DNA Organization in Real-Time

How the motion of DNA controls gene activity

04-Jul-2023 - Despite being densely packed to fit into the nucleus, chromosomes storing our genetic information are always in motion. This allows specific regions to come into contact and thereby activate a gene. A group of scientists from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), Princeton ...

Gene activity in a test tube

An accurate picture of gene activity can provide the key to the development of new, targeted therapies

18-Oct-2022 - When searching for the causes of illnesses and developing new treatments, it is absolutely vital to have a precise understanding of the genetic fundamentals. Würzburg researchers have devised a new technique for this purpose. Pathological processes are usually characterised by altered gene ...

Monitoring gene activities in living cells

Cell Biopsy instead of cell lysis

19-Aug-2022 - Researchers from ETH Zurich and EPFL are expanding the emerging field of single-​cell analysis with a ground-​breaking method: Live-​seq makes it possible to measure the activity of thousands of genes in a single cell without having to isolate and destroy it. Modern biology is increasingly ...

Discovery of molecular signatures of immature neurons in the human brain provide new insights into brain plasticity

Analysis also shows severe reduction of these neurons in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s Disease

22-Jul-2022 - A team led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has used advanced techniques to show that, in a key memory region of the brain called the hippocampus, immature, plastic neurons are present in significant numbers throughout the human lifespan. The ...

How to find marker genes in cell clusters

New method facilitates identification of cell-type specific genes in single-cell data

06-Jul-2022 - The thousands of cells in a biological sample are all different and can be analyzed individually, cell by cell. Based on their gene activity, they can be sorted into clusters. But which genes are particularly characteristic of a given cluster, i.e. what are its “marker genes”? A new statistical ...

Researchers visualize the battle between virus and host cells at the single-cell level

An innovative method identifies newly activated genes within individual cells

12-Jul-2019 - Cells are equipped with multiple defense mechanisms to fight off intruders. Genes encode the building blocks of the response that must be activated during an enemy attack in an ordered manner. Scientists at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) in Würzburg, one of the ...

Networks of Gene Activity Control Organ Development

28-Jun-2019 - For the first time, researchers have decoded the genetic programmes that control the development of major organs in humans and other selected mammals – rhesus monkeys, mice, rats, rabbits, and opossums – before and after birth. Using next-generation sequencing technologies, the molecular ...

Cell atlas of the aging lung

01-Mar-2019 - Aging promotes lung function decline and increases susceptibility to diseases of the respiratory tract. In order to understand these effects in detail, researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München, a partner in the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), analyzed the aging process in the lung at ...

New mouse model makes stem cells light up green

Random find opens up new perspectives

06-Feb-2018 - Multipotent stromal cells have long been a hot topic in medical research. Scientists at the University of Bonn have now found a way to specifically mark these stem cells. This makes it possible to analyze their distribution pattern and their function in living organisms. In order to examine a ...

Tracking Down Genetic Influences on Brain Disorders

28-Nov-2017 - New findings will help to identify the genetic causes of brain disorders: researchers at the Universities of Basel, Bonn and Cologne have presented a systematic catalog of specific variable locations in the genome that influence gene activity in the human hippocampus. Individual differences in ...