​An exciting new study has demonstrated how a new kind of CRISPR technique can increase the expression of certain genes, instead of the more traditional approach of cutting or editing DNA. The method was tested in mice, targeting genes associated with hunger, and stopped the animals becoming obese.​

The amount of close and comforting contact between infants and their caregivers can affect children at the molecular level, an effect detectable four years later, according to new research from the University of British Columbia and BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute.

After more than 20 years of theorizing about it, scientists have tweaked a hybrid variety of rice so that some of the plants produce cloned seeds. No plant sex necessary. The feat, described December 12 in Nature, is encouraging for efforts to feed an increasingly crowded world.

A Chinese scientist recently claimed he had produced the world’s first gene-edited babies, setting off a global firestorm. If true — the scientist has not yet published data that would confirm it — his actions would be a sensational breach of international scientific conventions. Although gene editing holds promise to potentially correct dangerous disease-causing mutations and treat some medical conditions, there are many safety and ethical concerns about editing human embryos.

A long-dead Scandinavian woman has yielded bacterial DNA showing that she contracted the earliest known case of the plague in humans. DNA extracted from the woman’s teeth comes from a newly identified ancient strain of Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes plague, the oldest ever found. The woman’s bones, which date from 5,040 to 4,867 years ago, were found nearly 20 years ago in a mass grave at an ancient farming site in Sweden.

One thing about our ancestors has become increasingly clear: early humans loved to get down, even with other species

Study confirms rare paternal mitochondrial transmission in three families.

In the latest issue of Genome Research, a group of North American scientists have, for the first time ever, published a full map of the cannabis genome. Among the myriad of interesting insights to glean from the chart is the finding that the genes that encode for THC and CBD production evolved thanks to bits of DNA introduced by viruses that infected the plant and successfully colonized its genome millions of years ago.

He Jiankui claims he created twin girls who had been edited so they were resistant to HIV. Was that ethical? Or even legal?

AI is now at the forefront of DNA structural analysis thanks to new genomics research from a team at Stanford University, California. The paper, published in Nature Genetics reveals that deep learning AI is now capable of understanding and predicting pattern changes in DNA structures. These findings suggest that AI analysis of DNA structures now surpass human capabilities due to its speed and accuracy. This also means that genomics is likely the next field of research to benefit from developments in artificial intelligence.

A Chinese researcher who claims to have created the first gene-edited babies, He Jiankui of the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUST), in Shenzhen, is now facing investigation over whether the experiment broke Chinese laws or regulations. On Sunday, MIT Technology Review was first to disclose a secretive project in China to produce children whose genomes had been modified to make them resistant to HIV.

Not all DNA is the same, and science has long held that not all kinds of DNA are passed down from both your mother and your father. But it looks like the time has come to rewrite the textbooks.

Newly sequenced Native genomes showcase a wealth of surprises, from previously unknown populations to unique high-altitude adaptations.

“People were spreading like a fire across the landscape and very quickly adapted to the different environments they were encountering.” By Olivia Goldhill.

As if stand-alone technologies weren’t advancing fast enough, we’re in age where we must study the intersection points of these technologies. How is what’s happening in robotics influenced by what’s happening in 3D printing? What could be made possible by applying the latest advances in quantum computing to nanotechnology?

Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and... groundcherries? A little-known fruit about the size of a marble could become agriculture's next big berry crop.

Orchids were once considered the world’s most difficult and exotic flowers. So why can you buy one for $12.99 at Trader Joe’s?

Long ago, Neanderthals probably infected modern humans with viruses, perhaps even an ancient form of H.I.V. But our extinct relatives also gave us genetic defenses.

Scientists break the rules of reproduction, so what does it mean for the future of sex?

A new study argues that more than half of Americans could be identified by name if all you had to start with was a sample of their DNA and a few basic facts, such as where they live and how about how old they might be.

