News

Genetics figured out that it makes some people smarter than others. The DNA of intelligent people differs from others in fewer mutations! So there is no "intelligence gene", but heredity takes place. That's where the genetic scissors come in handy!

Dropping the activity of a single gene redirects the organism’s energy to fat.

Disrupting a problematic gene in brain cells can reverse Huntington's disease pathology and motor symptoms in a mouse model of the inherited neurological disorder

Continuing the patent dispute internationally, China has now given the Charpentier/Doudna side a patent to edit genes in the country.

A team of researchers is using breakthrough gene-editing technology to develop a new screening tool for Parkinson's disease, a debilitating degenerative disorder of the nervous system. The technology allows scientists in the lab to 'light up' and then monitor a brain protein called alpha-synuclein that has been associated with Parkinson's.

Uh oh... Now researchers have found evidence that the unwanted mutations brought on by CRISPR in living animals could be a more widespread than we thought.

Researchers have identified a new way to potentially slow the fast-growing cells that characterize all types of cancer. By removing a specific protein from cells, they were able to slow the cell cycle, which is out of control in cancer. The findings were made in kidney and cervical cancer cells and are a long way from being applied in people, but could be the basis of a treatment option in the future.

FOR $150, YOU can buy a Crispr kit online and use it to engineer heartier gut bacteria in your kitchen. That’s thrilling, but the technology is giving Jennifer Doudna, an inventor of the gene-­editing method, nightmares. Easy genetic modification could mean cures for cancer (yay!), kitty-sized pigs (squee!), and, yes, designer babies (ack).

Favorable mutations that went along with increased fruit size and other beneficial traits in tomato plants do not always play well together. A study published in Cell found that natural mutations in two important tomato genes that were selected for different purposes in breeding can cause extreme branching and reduce fruit yield when they occur in the same plant. The researchers used those genes to create a tomato plant that grows more tomatoes.

A permanent cure for HIV infection remains elusive due to the virus's ability to hide away in latent reservoirs. But now, scientists show that they can excise HIV DNA from the genomes of living animals to eliminate further infection.