Life Sciences and Chemistry

The successful cloning of three mules and their excellent health is important to the horse industry, a University of Idaho scientist said Monday at Seattle.

More important is the potential human health aspects of the cloning project. Dr. Gordon Woods, UI professor of animal and veterinary science, said the work aided understanding of calcium’s role in cell signaling and possibly in the progression of human disease.

Woods, who directs the Northwest Equine Reproduction Laboratory

Since the advent of Darwinism in the mid-19th century, a variety of movements have jousted for the intellectual high ground in the epic evolution versus creationism debate.

At one end of the spectrum reside the “naturalistic evolutionists” who argue that life neither requires nor benefits from a divine creator. At the other pole, “scientific creationists” compress the entire history of the cosmos into 6,000 years and insist that the heavens and Earth and all life arose in one six-day creati

A group of scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has solved the structure of a protein that regulates the expression of genes by controlling the stability of mRNA — an intermediate form of genetic information between DNA genes and proteins.

“Gene expression can be controlled at many levels, ” says Scripps Research Professor Peter Wright, Ph.D., who is chairman of the Department of Molecular Biology and Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Investigator in Medical Research at Scripps Research.

An observational study in this week’s issue of THE LANCET sheds more light on the theory that ageing is associated with a shortening of chromosomes in somatic (ie. non-reproductive) cells. Results of the study suggest that the gene responsible for telomere shortening is inherited via the X chromosome.

Previous research including a 2003 Lancet paper (Lancet 2003; 361: 393-95) has shown that the relative length of the ends of chromosomes (telomeres) is associated with age-related illness and m

Loss of restraint may contribute to lupus, other autoimmune disorders

When they’re not busy battling invaders, some of the cells that act as the attack dogs of the mouse immune system have to be kept on a genetic leash to prevent them from mounting inappropriate attacks on the mouse’s own tissues, researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found.

The findings, reported in this week’s issue of Science, are the first scientific p

In the world of molecules, DNA tends to get top billing at the expense of RNA, which is critical for turning DNA’s genetic blueprint into working proteins. Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have published significant insights into how the RNA molecule completes this task in two back-to-back papers in the Feb. 13 issue of Science.

All the genetic information contained in DNA is silent, said Roger Kornberg, PhD, the Mrs. George A. Wizner Professor in Medicine and