Latest Helices Stories

Stanford University has received two million-dollar grants from the W.M. Keck Foundation for projects aimed at using light to control a variety of cells and exploring how specific enzymes help embryonic stem cells turn into adult cells. The beneficiaries of the grants are Karl Deisseroth, MD, PhD, assistant professor of bioengineering and of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and Joanna Wysocka, PhD, assistant professor of chemical and systems biology and of developmental biology....

SAN FRANCISCO, July 31 /PRNewswire/ -- DNA Direct, Inc. today announced that it received a formal letter from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) stating that it is operating in compliance with state laboratory law. Specifically, the letter states that DNA Direct's tests are performed only with a physician order and are conducted at licensed laboratories, and that DNA Direct gives validated interpretations of results directly to persons ordering the tests and provides publicly...

By Todd, Brian A Parsegian, V Adrian; Shirahata, Akira; Thomas, T J; Rau, Donald C ABSTRACT By combining single-molecule magnetic tweezers and osmotic stress on DNA assemblies, we separate attractive and repulsive components of the total intermolecular interaction between multivalent cation condensed DNA. Based on measurements of several different cations, we identify two invariant properties of multivalent cation-mediated DNA interactions: repulsive forces decay exponentially with a 2.3 +-...

ENVIRONMENTAL factors can affect DNA over a person's lifetime in ways that may be inherited, new research has shown. The findings add to the growing evidence that diet and lifestyle have health affects which may pass down generations. They also suggest a possible connection with the ailments of ageing, such as heart disease and cancer. Scientists know that while the genetic code is fixed, it can be affected by chemical "switches" controlled by environmental factors. They can turn genes...

Pioneering U.S. molecular biologist Gunther Stent, whose research validated the 1953 discovery of the structure of DNA, has died. The New York Times reported Stent died Thursday near his Haverford, Pa., at the age of 84. James D. Watson, who along with Francis H. C. Crick discovered the double-helix structure of DNA, said Stent wrote the textbook that became the most exciting tool for the study of molecular genetics following the finding of the double helix. The book, Molecular Biology of...

In the rapid and fast-growing world of nanotechnology, researchers are continually on the lookout for new building blocks to push innovation and discovery to scales much smaller than the tiniest speck of dust.In the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, researchers are using DNA to make intricate nano-sized objects. Working at this scale holds great potential for advancing medical and electronic applications. DNA, often thought of as the molecule of life, is an ideal building block...

A research team from the Department of Genetics, Physical Anthropology & Animal Physiology in the Faculty of Science and Technology at the Leioa campus of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), and led by Ms Concepción de la Rúa, has reconstructed the history of the evolution of human population and answered questions about history, using DNA extracted from skeleton remains. Knowing the history of past populations and answering unresolved questions about them is highly...

Utilizing a technique that combines low temperature measurements and theoretical calculations, Hebrew University of Jerusalem scientists and others have revealed for the first time the electronic structure of single DNA molecules. The knowledge of the electronic properties of DNA is an important issue in many scientific areas from biochemistry to nanotechnology -- for example in the study of DNA damage by ultraviolet radiation that may cause the generation of free radicals and genetic...

U.S. Researchers announced that, using DNA, they have made a three-dimensional structure from particles of gold in a development that could lead to a host of custom-designed materials. Reuters reported that this technique helps solve a basic problem with nanoscience: getting impossibly small particles to assemble themselves according to a predetermined design.Scientists use the molecular biology of DNA in which one strand bonds with another to make a base pair. "We're using inspiration...

A team led by the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Milan has discovered some unexpected forms of liquid crystals of ultrashort DNA molecules immersed in water, providing a new scenario for a key step in the emergence of life on Earth. CU-Boulder physics Professor Noel Clark said the team found that surprisingly short segments of DNA, life's molecular carrier of genetic information, could assemble into several distinct liquid crystal phases that "self-orient"...