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Category: Genetics

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15 September 1998 | ScienceNOW

NIH Aims for Early "Working Draft" of Human Genome by 2001

by Eliot Marshall
BETHESDA, MARYLAND--The U.S. government, responding to growing competition from private companies, is planning to speed up its effort to decode the entire human genome. The National Human Genome Research Institute...
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8 September 1998 | ScienceNOW

Gene for Table Manners?

by Dan Ferber
Scientists have discovered what appears to be an ancient link between feeding behavior in tiny worms and appetite control in people. The finding, reported in the 4 September issue of...
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8 September 1998 | ScienceNOW

Genetic Paupers May Reveal New Drug Targets

by Jennifer Couzin-Frankel
Some strains of bacteria and yeast contain dozens of genes identical to those found in much simpler life-forms, suggesting the genes are worth hanging on to. Surprisingly, however, most of...
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2 September 1998 | ScienceNOW

Mutant Mice Mimic Osteoporosis

by Phil Berardelli
A new strain of mice with weak bones and stunted growth may become an important tool for researchers to study how bones gradually disintegrate in people who suffer from osteoporosis....
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31 August 1998 | ScienceNOW

An Amaizeing Doubling Genome

by Elizabeth Pennisi
The genomes of most animals are cluttered with mobile bits of DNA, called retrotransposons, whose origins are a mystery. Now a report in the September Nature Genetics suggests that retrotransposons...
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26 August 1998 | ScienceNOW

Rich Couple Pays to Have Pet Cloned

by Constance Holden
Some entrepreneurs might get dollar signs in their eyes at the thought of being the first to offer pet cloning services. Now one lucky scientist--Mark Westhusin, director of the cloning...
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21 August 1998 | ScienceNOW

Mapping Genomes in a Flash

by Robert F. Service
Scientists have for the first time instantly mapped an entire genome with DNA chips, postage stamp-sized arrays of DNA snippets. The success, reported in today's Science, could pave the way...
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20 August 1998 | ScienceNOW

Cloning Helps Save a Dying Breed

by Elizabeth Pennisi
Scientists have cloned a calf from the sole remaining member of a herd that has been isolated from other cattle for more than a century, according to an article in...
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19 August 1998 | ScienceNOW

Biased DNA Copying

by Kevin Boyd
Copying billions of base pairs every time a cell divides demands high fidelity. Now it appears that all DNA is not recreated equal--one strand of the helix is copied more...
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19 August 1998 | ScienceNOW

Diverse Immunity Traced to Rogue Genes

by Elizabeth Pennisi
A small piece of parasitic DNA that appears to have invaded the ancestral vertebrate genome some 450 million years ago may be the key to the incredible diversity of the...
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18 August 1998 | ScienceNOW

A Second Private Genome Project

by Eliot Marshall
It's hard to imagine competition in the human genetics research business getting much hotter, but the temperature just rose a notch. Incyte Pharmaceuticals Inc., a genetic data company in Palo...
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17 August 1998 | ScienceNOW

No Taking DNA Under Duress in Massachusetts

by Jennifer Couzin-Frankel
A court today ruled unconstitutional the forced collection of blood samples from convicted criminals for a DNA bank. The ruling could have widespread implications, as all 50 states have legislation...
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17 August 1998 | ScienceNOW

A Second Private Genome Project

by Eliot Marshall
It's hard to imagine competition in the human genetics research business getting much hotter, but the temperature just rose a notch. Incyte Pharmaceuticals Inc., a genetic data company in Palo...
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12 August 1998 | ScienceNOW

Liverworts: The Original Landed Gentry

by Christie Aschwanden
Medieval herbalists named liverworts after the plant's liver-shaped lobes, whose extracts they believed could cure jaundice and other liver problems. Although the liverwort can't claim fame as a wonder drug...
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6 August 1998 | ScienceNOW

Resistant Weed Could Outdo Crop

by Kate O'Rourke
BALTIMORE--Weeds that acquire genes for herbicide resistance from a genetically engineered crop can reproduce just as well as nonhybrid weeds. The finding, reported here today at the Ecological Society of...
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5 August 1998 | ScienceNOW

The Selfish Genes of Fire Ant Assassins

by Science News Staff
The idea of selfish genes, which stick around even if they do no obvious good for the individual carrying them, has some new evidence to back it up. A particularly...
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22 July 1998 | ScienceNOW

Cloned Mice Keep Dolly Company

by Science News Staff
As the first mammal cloned from an adult cell, Dolly was greeted first with awe and, later, with doubts, for some researchers wanted more proof that she was the real...
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22 July 1998 | ScienceNOW

2nd Gene for Late-Stage Alzheimer's

by Science News Staff
Scientists have found a gene that, when mutated, appears to increase the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease later in life. No one knows how many Alzheimer's cases might be linked...
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21 July 1998 | ScienceNOW

Major Plant Institute to Sprout

by Science News Staff
The pharmaceutical giant Novartis announced today that it will open a $250 million plant genomics institute outside San Diego next year. Novartis Group, a drug, agriculture, and nutrition company based...
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13 July 1998 | ScienceNOW

Untangling Gordian Proteins

by Science News Staff
Scientists have for the first time found a way to revive proteins damaged by heat or chemicals. The test tube finding, reported in the current Cell, could help explain the...
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2 July 1998 | ScienceNOW

