by Akshara Sankar DNA analysis [1] Genome editing is a discovery that is as delicate as it is powerful. It has long been a topic of controversy, speculation, and despite imperfections, excitement and innovation. The same can be said for artificial intelligence, a field that boasts a growing list of interdisciplinary applications (from receiving ads …
by Aanya Tashfeen Organoid technology can arguably be considered a significant breakthrough in tissue engineering and stem cell research. An organoid is a three-dimensional culture of organ progenitor cells or stem cells (induced pluripotent, embryonic or adult stem cells) that can grow and self-organise in vitro, forming a near-realistic ‘organ in a dish’ [1]. The …
Tissue Engineering, Organoids and Genetic Diseases Read More »
by Ideja Bajra Dr. Stefan Taubert is an Associate Professor, scientist (Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics), and Investigator (BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute). He obtained his PhD from the University of Fribourg ans has been a PI since 2009. 1) Thank you for agreeing to this interview Dr. Taubert. Could you explain a bit …
Stefan Taubert – Day in the Life Of a Geneticist Read More »
by Lucy Chen Introduction Humans are highly complex, multicellular organisms with millions of cells specialised for particular functions via distinct morphologies and chemistry. The process by which various cell types are generated from one universal type during development is known as cellular differentiation, and is driven by changes in gene expression in response to environmental …
by Omodolapo Bolinda Martha Chase was an American geneticist. In 1952, during the “Hershey-Chase Experiments,” she accompanied Alfred Hershey, helping to experimentally confirm that DNA, not protein, is the genetic material of life [1]. This discovery was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1969, yet excluded Chase [2]. There is not much …
by Simone Khandpekar Each year, there is a vaccine that is distributed for influenza, more commonly known as the flu. Influenza is a zoonosis, which means that it’s a virus that can be transmitted from animal to humans[1]. Influenza is a virus that belongs to the Orthomyxoviridae family. It is an RNA virus, with 7 …
by Abigail Brooke The claims that the novel coronavirus causing the current pandemic was engineered in a lab and perhaps even deliberately released have been all over the internet. However, a new study using genomic analyses debunks these claims, providing scientific evidence that the novel coronavirus arose naturally, with the researchers stating that ‘our analyses …
How the Genome Proves That SARS-Cov-2 Arose Naturally Read More »
Introduction If you know simple biology, you know that all life on Earth has genetic information: both DNA and RNA. Following this line of logic, it is plausible to think that life on another planet may also have to have DNA or RNA or both. What if this is not the case? Perhaps other life …
Introduction People have always noticed the effects of migration even if they were unaware of the cause. Rock art with drawings of the birds have survived and there are paintings in Egyptian tombs depicting birds such as cranes (from the north) and white-breasted geese which nest in the Arctic. These species could only have …
It started out as an oddity. A sequence of viral DNA in the genome of a bacteria, as out of place as a bull in a china shop. A curious observation led to the latest method for editing genes: CRISPR. CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) are sequences of viral DNA found in bacterial …
