Genetics is the study of genes, which are the basic units of inheritance that contain the blueprint for life, from determining the way that organisms look to every physiological process that occurs within them. Advances in genetics have come a long way since the discovery of the double helix of DNA in 1953. Scientists can now sequence the entire genetic code of thousands of people on a large scale to pinpoint genes that are associated with specific diseases and flag them as targets for drug development. Likewise, enzymes from bacteria can be used to modify genes for a plethora of purposes, including healthcare and farming.
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Cells from your mother likely infiltrated your brain in the womb, and they could survive for decades, study revealsMaternal cells that infiltrate children's brains during pregnancy take on different jobs in the brain and may persist into old age.
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'RNA can do things which we have never seen before': New study challenges assumptions about what RNA was up to at the dawn of lifeRNA can fold into more complex configurations than scientists thought, raising questions about how important these 3D structures were when life on Earth began.
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'We can identify these really early, before the clinical diagnosis': Epigenetic markers may help explain why Native Hawaiians are aging fasterINTERVIEW Live Science spoke with Alika Maunakea, an Native Hawaiian epigeneticist, about how epigenetics underpins health disparities between Native Hawaiians and others in Hawaii.
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DNA sequencing is rewriting our understanding of historic outbreaks, but it can't tell the whole storyTechniques for analyzing DNA have advanced, enabling scientists to better understand disease outbreaks throughout history.
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'A landmark moment for the field': FDA approves first-ever gene therapy for inherited deafnessA gene therapy made by Regeneron is the first treatment of its kind approved for genetic hearing loss.
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Gene therapy improves hearing in 90% of patients with inherited deafness in largest trial of its kindA new gene therapy tested in China has improved the hearing of 38 people who were born deaf due to mutations in a gene called OTOF.
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Changing 'just one DNA letter' in female mice triggers growth of male genitaliaScientists discovered that making a very small change to female mice's DNA caused them to develop male reproductive organs.
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Are allergies genetic?Although babies born from parents with allergies are also more likely to have them, there are a number of outside factors that affect whether and how someone develops allergies.
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A doctor discovered the gene mutation behind his family's mysterious missing-teeth conditionA doctor who had a genetic condition that prevents teeth from forming searched for the DNA mutation that had affected his family for over 150 years.
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