DNA Animations – Chromosomes Animations, Genes Animations

Tumor Formation May Be Spurred By The Misreading Of Damaged DNA
The DNA in our cells is constantly under assault from oxygen, the sun's radiation and environmental stresses. Most of the time, our cells can repair the damage before it gets copied into a permanent mutation that could lead to cancer. Adding a wrinkle to our understanding of how cancers begin, scientists have found that cells can turn on tumor-promoting growth circuits as a result of misreading damaged DNA without copying it: a process called "transcriptional mutagenesis.

Using The Ant To Model Human Aging
Aging - we are all doing it. It is relentless and terminal. Auguries and alchemists, mendicants and magicians, philosophers and science fiction writers, researchers and plastic surgeons have employed all their various arts in the pursuits of "turning back the clock." Yet, we stand in modern times with a span of a century to our name, at most.

Survival Of Melanoma Cells Promoted By Gene Required For Radiation-Induced Protective Pigmentation
Scientists have new insight into the response of human skin to radiation and what drives the most aggressive and deadly form of skin cancer. The research, published by Cell Press in the November 21st issue of the journal Molecular Cell, may be useful in the design of new strategies for prevention of malignant melanoma. The process of tanning involves synthesis of the pigment melanin by skin cells known as melanocytes.

Range-wide MtDNA Phylogeography Yields Insights Into The Origins Of Asian Elephants
We analyse endangered Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) across their range to explain the unusual coexistence of ancient maternal genetic lineages. Such coexistence could result from hybridization between ancestral species, or population isolation and subsequent contact naturally or through trade. Estimating ages of lineages, inferring areas of origin, and examining fossil records, we find that both lineages probably originated in the ancestral species Elephas hysudricus, 1.6-2.

Researchers At IRB Barcelona Produce More Data On Key Genes In Diabetes
One of the most reliable indicators to predict that a person will develop type 2 diabetes is the presence of insulin resistance. Insulin is produced in the pancreas and is the hormone responsible for ensuring that glucose reaches several tissues and organs in the body, such as muscles. Insulin resistance is characterized by the lack of tissue response to insulin and is counteracted by a greater production of insulin by the pancreas.

Pediatric Cancer : Alteration Of A Gene Causes Neuroblastoma
Olivier Delattre's team (Inserm Unit 830 "Genetics and Biology of Cancer") of the Institut Curie reveal in an article in the 16 October issue of Nature that alteration of the ALK gene is closely associated with the most frequent solid extracerebral tumor in children neuroblastoma. By studying the familial forms of this tumor, the researchers also conclude that ALK is a gene that predisposes to neuroblastoma. This discovery may allow the development of new treatments in neuroblastomas.

Family History Raises Breast Cancer Risk Despite Absence Of BRCA Mutations, Study Finds
Women with a strong family history of breast cancer have a four times greater risk for the disease than women in the general population, even if they do not carry a mutation of the BRCA gene, according to a study presented Monday at the American Association for Cancer Research's annual

Invitrogen Launches In Vivo RNAi Delivery Reagent - Products To Simplify And Enable Research On All Sequencing Platforms
Invitrogen Corporation (NASDAQ:IVGN), a provider of essential life science technologies for research, production and diagnostics, today announced the introduction of its Invivofectamineâ„¢ delivery reagent which enables short interference ribonucleic acid (siRNA) experiments in vivo. The study of RNA interference (RNAi) has revolutionized biology by allowing researchers to directly observe the effects of the loss of function of specific genes in mammalian systems.

TaconicArtemis Announces Publication In PNAS: Inducible Gene Silencing In Transgenic Rats Via RNAi
TaconicArtemis GmbH, a subsidiary of Taconic today announced the publication of a scientific breakthrough achieved in a collaboration with the Universities Goettingen and Wuerzburg (Germany). For the first time it is now possible to inactivate disease-related genes in an inducible and reversible fashion in transgenic rats as rodent model organisms.

Stem Cell Pilot Study Tackles Devastating Genetic Paraplegia
BRISBANE'S National Centre for Adult Stem Cell Research will commence a pilot study into a devastating genetic disease in which active young people progressively develop paraplegia. The little-known disease, Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia, has about 1000 diagnosed sufferers in Australia, but the mutations responsible may lurk in the genes of an unknown percentage of the population.

Who Owns Your Genes? Expert Debate At National Scientific Meeting
Genetic science's potential to save lives may be compromised by anachronistic patent laws, according to a leading genetic cancer specialist and a patents lawyer who will make their case at a groundbreaking debate in Sydney today (20/11).

Technology May Provide Means Of Testing Anti-Aging Drugs
Scientists at the Buck Institute for Age Research have identified for the first time biomarkers of aging which are highly predictive of both chronological and physiological age. Biomarkers are biochemical features that can be used to measure the progress of disease or the effects of treatment. The research involves nematode worms, microarrays which measure changes in gene expression, and complex computer algorithms.

Janet Rossant To Deliver Annual Dame Anne McLaren Memorial Lecture - National Stem Cell Network
The UK National Stem Cell Network (UKNSCN) has announced that Professor Janet Rossant, one of the world's foremost developmental biologists from The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, will deliver the second annual Dame Anne McLaren Memorial Lecture. The Lecture is the principal keynote address of the UKNSCN's annual research conference, being next year in Oxford, 6-8 April.

GEN Reports On The Trend Toward Predictive Toxicogenomics
Biotech scientists increasingly are applying genomics technologies to toxicology research to better understand the effects of novel drug candidates on a variety of organ systems, reports Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN). They are especially interested in figuring out a new compound's mechanism of action and eventually developing a predictive toxicology technique, according to the November 15 issue of GEN.

ADHD Medications Do Not Cause Genetic Damage In Children
In contrast to recent findings, two of the most common medications used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) do not appear to cause genetic damage in children who take them as prescribed, according to a new study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Duke University Medical Center.