic blueprints unveiled
DNA study reveals the 5,300-year-old Iceman had brown eyes, Lyme disease and links to modern-day Corsicans and Sardinians.
- Genetics
Crosses make lab mice even more useful
Scientists have bred new strains of lab animals with the goal of making it easier to tease out genetic components of complex diseases.
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