this curious life

By Andreas Kahl and Owen Craig

'We have been working in the area of colon cancer prevention and detection for some time, and the announcement this week of a major step towards a more effective and reliable blood-based test for bowel cancer is delivering on this major research effort.

The test is the result of a five-year scientific collaboration between CSIRO, Australian biotech company Clinical Genomics and Flinders University in Adelaide. Such a test has been the goal for many scientists working in molecular diagnostics around the world, and this development is a major step forward.'

A genetic mutation that occurred thousands of years ago might be the answer to how early humans were able to move from central Africa and across the continent in what has been called "the great expansion," according to new research.

Like job-seekers searching for a new position, living things sometimes have to pick up a new skill if they are going to succeed. Researchers have shown for the first time how living organisms do this.

Most of the DNA alterations that are tied to disease do not alter protein-coding genes, but rather the “switches” that control them. Characterizing these switches is one of many goals of the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project.

'[This work] has revealed elements that act like dimmer switches, subtly turning up or down a gene’s activity and influencing what parts of the genome are utilized in different kinds of cells. The team characterized and mapped out the locations of thousands of these switches and signals.'