Tag: DNA

Frequent night shifts can damage your DNA: Study

The study shows that DNA repair gene expression is lower at baseline among night workers and further decreases after acute sleep deprivation, which supports the postulation that night workers demonstrate impaired DNA repair.

January 27, 2019

Identifying tumour suppressor genes

Enormous scientific progress has been made in recent years providing reasons to believe that our growing understanding of cancer will eventually allow it to be brought under control.

January 9, 2019

Bioinformatics: Unravelling the genes

The emerging field of bioinformatics merges computer science and biology in an attempt to make sense of the torrential data of human genomes and proteomes.

December 12, 2018

Now it will take minutes to detect all types of cancer, say scientists

Discovering that cancerous DNA molecules formed entirely different 3D nanostructures from normal circulating DNA was a breakthrough that has enabled an entirely new approach to detect cancer non-invasively in any tissue type including blood.

December 6, 2018

RNA polymerases: Unravelling the structural components

Here’s how the three enzymes called RNA polymerases I, II, and III carry out transcription in the eukaryotic nucleus.

November 28, 2018

Nonsense mutation

Here's the lowdown on a unique process of cellular translation.

September 12, 2018

Promising a vast scope

The subject of molecular biosciences is full of novel research prospects in areas of modern medicine, solar and biofuel production.

August 28, 2018

Discarded napkin solves murder mystery in US after 32 years

Pierce County prosecutors on June 22 charged Gary Charles Hartman, 66, with first-degree murder and rape in the 1986 death of a 12-year-old girl

June 23, 2018

Repeating in intervals

Nucleosomes are the basic units of a chromatin structure.

June 13, 2018

DNA and the Indian system

The admissibility of DNA evidence in courts remains a grey area, writes Ashok Bhan.

June 7, 2018

Splitting and pairing up

Breaking the rule of two is found to make genetics go berserk.

June 6, 2018

Inside the genome

Here’s a look at the process of DNA renaturation that led to the discovery of repeated sequences in DNA.

May 16, 2018

DNA data banks to be set up at national, state level to store DNA profiles

DNA data banks will be set up at the national and state level to store profiles, and those who leak the information stored in such facilities will be punished with a jail term of up to three years, according to a draft bill on DNA technology being finalised by the Law Ministry.

May 13, 2018

Speed reading from storage

Deoxyribonucleic acid, the molecular code found in the nuclei of living cells, is the most compact and hardy data storage system we have encountered. The nucleus of microscopic cells contains a giant molecule, billions of units long and compactly folded, with the code for all the proteins that the cells of an organism would produce,...

February 20, 2018

Storing vital information

Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria. They have been objects of scientific study since the 1930s, and much of our early understanding of molecular genetics came from experiments involving these viruses. One of the most thoroughly studied of the phages that infect the bacterium Escherichia coli is bacteriophage T2. During infection, this virus attaches to...

February 13, 2018

Taking organs from animals

Scientists are working on transplanting entire hearts, liver, kidneys, pancreas and lungs from animals to humans. The increasing demand for organs, tissues, and cells, and the dearth of available human organs, have focused scientific interest in taking organs from animals. The term for the transplanting of organs from one species to another is called xenotransplantation...

January 21, 2018

Plugging escape routes

Pathogens have a tendency to develop resistance. The usual pathway is through chance mutations that have inborn resistance. These mutants, though in small numbers, survive the attack by drugs and the body’s mechanisms against the original organisms, and they thrive, because the drugs reduce their competitors for resources. Mutants hence multiply and grow into a...

January 17, 2018