Figure 1: Lance Armstrong, a well-known professional cyclist, has been implicated in drug doping scandals throughout his career Source: Wikimedia Commons When one considers cheating in the world of athletics, the typical cases that come to mind are those of Marion Jones, Tyson Gay, and Lance Armstrong, athletes who all admitted to using steroids and …
Genetic Cheating? Identifying CRISPR/Cas Gene Doping Read More »
Figure 1: Two of the four Caulobacter crescentus cells are motile with visible flagella, and the other two are sessile with stalks in contact with each other. C. crescentus was the model organism in Mathis and Ackermann’s experiment Source: Wikimedia Commons Bacteria often live in environments with changing resource availability, competition, and stressors. There are …
Figure 1: The image on the left displays a standard N-nucleoside, one of the naturally occurring building blocks of RNA. The image on the right depicts the far more biochemically useful C-nucleoside. Since the C-nucleoside is so desirable, scientists have been researching ways to synthesize these molecules efficiently Source: Wikimedia Commons The COVID-19 pandemic has …
Researchers produce important RNA subunit using a biocatalyst for the first time Read More »
Figure 1: This depicts the ‘undifferentiated’ nature of pluripotent stem cells Source: Wikimedia Commons Stem cell therapy has emerged as a potential treatment for Type 1 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries, and a wide range of other illnesses. It is at the forefront of regenerative medicine – an arm of clinical practice that seeks …
Figure 1: A fluorescent microscopic image of the localization of the protein C16orf71 to areas in cells called ‘nuclear speckles,’ colored green in this picture. Nuclear speckles are responsible for storing RNA splicing factors in cell nuclei, and proteins like SRRM2 and SON are responsible for creating the structure of these speckles Source: Wikimedia Commons …
Proteins that Create “Speckles” in Cell Nuclei Discovered Read More »
Figure 1: Researchers out of Harvard Medical School find that reprogramming OSK transcription factors interferes with age-related gene expression, ultimately posing as a potential method of counteracting age-related symptoms Source: OG-DW646_202003_G_20200302171613.gif Turning back the biological clock is a challenge that scientists around the world have chosen to undertake in the past several decades. Telomere shortening, …
Reprogramming OSK genes combats age-related symptoms Read More »
Figure 1: This figure describes the physiological and cognitive effects of sleep deprivation Source: Wikimedia Commons Procrastination involves delaying tasks that one intends to do, and many people struggle with it in their everyday lives. According to Katrin Klingsieck, a researcher at the University of Paderborn in Germany, as many as 70% of university students …
Figure 1: Predicted secondary structure and sequence of a retron msr RNA with a sequence conservation metric that compares phylogenetic sequence alignments between species Source: Wikimedia Commons The gene editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 is considered to be one of the most significant inventions of the 21st century. Its developers, Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, were awarded …
Figure 1: A map of the Caribbean Islands from 1894 Source: Wikimedia Commons Our ancestors are always with us, especially in our genetic makeup. Looking at the DNA in human remains can help archaeologists piece together the story of migration and diversification in ancient civilizations. In recent studies, the ancient DNA of pre-contact Caribbean individuals …
Caribbean History through Genetics and Archaeology Read More »
Figure 1: This diagram displays the results of tissue remodeling in the lungs. The smooth muscle along the airway appears to be swollen, and is much thicker than that in healthy, functional lungs Source: Wikimedia Commons Asthmatics often recount their episodes as feeling like their lungs are constricted or that their throat is tight. This …