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 […]
Tag Archives: genetics
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, […]
Lazy Science: Can the Life Sciences Handle All This “Big Data”?
There was a recent article in The New Yorker titled, “Steamrolled by Big Data,” which reminded me of the trend occurring now in the Life Sciences. Even though, unlike Google, […]
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 […]
Thinking Twenty Moves Ahead – Visualizing Biological Complexity
My partner has adored chess ever since he was a child.While I’m no aficiando like he is, there’s something easy to romanticize about the game. The sheer artistry of the […]
The Antiepileptic, Valproic Acid – A Mutagen?
As a medicine, valproic acid (VPA) has a variety of uses. Not only does it serve as an antiepileptic drug, it can also be used for mood stabilization in Bipolar, […]
Jumpin’ Genes & Genetic Instability
The above image is a segment of exon 4 from the human gene for the Oxytocin receptor (Oxtr). But this ain’t no ordinary exon. This particular segment is in fact […]
Modularity: Dude, How Cool Is That?
Regardless of whatever were the first steps in the origins of life, there is little doubt that the modularity of proto-life’s chemical parts has been a foundational element to Self-replication […]
MicroDNA: The Unstable Genome
More and more the traditional view of genetic structure and function is being challenged. In an article published in Science in April, 2012, a group of scientists out of the University of […]
Science Over a Cuppa 
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