GWAS analyses for skin colour performed on a series of diverse African groups reveal new loci involved in this phenotype and, surprisingly, the presence within several African populations of the “light” allele of the SLC24A5 ...

Alternative bases that can fit into the DNA double helix have now been used in vivo to direct the synthesis of proteins incorporating unnatural amino acids. This bioengineering feat is significant at both the conceptual ...

A recent publication describes a sophisticated “liquid biopsy” procedure that analyses both tumoral DNA and proteins present in peripheral blood to provide sensitive detection of different types of cancer. These results ...

Recent efforts at gene therapy for haemophilia A and B using AAV-derived vectors show durable expression of coagulation factors at significant levels, resulting in almost complete correction of the phenotype. This is the ...

A recent paper shows that cancer patients using complementary therapies in addition to conventional treatment have distinctly worse outcomes. Analysis of the data shows that they are much more likely to refuse one component ...

Après les bombardements atomiques subis par les villes d’Hiroshima et de Nagasaki, un suivi à long terme des survivants irradiés et de leur descendance a été mis en place et se poursuit encore aujourd’hui. Ces études très ...

Senescent cells are involved in many age-related diseases, and the effects of their elimination by “senolytic” drugs is an active research field. A recent paper describes a convenient murine model of induced senescence and ...

Analysis of a huge human pedigree constructed using public genealogy databases indicates that the heritability of longevity is probably lower than previously accepted (0.10 to 0.15 instead of 0.25 to 0.30). This makes the ...

The very high information density of DNA has prompted speculations on its use for information storage. The high costs of DNA synthesis and sequencing made this highly unpractical; however recent progress (notably array ...

The HGP-write project, announced in 2016 but not really implemented yet, comes back as a project aimed at constructing an “ultra-safe” human cell line fully resistant to virus infection and with other desirable characteristics. ...