Glowing bunny rabbits aren’t just for Sherlock Holmes reboots and acid trips anymore. Scientists from the University of Hawaii recently collaborated with a team from Istanbul, Turkey, where a couple of bright green lab rabbits were just born as part of a larger effort to better understand hereditary illness and make cheaper medicine. Also: Glow-in-the-dark bunnies!
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Scientists have managed to sequence the genome of a 700,000-year-old horse—in the process generating the oldest complete DNA sequence yet.
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In a plot twist straight out of Orphan Black, the Supreme Court has ruled that naturally occurring DNA cannot be patented, but synthetic biological material is fair game. The case involved Myriad Genetics, a company specializing in molecular testing, after it tried to patent two genes — BRCA1 and BRCA2 — that are often linked to breast and ovarian cancer. The Association for Molecular Pathology filed the suit, arguing that the patent would place undue restrictions on research since only Myriad would be allowed to tinker with those genes. The ruling established that isolating naturally occurring genetic material — as Myriad did — wasn’t enough to justify legal ownership, but so-called complementary DNA (meaning it’s man-made) would be eligible for patenting. Myriad had no comment at the time of this writing, but Sandra Park, an attorney with the ACLU Women’s Rights Project said, “Myriad did not invent the BRCA genes and should not control them. Because of this ruling, patients will have greater access to genetic testing and scientists can engage in research on these genes without fear of being sued.”
Via: CNN
Big news from the east side of Capitol Hill: It’s not okay to patent genetic material taken from the human body. Or at least, it’s not okay in the eyes of the nation’s highest court. SCOTUS took on the controversial and somewhat futuristic case earlier this year, and with all the torrid discussion about updating all patent laws, everyone knew that this decision would be a landmark one.
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Previous work on using organisms as circuitry has usually involved shoehorning parts of the digital world into a very analog environment. MIT has just found an approach that uses the subtlety of the natural world to its advantage: the circuits themselves are analog. By combining genes that produce similar molecules in response to different inputs, the school’s scientists have created bacterial cells that perform basic math — the exact quantity or ratio of a given molecule is the answer. The approach offers a much wider range of results than a binary circuit (10,000 versus 2), and it exploits the cell enzymes’ inherent ratio awareness to do some of the hard work. MIT wants more variety in genetic ingredients before it can produce a truly universal system, but its work could lead to organic sensors that are much simpler and more precise than their digital peers.
Filed under: Science
Via: ExtremeTech
Source: MIT
They’ve already done it with frogs and sheep, so what’s to stop them from doing the same thing with trees?
I’m talking about cloning and how some people in the scientific community are turning to it to repopulate the earth with species that were once abundant before humans and other factors came and endangered their existence.
A non-profit group called Archangel Ancient Tree Archive is eager to jump-start reforestation programs of old trees before they become extinct. Described as group ”that locates and propagates the world’s largest and most iconic trees,” AATA will employ traditional and modern methods in the process.
The cloned trees will come from all over the world and will represent the “best” of old growth tree populations.
During this year’s Earth Day, the group planted and distributed redwood trees in Germany, Ireland, Wales, Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia and the United States. Now this is one application of cloning that I have no qualms about.
It turns out that the human cells scientists have studied the most and used in research for more than 60 years have some unexpected and pretty intense genetic mutations. Good thing they weren’t used as part of 60,000 published papers. They were? Oh geez. More »
If you have short telomeres, you’re basically screwed. We’ve known these dwarfed pieces of DNA are connected to aging-related disorders like dementia and heart disease, but they also might make you more likely to catch a cold. More »
Last November, a group of scientists claimed that they had discovered DNA evidence of the existence of the fabled Bigfoot. The scientists promised that they would be publishing a paper outlining their findings and if you’ve been wondering where exactly that paper is, that mystery is now solved. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the scientists had a difficult time finding a publication that would actually publish their findings.
According to Ars Technica, the researchers ended up having to purchase their own online journal to be able to publish their findings. You can download the research paper yourself if you feel like coughing up $30 for what apparently are rather questionable results. While the researchers claim that their DNA evidence proves the existence of Bigfoot, the results seemed off to Ars Technica.
Ars’ John Timmer has a background in biological research and looked over the results and came away feeling like the results have significant issues. He says that where the nuclear genome is concerned “the results are a mess.” He points out that sometimes the tests picked up human DNA and other times human DNA wasn’t found. He also notes that sometimes the tests failed altogether. He also points out test results that show patches of double and single stranded DNA intermixed. Timmer says all this suggests is that the researchers have are samples of modern human DNA intermingled with some other contaminant.
So yet again, Sasquatch continues to elude us.
[via Ars Technica]
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