Genetic News and Research

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PhoBITs Enable Unprecedented Control of Cellular Pathways with Blue Light

Imagine being able to flip a light switch to control disease pathways inside a living cell. A team of visionary researchers at the Texas A&M University Health Science Center (Texas A&M Health) is making this dream a reality with their groundbreaking genetic tools known as photo-inducible binary interaction tools, or PhoBITs.

10 Sep 2025

Researchers Discover Giant DNA Elements Hidden in the Human Mouth

Researchers including those at the University of Tokyo have made a surprising discovery hiding in people's mouths: Inocles, giant DNA elements that had previously escaped detection.

10 Sep 2025

Genome-Wide Study Connects Human Genetic Variation to Mycobiome Diversity and Disease

A new genome-wide study uncovers evidence of the first three-way relationships between human genetic variation, variation in the fungal component of the human microbiome - known as the mycobiome - and risk of developing chronic disease.

10 Sep 2025

New Method Discovers Genetic Switches More Quickly

Researchers led by Dubravka Vučićević at the Max Delbrück Center have developed a new method for discovering how DNA controls genes. Published in “Cell Genomics,” their technique can reveal the genetic “switches” that regulate important genes more quickly than existing methods.

10 Sep 2025

Unraveling How Fly Embryos Solve the Fundamental Problem of "Tissue Tectonic Collision"

Combining classic comparative approaches, including collecting species from the wild, and cutting-edge light-induced gene manipulation technology, researchers from Japan and Germany have discovered how developing fly embryos solve the fundamental problem of "tissue tectonic collision" when the rapidly expanding head and torso tissues crash into each other.

10 Sep 2025

spVelo: A New Method for Integrating Spatial and Temporal Data in RNA Velocity Analysis

Essentially all cells in an organism's body have the same genetic blueprint, or genome, but the set of genes that are actively expressed at any given time in a cell determines what type of cell it will be and its function.

8 Sep 2025

New Research Highlights a More Efficient CAR T Treatment

This review article focuses on the transformative potential of in vivo CAR T cell treatment in overcoming the constraints of standard CAR T cell production.

8 Sep 2025

Blocking SUMO2 Protein may be a Winning Strategy Against Synovial Sarcoma

In the sport of sumo, a bout most commonly ends when one competitor is pushed or thrown outside of a ring of straw bales partially buried in clay.

8 Sep 2025

Discovery of De Novo Genes Sheds Light on Peach Evolution and Traits

The emergence of new genes is a central driver of evolutionary innovation. While mechanisms such as duplication and horizontal gene transfer have been widely studied, de novo gene birth represents a unique pathway where functional genes arise from noncoding DNA.

8 Sep 2025

New Computational Tool Tracks How Genetic Variants Affect mRNA Stability

A pizza shop with 30 delivery people ought to be able to deliver a lot of pizzas - if their cars don't break down on the way.

8 Sep 2025

Ancient Plant Protein Unlocks New Strategy for Engineering Disease-Resistant Crops

Researchers led by Ken Shirasu at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS) in Japan have identified an ancient protein that has the potential to help defend plants against tens of thousands of different bacteria and other pathogens.

5 Sep 2025

Earth BioGenome Project Aims to Build a Digital Library of All Life

From the mighty blue whale to the humble baker’s yeast, scientists have barely begun to understand the vast genetic diversity among lifeforms.

5 Sep 2025

Targeting the Oral Metagenome to Boost Healthy Bacteria

Professor Zhang, a chemical and biomolecular engineering professor at UC Berkeley, is working to distinguish between the healthy and unhealthy bacteria in the human mouth. Her goal is to promote a probiotic oral microbiome by increasing the population of beneficial bacteria.

5 Sep 2025

Intestinal Cells Pull Rather Than Push to Remove Weaker Neighbors

Cells on the inner surface of the intestine are replaced every few days. But, how does this work? It was always assumed that cells leave the intestinal surface because excess cells are pushed out. In a recent publication in the journal Science, researchers of the Hubrecht Institute and AMOLF show that this is not correct.

4 Sep 2025

Mechanical Forces Influence the Evolution of Innovations in Early Development

A small tissue fold present in fruit fly embryos buffers mechanical stresses and may have evolved in response to mechanical forces.

4 Sep 2025

Scientists Uncover Hidden Role of Cas9 in Building Bacterial Immune Memory

When scientists discovered how bacteria protect themselves against viral invaders, called phages, in the early 2000s, little did they know they'd stumbled upon a revolutionary tool researchers could use to edit the DNA of living cells.

4 Sep 2025

Novel Fluorescent Reporter Technology Enables Real-Time Visualization of Apoptosis Inside Cells

Cells in our body are programmed to die after a certain period of time-a natural process known as apoptosis or "cell suicide."

4 Sep 2025

FSH: A Promising Biomarker For Endometrioid Ovarian Cancer?

Research reveals FSHB and FSH as key biomarkers for endometrioid ovarian cancer, offering insights into early detection and potential drug repurposing.

4 Sep 2025

Automated 3D Imaging Uncovers Genetic Markers for Sorghum Leaf Arrangement

By reconstructing 366 sorghum plants from calibrated images, the team showed that automated measurements achieved near-human repeatability and enabled genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to uncover genetic markers linked to leaf orientation.

3 Sep 2025

Genetic Discovery Reveals How Plants Respond to Blue Light and Cold

Plants may be stuck in one place, but the world around them is constantly changing. In order to grow and flower at the right time, plants must constantly collect information about their surroundings, measuring things like temperature, brightness, and length of day.

3 Sep 2025