Archive for the ‘genetics’ category: Page 55
Jan 22, 2024
What 5000 Ancient Human Genomes Can Reveal About European
Posted by Dan Breeden in categories: biotech/medical, genetics
Originally published on Illumina News Center
Call it archaeology by other means. Rather than sifting through tons of dirt and carefully cataloguing human artifacts, Eske Willerslev and his colleagues have used Illumina NovaSeq Systems to sequence 5,000 ancient human genomes, revealing previously unseen historical nuance. This research tour de force, which is being published this month in four papers in the journal Nature, offers a rich view of early human migrations, mating habits, and disease variants, and their impact on modern Europeans.
“We wanted to sequence this ancient DNA so we could better understand human history,” says Willerslev, who is professor and director at the Centre of Excellence in GeoGenetics at the University of Copenhagen and the Prince Philip Professor of Ecology & Evolution at Cambridge University. “These results describe where we came from and why there’s so much variation in disease risk.”
Jan 22, 2024
Accidental Discovery: How a Whiff of an Unusual Chemical Transforms Seedlings Into Super Plants
Posted by Dan Breeden in categories: chemistry, energy, genetics
Researchers have found that treating seeds with ethylene gas increases both their growth and stress tolerance. This discovery, involving enhanced photosynthesis and carbohydrate production in plants, offers a potential breakthrough in improving crop yields and resilience against environmental stressors.
Just like any other organism, plants can get stressed. Usually, it’s conditions like heat and drought that lead to this stress, and when they’re stressed, plants might not grow as large or produce as much. This can be a problem for farmers, so many scientists have tried genetically modifying plants to be more resilient.
Jan 21, 2024
2-Minute Neuroscience: Autism
Posted by Shubham Ghosh Roy in categories: genetics, neuroscience
Autism is characterized by impairments in social communication and interaction and restricted and repetitive behaviors. In this video, I discuss the neuroscience of autism along with potential factors and mechanisms involved in the development of autism.
TRANSCRIPT:
Jan 21, 2024
Trigonelline Increases NAD, Improves Muscle Function, And Extends Lifespan: Vincenzo Sorrentino, PhD
Posted by Mike Lustgarten in categories: genetics, life extension
Join us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/MichaelLustgartenPhDDiscount Links: Telomere, Epigenetic Testing: https://trudiagnostic.com/?irclickid=U-s3Ii2r7x…
Jan 21, 2024
TRNA ‘Wobble’ Helps Cells Boost Antibody Production
Posted by Shubham Ghosh Roy in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, neuroscience
The various identities of cells, whether they are in the brain, heart, kidney, or any other tissue, are defined by the genes they expressed. In basic terms, the genes that are active in a cell are transcribed into RNA molecules that are then translated into proteins using tRNA molecules. In the genetic code, three base pair sequences of DNA, or codons, represent amino acids. These amino acids are moved into place by tRNA molecules, which have matching anticodons, to make proteins. There is redundancy in the genetic code as well, in which one amino acid can often be encoded by a few different codons.
Protein production varies considerably in different cells, and this is especially notable in cells that generate antibodies. These cells often have to spring into action and shift into high gear to generate many infection-fighting antibodies quickly. These antibody producers are B cells, and they often make significant metabolic adaptations when they’re needed.
Jan 20, 2024
The Forces That Drive Evolution May Not Be as Random as We Thought
Posted by Josh Seeherman in categories: biotech/medical, evolution, genetics
The random nature of genetic mutation implies evolution is largely unpredictable. But recent research suggests this may not be entirely so, with interactions between genes playing a bigger role than expected in determining how a genome changes.
It’s known that some areas of the genome are more likely to be mutable than others, but a new study now suggests a species’ evolutionary history may play a role in making mutations more predictable too.
“The implications of this research are nothing short of revolutionary,” says University of Nottingham evolutionary biologist James McInerney.
Jan 20, 2024
Supercomputer uses machine learning to set new speed record
Posted by Zola Balazs Bekasi in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, robotics/AI, space travel, supercomputing
Give people a barrier, and at some point they are bound to smash through. Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in 1947. Yuri Gagarin burst into orbit for the first manned spaceflight in 1961. The Human Genome Project finished cracking the genetic code in 2003. And we can add one more barrier to humanity’s trophy case: the exascale barrier.
The exascale barrier represents the challenge of achieving exascale-level computing, which has long been considered the benchmark for high performance. To reach that level, however, a computer needs to perform a quintillion calculations per second. You can think of a quintillion as a million trillion, a billion billion, or a million million millions. Whichever you choose, it’s an incomprehensibly large number of calculations.
Continue reading “Supercomputer uses machine learning to set new speed record” »
Jan 19, 2024
Genome-wide association study identifies 74 loci associated with educational attainment
Posted by Dan Breeden in categories: biotech/medical, education, genetics
A genome-wide association study in 293,723 individuals identifies 74 genetic variants associated with educational attainment, which, although only explaining a small proportion of the variation in educational attainment, highlights candidate genes and pathways for further study.
Jan 19, 2024
Scientists are finding more genes linked to IQ. This doesn’t mean we can predict intelligence
Posted by Dan Breeden in category: genetics
Researchers using huge data sets to understand genetics and behavior worry their findings will be misinterpreted.