Content tagged "genetics"
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Mass Appeal: Saving The World’s Bananas From A Devastating Fungus
While a global effort is underway to replace or modify the Cavendish banana, there is no clear solution yet.
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The Angelman Approach: Hacking DNA to Treat a Rare Disease
Recent advances are allowing clinicians to treat genetic illnesses by directly manipulating patients’ DNA, and a number of scientists are now investigating ways to leverage those discoveries for individuals with Angelman Syndrome. Their work could lead to potent therapies for the disease, and – maybe – even a cure.
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Owning the Code of Life: Human Gene Patents in America
A Supreme Court decision marked a surprising and historic shift in the relationship between patent law and fundamental biology–but questions and uncertainty about a future without gene patents remain.
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How to Build a Living Thing
A number of research groups worldwide are working on various aspects of the problem of building life from scratch. Jack W. Szostak’s lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts is one of the centers of the action.
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Lessons from a Rare Disease
The story of The Progeria Research Foundation’s creation when Sam Berns, son of doctors Leslie Gordon and Scott Berns, was diagnosed with progeria in 1998, is also the story of the birth of modern progeria research.
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The Chosen Genes: Jews, Genetics, and the Future of Ethnic Medicine
Today’s Ashkenazi Jews are appealing research subjects because they are both genetically interesting and culturally willing.
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The Natural History of a Lost Sense
An investigation of the vomeronasal organ, which senses pheromones, and how its loss may explain the human proclivity for visual information over pheromonal cues.
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Superfish: The Coming Blue Revolution
There is growing concern among many scientists that genetically modified fish could lead to undesirable consequences, even ecological disaster.
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Rice: How the Most Genetically Versatile Grain Conquered the World
Rice is a quiet champion, the unrecognized catalyst of civilization, and now, an exciting keyhole into genetics
