Polymerase News and Research

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Study reveals how cells “read” synthetic ingredients added to a genetic code

If the genome is considered the recipe for life, then base pairs represent the individual ingredients. DNA is made up of these chemical structures, and every living thing on the planet has just four of them.

21 Jun 2021

Human cells can convert RNA sequences into DNA

Cells include machinery that replicates DNA into a new set, and this, in turn, develops into a newly formed cell.

15 Jun 2021

Scientists unravel the proteins that trigger some cancerous tumors

Even on a good day, DNA is constantly getting damaged. Nicks, scratches, breaks: the delicate strands that carry life's genetic code take a beating as they jumble about in the course of their work. If left untreated, errors accumulate, with fatal consequences -- such as cancerous tumors -- for the cell and the organism.

11 Jun 2021

New plasmofluidic chip could accelerate diagnosis during current and future pandemics

Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) has been the gold standard for diagnosis during the COVID-19 pandemic.

27 May 2021

New method helps tests large groups for SARS-CoV-2 infection

Researchers at the Vienna BioCenter designed a testing protocol for SARS-CoV-2 that can process tens of thousands of samples in less than 48 hours. The method, called SARSeq, is published in the journal Nature Communications and could be adapted to many more pathogens.

25 May 2021

Telomere length decreases most rapidly from birth to age 3, shows study

Telomeres are protective caps on DNA that shorten as we grow older. Now, one of the first studies to examine telomere length (TL) in childhood finds that the initial setting of TL during prenatal development and in the first years of life may determine one's TL throughout childhood and potentially even into adulthood or older age.

25 May 2021

Environmental DNA helps track down species on the move

Many individuals would like to prevent sloughed-off skin and bodily fluids. However, for marine biologists like Cheryl Lewis Ames, Associate Professor of Applied Marine Biology in the Graduate School of Agricultural Science at Tohoku University (Japan), such life remnants have become a magical guide to detecting the unseen.

24 May 2021

Refreshers develop new DNA sequencing method

An international research team headed by Michal Hocek of the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IOCB Prague) and Charles University and Ciara K. O'Sullivan of Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) in Spain have developed a novel method for labeling DNA, which in the future can be used for sequencing DNA by means of electrochemical detection.

18 May 2021

Supercoiling characteristic of DNA's structure controls gene expression, research shows

The two meters of -stretched- DNA contained in human cells are continuously twisting and untwisting to give access to genetic information: when a gene is expressed to generate a protein, the two strands of DNA are separated to give access to all the machinery necessary for this expression, resulting in an excessive accumulation of coiling that needs to be resolved later.

10 May 2021

Research uncovers how antibiotics target bacterial RNA Polymerase to inhibit gene transcription

The emergence and spread of new forms of resistance remains a concern that urgently demand new antibiotics. Transcription is a vital process in bacterial cell, where genetic information in DNA is transcribed to RNA for the translation of proteins that perform cellular function.

6 May 2021

Study reveals RNA regulatory mechanisms within transcription-translation couplings

To gain a better understanding of how bacterial RNA gives rise to proteins scientists are now focusing on the special way this process takes place in bacteria.

15 Apr 2021

Study reveals DNA supercoiling is involved in regulating gene expression

The (when stretched) two-meter-long DNA molecule in each human cell is continuously being unpacked and packed again to enable the expression of genetic information.

15 Apr 2021

Novel test detects HIV reservoir in patients more accurately

An innovative test that determines the quality and quantity of inactive HIV viruses in the genes of HIV patients may ultimately give scientists a better idea of effective drugs.

14 Apr 2021

New simpler, faster system for analyzing mutations in SARS-CoV-2

Although it is known that mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 genome occurred and spread, the effect of those mutations is not yet clear.

From Osaka University 14 Apr 2021

Study discovers how some proteins ensure repair of errors introduced during DNA replication

Researchers have discovered how specific proteins ensure the rectification of errors introduced into the DNA when it replicates.

7 Apr 2021

Study demonstrates how DNA-like molecules could have joined to form the origin of life

Nagoya University scientists in Japan have demonstrated how DNA-like molecules could have come together as a precursor to the origins of life.

7 Apr 2021

New handheld MasSpec Pen can identify meat and fish fraud within seconds

Meat and fish fraud are worldwide issues that cost consumers billions of dollars annually.

1 Apr 2021

Study provides clues for designing more effective antiviral drugs

An international research team from the University of Turku based in Finland and PennState University based in the United States has solved an ancient puzzle of how living organisms differentiate between DNA and RNA building blocks at the time of gene expression, offering new possibilities for designing novel antiviral medications.

18 Mar 2021

Cryogenic electron microscopy helps visualize 3D structure of complex responsible for gene regulation

A research team has looked inside a human cell to visualize a multi-subunit machine that is responsible for controlling the expression of genes.

15 Mar 2021

Cell cycle of cancer cells can be disrupted using two commercially available inhibitors

With two commercially available inhibitors, the cell cycle of the cancer cells in the childhood tumor neuroblastoma can be disrupted at a key point causing tumor cell death.

12 Feb 2021