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DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms. Nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA. Most DNA is located in the cell nucleus (where it is called nuclear DNA), but a small amount of DNA can also be found in the mitochondria (where it is called mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA).

Epigenetic Noise Enables Cells to Shift Identity and Influence Immunity

All cells in the body contain the same DNA, but different cell types express different genes; skin cells express genes for the skin, liver cells express liver genes, and so on.

21 Aug 2025

Single-Cell Map Reveals Epigenomic Regulation of Human Fat Tissue

A new study has created the first single-cell map of how DNA is regulated and organized inside different cell-types of human fat tissue.

21 Aug 2025

Salk Researchers Create First Genetic Atlas to Span the Entire Arabidopsis Life Cycle

Nearly everything you know about plants was first discovered in a plant you've likely never heard of. Arabidopsis thaliana, also known as thale cress, is a small, flowering weed that has shaped much of plant biology as we know it.

20 Aug 2025

New Tool Offers Insight Into When Genes Turn On and Off in the Brain

A Yale research team has created a new computer tool that can pinpoint when exactly genes turn on and off over time during brain development - a finding that may one day help doctors identify the optimal window to deploy gene therapy treatments.

20 Aug 2025

Amino Acids as Key Mediators in the Tumor Immune Dialogue

The tumor microenvironment is not just a site of cancer growth—it is a high-stakes metabolic contest where tumor and immune cells vie for limited resources.

19 Aug 2025

New Enzyme Technology Illuminates Hidden Sugar Patterns on Cells

Sugars known as glycans form dense envelopes around cells. But they're often ignored in biological investigations because, unlike DNA, proteins and other cellular components, tools to study them are lacking.

18 Aug 2025

Fruit Fly Courtship Behavior Transferred Through Single Gene Manipulation

Researchers in Japan have genetically transferred a unique courtship behavior from one fruit fly species to another.

18 Aug 2025

New Method Enables Human Cells to Initiate Meiosis Outside the Body

More than one-sixth of adults around the world experience infertility in their lifetime. There is a high unmet need not only for increased access to affordable, high-quality fertility care for those in need but, importantly, also for new biomedical solutions that can address the root causes of infertility.

18 Aug 2025

New Gene Silencers Offer Hope for Hereditary Blood Disorders

According to a recent study, chemical tags that were previously thought of as genetic clutter are really potent gene silencers; eliminating them could lead to safer treatments for hereditary blood disorders.

18 Aug 2025

Minimal Plant Genomes Made Possible by New Genetic Strategy

Ancient events in plant evolution have left behind large, duplicated regions in their genomes.

14 Aug 2025

AI-Powered Gene Editing Method Enables Unprecedented Precision

A research team headed by the University of Zurich has developed a powerful new method to precisely edit DNA by combining cutting-edge genetic engineering with artificial intelligence.

13 Aug 2025

Muscle Reprogramming Protein Found to Both Activate and Repress Genes

For more than 30 years, scientists have studied how the myogenic determination gene number 1 (MYOD) protein binds DNA to modify the gene expression of muscle stem cells.

11 Aug 2025

Researchers Uncover How Macrophages Respond to Infection Stress

Fighting infections requires speed and accuracy. A team of researchers from CeMM and MedUni Vienna, led by Christoph Bock and Matthias Farlik, explored how macrophages—the body’s initial responders—handle this stress.

11 Aug 2025

Plant Genetics Research Reveals Dynamic and Diverse Centromere Behavior

Cell division is an essential process by which living organisms grow, replenish lost cells, and regenerate dead and damaged tissues.

8 Aug 2025

Salk Scientists Use CRISPR to Uncover Microproteins Linked to Obesity

The obesity rate has more than doubled in the last 30 years, affecting more than one billion people worldwide.

8 Aug 2025

Smaller Scale Mutations in HNF1A Gene Nudge Millions Toward Type-2 Diabetes

Mutations in a single gene, HNF1A, are known to cause MODY3, a rare, early onset form of diabetes.

7 Aug 2025

Uncovering How Cells Precisely Control Protein Production

It's known as biology's central dogma: All living organisms' genetic information is stored in DNA, which is transcribed into RNA, which is translated into proteins that perform nearly all essential tasks in a cell.

6 Aug 2025

New Computational Tool Reveals How Long Non-Coding RNAs Control Gene Expression

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNA) are a type of RNA molecule that do not carry instructions to make proteins. Instead, they influence how other genes are expressed.

6 Aug 2025

Prime Editing Reverses Symptoms of Severe Childhood Neurological Disease

Scientists use a precise form of gene editing called prime editing to correct the most common genetic mutations that cause alternating hemiplegia of childhood, a rare and severe neurological disorder that begins in infancy.

From The Jackson Labs 6 Aug 2025

There’s Something Fishy Going on with Great White Sharks that Scientists Can’t Explain

White sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) almost went bottom-up during the last ice age, when sea levels were much lower than they are today and sharks had to get by with less space.

6 Aug 2025