New techniques that dig more deeply into genetic databases may soon make the anonymity of their customers’ DNA impossible to safeguard

A collection of the brilliant physicist’s final papers will be published tomorrow in a book called Brief Answers to the Big Questions, but the U.K.’s Sunday Times revealed some excerpts early. In the papers, Hawking mused on the future of everything from artificial intelligence to aliens. But one of the most unsettling things Hawking talks about is the inevitability of the super rich being able to afford to edit their genes and the genes of their offspring through technologies like CRISPR to make them stronger, more intelligent, and more resistant to disease.

International sequencing drive will involve reading genomes of 1.5m species

IN 2013, Google cofounder and CEO Larry Page announced the formation of a new Alphabet entity dedicated to solving the pesky puzzle of mortality. Since then, the billion-dollar longevity lab known as Calico—short for California Life Company—has been trying to tease apart the fundamental biology of aging in the hopes of one day defeating death.

It was going to happen sooner or later. A group of scientists in China claims that they have helped bring to life two genetically-edited babies. The goal was to modify the twin girls’ genes in order to prevent HIV infection and avoid AIDS. The scientists claim they were successful in this effort, according to reports in Associated Press and MIT Tech Review. The claims haven’t yet been independently verified. But if the researchers have really gone against internationally recognized voluntary guidelines and done what they say, both science and bioethics are now entering unchartered territory.

My grandfather was caramel-skinned with black eyes and thick, dark hair, and until he discovered that he was adopted, he had no reason to suspect that he was not the son of two poor Mexicans as he’d always been told. When he found his adoption papers, according to family lore, he pestered the nuns at the Dallas orphanage where he had lived as an infant for the name of his birth mother. Name in hand, at 10 years old, he hopped a bus to Pennsylvania, met his birth mother, and found out that he was actually Syrian.

A research team peering into the relatively underexplored "junk" DNA of mammals has found more clues as to elephants' extraordinary ability to evade cancer - and determined that the genes responsible for mitigating damage in elephant cells can also b

We did this. By David Nield.

Europe will see its first genetically engineered patients using a groundbreaking gene-splicing therapy this year after regulators approved trials. The biotech company Crispr Therapeutics is hoping to cure the disease beta thalassaemia, a devastating blood disorder which reduces the production of haemoglobin, the protein which carries oxygen to cells. Without sufficient oxygen, sufferers can be left with bone deformities, severe anaemia, slow growth, fatigue and shortness of breath.

Depression affects approximately 322 million people worldwide, making it the largest contributor to global disability. However, the fact that depression is an actual illness rather than a mood is only beginning to gain traction. Advances in the genetic basis of depression is helping that happen: In 2015 scientists discovered the first two genetic markers linked to the development of major depressive disorder, and on Monday, researchers reported in a new study that the genetic link is even more profound.

Biomedical engineers have used a CRISPR/Cas9 genetic engineering technique to turn off a gene that regulates cholesterol levels in adult mice, leading to reduced blood cholesterol levels and gene repression lasting for six months after a single treatment. This marks the first time researchers have delivered CRISPR/Cas9 repressors for targeted therapeutic gene silencing in adult animal models. The study appears in Nature Communications.

The forensic use of DNA is rightly regarded as one of the most reliable ways of establishing the identity of someone who was present at a crime scene. As technology has advanced, it is possible to use extremely small traces of genetic material to...

It's so small it can’t be seen with the naked eye, but research is showing that CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) is bringing sight to the blind.

The shape of DNA can be manipulated to create tiny machines and computers, and scientists have discovered a range of new “triggers” to control this process. Adding substances like copper and oxygen to molecules of DNA can force it to change its shape. Creating a range of DNA shapes provides scientists with a toolkit they can then use to construct tiny pieces of technology from the building blocks of life.

Around 7,000 years ago - all the way back in the Neolithic - something really peculiar happened to human genetic diversity. Over the next 2,000 years, and seen across Africa, Europe and Asia, the genetic diversity of the Y chromosome collapsed, becom