Category: Genetics

What risk does wildfire smoke pose during late-term pregnancies? This is what a recent study published in Environmental Science & Technology hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated a link…

Most of our genomes carry more or less the same genes, but there may be small variations in the sequences of those genes that can have a variety of effects. Some genetic variants have mild or negligible…

Healthy, robust muscles are required for movement and normal bodily functions, but muscles can decline significantly as we age. This can increase the risk of physical problems, falls, and breaks that can lead…

The human genome has to be carefully organized so it will fit inside of the nuclei of cells, while also remaining accessible to the cellular machinery that works to express the right genes at the right times….

Researchers often use a nematode worm called Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) to study human genetics because at the molecular level, we have a lot in common with these organisms. Scientists used a C….

In patients with retinitis pigmentosa (RP), crucial cells in the retina known as rods and cones die over time; night blindness eventually sets in; tunnel vision follows; and some individuals become totally…

Greenland sharks are the longest-living vertebrates in the world with lifespans that can reach as much as 400 years, and a look into their dead eyes might suggest that they cannot see. Researchers have long…

Honeybees are vital to global food security, yet colony collapse threatens…

There is a genetic feature known as a repeat expansion, in which short sequences are repeated continuously. Some of them naturally get longer as we age, but there are also over 60 diseases that can be caused…

If The Holy Child, a famed Renaissance-era sketch of Baby Jesus, could speak,…