A new study of the genetic origins of dyslexia and other learning disabilities could allow for earlier diagnoses and more successful interventions, according to researchers at Yale School of Medicine. Many students now are not diagnosed until high school, at which point treatments are less...
Chromosomes - long, linear DNA molecules - are capped at their ends with special DNA structures called telomeres and an assortment of proteins, which together act as a protective sheath. Telomeres are maintained through the interactions between an enzyme, telomerase, and several accessory...
DNA consists of regions called exons, which code for the synthesis of proteins, interspersed with noncoding regions called introns. Being able to predict the different regions in a new and unannotated genome is one of the biggest challenges facing biologists today. Now researchers at the Indian...
A group of diseases that kill millions of people each year can't be touched by antibiotics, and some treatment is so harsh the patient can't survive it. They're caused by parasites, and for decades researchers have searched for a "magic bullet" to kill them without harming the patient. Now, a...
Obese women have a well-known risk for infertility, but a new Johns Hopkins Children's Center study has unraveled what investigators there believe is the mechanism that accounts for the risk. The research, conducted in mice and published online on Sept. 8 in the journal Cell Metabolism, shows...
Scientists including researchers from the University of Florida have discovered additional evidence that generalized vitiligo - a disease that typically causes patches of white skin on the face, neck and extremities that pop star Michael Jackson may have experienced - is associated with slight...
Imagine a huge spool of film containing thousands of sequences of random scenes. Without a talented editor, a screening would have no meaning. The RNA "spools" that make up DNA in our genes need careful editing, too. Genes are composed of meaningful sequences, called exons, separated by...