News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
The current reference human genome is based on a handful of people but the new Pangenome project will incorporate DNA from hundreds of people all around the world Humans 16 March 2022 By Michael Marshall DNA sequence data Shutterstock / Gio.tto The human genome is being sequenced again – but better. A new project to … Read more
Male fall armyworms carrying a gene that kills female offspring were released on farms in Brazil as a possible way to control wild populations of a major pest Life 15 March 2022 By Michael Le Page A fall armyworm Shutterstock/kale kkm Fall armyworms genetically modified to wipe out wild populations of the pests have been … Read more
Scientists have developed a quick genetic test that can diagnose a large range of rare muscle and nerve diseases with near perfect accuracy. Tandem repeat disorders are a family of over 50 inherited diseases, including Huntington’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), that seem to occur when short DNA sequences are repeated too many times. … Read more
Parthenogenesis, the development of offspring from unfertilised eggs, was thought to be impossible in mammals, but researchers have used genetic trickery to make it happen Life 7 March 2022 By Alex Wilkins An adult mouse that developed from an unfertilised egg, and her pups YANCHANG WEI A genetically manipulated mouse pup born from an unfertilised egg … Read more
The remnants of a virus that plagued our mammal ancestors during the age of the dinosaurs have been found lurking in our genomes Life 18 February 2022 By Michael Le Page An artist’s impression of prehistoric animals from the early Cretaceous period MARK P. WITTON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Around 106 million years ago, the DNA of … Read more
The sudden and unexpected death of a child is a tragedy made all the worse when there’s absolutely no explanation. Each year in the United States, hundreds of children die for undetermined reasons, usually in their sleep or while resting. Due to the way deaths are investigated and certified, it’s hard to say how often this … Read more
By Penny Sarchet Bemisia tabaci (male and female) Alamy Stock Photo Hello, and welcome to February’s Wild Wild Life, the monthly newsletter that celebrates the biodiversity of our planet’s animals plants and other organisms. To receive this free, monthly newsletter in your inbox, sign up here. Spring in London is almost close enough to taste now, … Read more
The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. Two babies have received the first-ever gene therapy for Tay-Sachs disease after over 14 years of development. Tay-Sachs is a severe neurological disease caused by a deficiency in an enzyme called HexA. This enzyme breaks down a fatlike substance that normally … Read more
Two people who were among the first to get CAR-T cells as blood cancer treatment still have descendants of the cells in their bodies that are working well more than a decade later Health 2 February 2022 By Clare Wilson Illustration of a CAR-T cell KEITH CHAMBERS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY A high-tech gene therapy for treating … Read more
A rare variant of the SIRT6 gene increases DNA repair in human cells, and learning its effects could help to develop anti-ageing drugs Health 31 January 2022 By Michael Le Page A cake for a 100th birthday kajakiki/Getty Images A rare gene variant identified in people who have lived to 100 or more appears to … Read more