BDNF: A Genetic Link To Suicidal Behavior

BDNF: A Genetic Link To Suicidal Behavior

A new review has found evidence that a specific gene is linked to suicidal behavior, which may be one of the many complex causes of suicide.  In the past, studies have implicated the gene for…
Scientists Edge A Little Closer To Human Cloning

Scientists Edge A Little Closer To Human Cloning

I'll lay out something a lot of people won't like to hear; science is about understanding the world according to natural laws and that means sometimes breaking the laws of nature.  How far that…
Orexin And Weight Loss: Fight Fat With Fat

Orexin And Weight Loss: Fight Fat With Fat

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 33.8 percent of American adults are obese. placing them at increased risk for type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, and certain…
External Gene Pool Evolution

External Gene Pool Evolution

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." — attributed to Charles Darwin. There is general agreement that the…
Gamers Help Scientists Solve Enzyme Structure

Gamers Help Scientists Solve Enzyme Structure

Retroviral proteases are a class of enzymes that play an important role in the maturation and proliferation of the AIDS virus. As such, this class of enzymes is a subject of intense research. The…
Epigenetic Code Evolves Rapidly

Epigenetic Code Evolves Rapidly

Recently, a lot of attention has gone to epigenetics, or heritable changes in gene expression caused by mechanisms other than changes in DNA sequence. An example of such a mechanism is DNA…
Synthetic Yeast Chromosomes

Synthetic Yeast Chromosomes

A research team at John Hopkins Medical Institutions has introduced synthetic chromosomes into yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae, see figure 1), in an effort to better understand how genomes work, and…