Age assay for forensics toolkit

A test that tracks declines in T cell byproducts can estimate a person’s age from a blood sample, and may someday help identify victims or perpetrators of crimes

More hope for genetic fix for HIV

Genetically modifying the stem cells of HIV patients may one day prove to be an effective, one-time therapy against the hard-to-kill virus, according to the results of a proof-of-principle trial published this week in Science Translational Medicine. Human Immunodeficiency Virus Image: Wikimedia commons, NIAID In contrast to the widely used highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), [...]

1st cell with synthetic genome

After a 15-year marathon, researchers have created the first cell controlled by a synthetic genome, reported online today at Science. The advance, a landmark in synthetic biology, could someday be used to engineer microbes for environmental or medical applications. “This is a very impressive piece,” said Jim Collins, a bioengineer at Boston University, who was [...]

“Epigenetics” drives phenotype?

Researchers have identified a possible mechanism by which DNA regions that don’t encode proteins can still determine phenotypic traits such as a person’s height or susceptibility to a particular disease, researchers report online in Science today. The scientists found that certain chromatin modifications often considered to be epigenetic — meaning, regulated by factors other than [...]

Supermodels? Emerging model organisms

What do a yam, a wasp, and a wallaby all have in common? Well, not much, actually, but they’re all being touted as the next big experimental model, according to a new laboratory manual due out in April. The second volume of Emerging Model Organisms, from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, examines a range [...]

Stem cell regs to become law?

US President Barack Obama’s 2009 executive order to allow the federal funding of research using new human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines may become law. Human embryonic stem cells Image: Wikimedia commons, Nissim Benvenisty Yesterday (March 9), on the one-year anniversary of Obama’s announcement, members of Congress Diana DeGette of Colorado and Mike Castle of [...]

Sweet relief

In the fall of 2009, a group of New Zealand scientists were putting the finishing touches on a new therapeutic to help cancer patients recover from chemotherapy, in preparation for a clinical trial. All they had left to do was choose a flavor. “It was no easy task,” says Arie Geursen, general manager of LactoPharma, [...]

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