Tag: Genes

ScienceDaily (Oct. 19, 2011) Young genes that appeared since the primate branch split from other mammal species are expressed in unique structures of the developing human brain, a new analysis finds.
The correlation suggests that scientists studying the evolution of the human brain should look to genes considered recent by evolutionary standards and early stages of brain development.

ScienceDaily (June 22, 2011) Researchers from ETH Zurich have fitted human cells with a synthetic signaling cascade that can be used to switch on and regulate genes via blue light.
This "gene light switch" makes interesting therapies possible, which could be used to treat type 2 diabetes, for instance.

ScienceDaily (July 4, 2010) Modern marsupials may be popular animals at the zoo and in children's books, but new findings by University at Buffalo biologists reveal that they harbor a "fossil" copy of a gene that codes for filoviruses, which cause Ebola and Marburg hemorrhagic fevers and are the most lethal viruses known to humans.

Published recently in the online journal BMC Evolutionary Biology, the paper demonstrates for the first time that mammals have harbored filoviruses for at least tens of millions of years, in contrast to the existing estimate of a few thousand.

US scientists have developed a way of predicting how likely a person is to live beyond the age of 100.

The breakthrough, described in the journal Science, is based on 150 genetic "signposts" found in exceptionally long-lived people.

The Boston team created a mathematical model, which takes information from these signposts to work out a person's chance of reaching 100.

ScienceDaily (Dec. 3, 2009) In spite of their genetic similarity to humans, chimpanzees and great apes have maximum lifespans that rarely exceed 50 years. The difference, explains USC Davis School of Gerontology Professor Caleb Finch, is that as humans evolved genes that enabled them to better adjust to levels of infection and inflammation and to the high cholesterol levels of their meat rich diets.

ScienceDaily (Nov. 25, 2009) The world's largest species of monkey 'chooses' mates with genes that are different from their own to guarantee healthy and strong offspring, according to a new research study.

The results obtained from mandrills, a species closely related to humans, support the disputed theory that humans are attracted to those with a dissimilar genetic make up to maintain genetic diversity.

The first transgenic primates able to pass on their foreign genes are both a stunning medical advance and a troubling peek into the future.

This spring, news of a biological breakthrough arrived in the form of baby marmosets whose feet glowed green under ultraviolet light. Researchers at the Central Institute for Experimental Animals in Kawasaki, Japan, had genetically engineered the monkeys to incorporate a gene, derived from jellyfish, that produces green fluorescent protein. It was the first time scientists had added a gene to a primate in such a way that a new trait could be passed to a second generation.