An Update on My Current Work: Bald Mice & Autism Genomics
I gotta be honest: my brain is pretty fried this weekend. After each sentence I type here I find myself staring off into space snatching some microsleep. Ya ever feel […]
Tag Archives: DNA topology
Are Changes in the Epigenome Actually due to the Dynamic Nature of DNA?
I could be totally wrong on this one, which is cool. Happens often enough. And I won’t profess to be an expert in epigenetics, though I’m not completely ignorant of […]
Continuing the Debate on “Function” in Junk DNA: Rethinking the Onion Test
“From our very early days we learn to react to situations with the appropriate responses, linguistic or otherwise. The teaching procedures both shape the ‘appearance’, or ‘phenomenon’, and establish a […]
Olfactory Receptor Genes: An Ancient & Unusual Subset of the Vertebrate Genome
Compared to vision and audition, the sense of smell is an exceptionally ancient one. And you might be surprised but the ability to detect odorous particles (also known as chemosensation) […]
Our Latest Study: The Link between Mobile Element Content and Autism-risk Genes
“An extremely large number of genes have been associated with autism. The functions of these genes span numerous domains and prove challenging in the search for commonalities underlying the conditions. […]
Responses to the ENCODE Project: When Scientists Have to Deal with Beetles in Boxes
How is the word “function” like a beetle in a box? No, this isn’t a twist on the Mad Hatter’s “Why is a raven like a writing desk?” As I’ve […]
Mutations on the Brain!!!
I’ve talked a lot about DNA mutations, transposons and retrotransposons, microsatellite repeat sequences in cancer and autism, and even somatic mosaicism on this blog. But I haven’t really talked about […]
A Little Cancer in All of Us
Cancer. The thought of it can be absolutely terrifying. Moreso than heart disease, stroke, or Alzheimer’s. Maybe because its diagnosis often seems so out of the blue, or because we […]
Is Eukaryotic DNA Still Living in a Prokaryotic World? How Changing Our Labels Can Change the Way We Think about Genetics
A “housekeeping” gene is a gene which is constitutively or constantly expressed and is necessary for basic cellular functions. “Contingency” genes, on the other hand, produce gene products which are, […]
The Forgotten Intron…
Let’s face it. Exons get all the glory. They’re the star players of the game, the quarterbacks, the offensive line. Meanwhile, introns and other intergenic regions play a more defensive […]
Science Over a Cuppa 
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