Once disregarded as “junk DNA,” scientists now know that this molecular dark matter is crucial for determining gene activity ...

For decades, biologists have known that the instructions for life are written in DNA, yet the vast majority of those letters seemed to sit in the dark, doing little that was obvious. Now a new ...

Imagine the human genome as a string stretching out for the length of a football field, with all the genes that encode proteins clustered at the end near your feet. Take two big steps forward; all the ...

Fixing gene defects with designer DNA is on the horizon after Google DeepMind launched a pioneering new AI tool.

Only around two percent of the human genome codes for proteins, and while those proteins carry out many important functions of the cell, the rest of the genome cannot be ignored. However, for decades ...

Scientists know that genetic factors can explain many of autism’s features - but have autism researchers been looking for ...

Repeat DNA Adopts Different Conformations. By cycling between different states, DNA can change the readout of information from the genome. The process exchanges metabolic energy for information.

Ancient viruses left a legacy in your DNA. And it turns out, that legacy may be helping shape who you are. A recent international study has shown that certain bits of ancient viral DNA, long dismissed ...

Tiny "hidden" proteins lurking in DNA once dismissed as junk may hold the key to the next generation of obesity drugs, according to a new study that has uncovered dozens of new fat-regulating ...

Junk DNA may not be so useless after all. Scientists coined the term to describe the genetic wasteland within the human genome that consists of long stretches of DNA for which there was no known ...