Genetics

Humanity is poised to take a huge leap forward, as a convergence of next-gen technologies combine to give us unprecedented power over our own biology. Here's a roadmap to the key technologies and how it's going to play out in the coming decades.

A study has homed in on a gene linked to “short sleepers”, those with the ability to slumber for less than six hours a night with no negative consequences. The gene mutation also was found to prevent memory problems associated with sleep deprivation.

A landmark new study is strongly linking excessive neural activity with shorter lifespans. The study suggests a protein known to suppress neural excitation affects a number of longevity pathways, effectively slowing the aging process.

Researchers at Griffith University in Australia have used the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing system to effectively cure cervical cancer in mice.

New research has identified a specific genetic variant that may act as a biomarker for patients that are unlikely to respond to new biologic treatments for Crohn's disease.

Led by scientists from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, a new study is homing in on a single gene suggested to be a master regulator in schizophrenia.

An experimental pest control method using genetically-modified mosquitoes has gone wrong, mixing mutant genes into Brazil's wild mosquito population.

For the first time, researchers have identified regions of the genome related to left-handedness in the general population.

A team of US scientists is embarking on an immense project to catalog all the genes in the collective human microbiome. In the first published study an astounding 46 million genes have been chronicled from just 3,500 human microbiome samples. Half of those genes are unique to single human samples.

An incredible new breakthrough from scientists at ETH Zurich has, for the first time, demonstrated a new CRISPR method that can modify dozens of genes simultaneously, allowing for more large-scale cell reprogramming.

A remarkable new study revealed thousands of previously undiscovered small proteins produced by bacteria in the human microbiome. Almost all of these proteins serve unknown functions in the human body and the researchers suggest the discovery opens up a new frontier for future drug development.

A newly published statement from the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has revealed inaccurate, intentionally manipulated data was included as part of a submission for a major new gene therapy that was approved for public use in May.