New Goal: To Double Known Human DNA by 2000

by Science News Staff
The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) yesterday awarded $60.5 million to seven centers across the United States to scale up their efforts to sequence the human genome. By September...
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29 June 1998 | ScienceNOW

UFOs Get Respectful Hearing

by Science News Staff
Few scientists give much thought to UFOs, but UFO tales received a serious 4-day hearing by nine senior physical scientists at a workshop late last year. In a report released...
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24 June 1998 | ScienceNOW

Bum Enzymes Cut Cigarette Cravings

by Science News Staff
Some people who try smoking cigarettes never become addicted. Now scientists have found that these people are less susceptible to tobacco addiction because their bodies break down less of its...
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18 June 1998 | ScienceNOW

Females Pick Frog Princes

by Science News Staff
Finicky females have long mystified both suitors and evolutionary biologists, particularly when the female tends to pick the most flamboyant male--even if he doesn't appear to have any other redeeming...
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15 June 1998 | ScienceNOW

Jumping Genes

by Science News Staff
American geneticist Barbara McClintock, who challenged the prevailing theory that genes were stable components of chromosomes with her discovery of "jumping genes," was born 16 June 1902. McClintock studied inheritance...
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8 June 1998 | ScienceNOW

Swiss to Keep Transgenic Research

by Science News Staff
BERN--Swiss voters yesterday overwhelmingly rejected a nationwide referendum that would have banned research on transgenic animals as well as patents on genetically modified organisms. The decisive defeat of the so-called...
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28 May 1998 | ScienceNOW

Genes That Keep Clocks Ticking

by Science News Staff
Fruit flies, like people, follow a daily schedule of eating, resting, and other activities. Now neurogeneticists have discovered two genes that appear to be long-sought missing pieces in the biological...
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26 May 1998 | ScienceNOW

New Gear in Mouse Clock?

by Science News Staff
New proteins found in the eye may explain how mammals keep their internal clocks in synch with the sun, according to a paper in this week's Proceedings of the National...
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19 May 1998 | ScienceNOW

TB Protein May Aid Drug Delivery

by Science News Staff
ATLANTA--A cell-piercing protein from the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB) could serve as a delivery system for future medicines. At the American Society for Microbiology's annual meeting here researchers reported...
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14 May 1998 | ScienceNOW

British Sequencing Funds Doubled

by Science News Staff
LONDON--The Wellcome Trust, one of the world's largest private funders of biomedical research, said here yesterday that it will double its spending on efforts to sequence every gene in the...
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12 May 1998 | ScienceNOW

Crash Project to Sequence the Human Genome

by Science News Staff
A DNA sequencing maverick is joining with the world's largest maker of automated sequencing machines to form a new company that they say will "substantially complete the sequence" of the...
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6 May 1998 | ScienceNOW

No Neuron Growth From Alzheimer's Gene

by Science News Staff
Scientists have found that one form of a gene linked to Alzheimer's disease fails to get mouse nerve cells to grow, although a more common form does stimulate growth. The...
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6 May 1998 | ScienceNOW

A Silver Lining for Cystic Fibrosis?

by Science News Staff
The mutation that causes cystic fibrosis may actually serve a useful purpose: protecting against typhoid fever. The finding, reported in tomorrow's issue of Nature, may help explain why this invariably...
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4 May 1998 | ScienceNOW

Fake Chromosomes, From Scratch

by Science News Staff
Scientists have built an artificial human chromosome using only known DNA regions. The chromosome, described in the May issue of Nature Biotechnology, is a step toward someday introducing therapeutic genes...
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29 April 1998 | ScienceNOW

A Fast Start for Mammals?

by Science News Staff
Mammals were already a diverse bunch during the age of dinosaurs, according to a molecular clock based on genes from hundreds of vertebrate species. The researchers argue in tomorrow's issue...
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24 April 1998 | ScienceNOW

Cholera's Gregarious Genes

by Science News Staff
Bacteria are legendary for their ability to swap genes for antibiotic resistance. Now researchers have evidence of how one bug at least--Vibrio cholerae, which causes cholera--may have captured other kinds...
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17 April 1998 | ScienceNOW

Gene Therapy for Arthritis

by Science News Staff
Scientists have used gene therapy to sharply reduce joint swelling from arthritis in rabbits. The finding, reported in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could someday lead...
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16 April 1998 | ScienceNOW

Deadly Path to a Large Heart

by Science News Staff
Like the waistband in your favorite old pajamas, overstressed hearts often lose their elasticity and their ability to pump blood efficiently--a condition called congestive heart failure. The tired hearts are...
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10 April 1998 | ScienceNOW

Genes Reveal Upwardly Mobile Hindu Women

by Science News Staff
SALT LAKE CITY--Although outlawed in the 1960s, the Hindu caste system constrained the marriage choices of Indians for 3000 years. This rigid social system has left a clear mark on...
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8 April 1998 | ScienceNOW

Drug Giant Creates Genomics Institute

by Science News Staff
Most drug companies seeking to apply the wealth of data on the human genome to the hunt for new drugs have turned to specialized start-up companies for help (Science, 7...
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