Latest Articles

Genetic analysis is now a common part of diagnosis or treatment for many conditions, and targeted treatments based on specific genetic variants have made personalized medicine a reality. Research has shown that most of the genetic knowledge we have is based on the genomes of a select group of individuals. This article explores how using more diverse genomic databases can help tackle healthcare inequalities.

How can you treat something if you don’t know what the problem is? This is the first challenge for medics and vets, one for which diagnostic testing holds the key. But when the disease you want to test for is endemic, it can raise some additional challenges - the all important negative controls.

We recently spoke with Dr Oliver Rinner, CEO at Biognosys, to learn more about the newest developments within the proteomics.

Four new research papers presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC), which is ongoing in Los Angeles this week, have highlighted the disparities between the sexes in onset and disease course of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The new studies include a link between employment and slower memory decline in women, and sex-specific AD risk genes.

The epigenome plays a crucial role in the development of breast cancer. This exciting and rapidly evolving area of research holds great promise for new interventions – from prevention through to personalized treatment.

In a recent academic collaboration, scientists discovered another surprising behavior of the Cas9 and Cpf1 enzymes – a behavior which may have implications when developing novel therapies with CRISPR. We spoke with Brett Robb, the Scientific Director for RNA and Genome Editing at New England Biolabs Inc, and Becky Fu (previously a graduate student at Stanford University and now a Postdoctoral fellow at UCSF) to learn more about their research.

There is a growing underbelly of conferences that seem like the real thing but have none of the editorial standards expected by academics and have developed a reputation for advertising with fake agendas and high prices. A chance investigation took us inside one of these predatory conferences and has uncovered how predatory science has ensnared scientists at every level.

An open-source RNA analysis platform, Drop-seq, has recently been applied successfully in plant cells for the first time. We spoke with Christine Shulse, PhD, from the DOE Joint Genome Institute to learn more about this innovative breakthrough and its potential applications.

Gauging global attitudes to science and health is no easy task, but it was the goal of The Wellcome Global Monitor – a survey of over 140,000 people aged 15 and older, from more than 140 countries. The findings present an unprecedented view of the relationship between science and society worldwide, which were discussed by leaders at the launch event in Washington D.C.

At some point in the early life of an embryo, zygotic nuclei "wake up" and take control of subsequent embryo development. As featured on the cover of Developmental Cell, a new study provides evidence supporting the hypothesis that cell size is the principal determinant of this transition from maternal to embryonic control. We spoke to a few of the co-authors to learn more about this important finding.