RNA

Although small amounts of fluoride in drinking water may help to strengthen teeth and bones, too much can be dangerous. With that in mind, a simple new test has been designed to determine if fluoride levels are too high.

The latest ingredients of life to be discovered off-world are certain bio-essential sugars, which have now been found in meteorites. This could lend weight to the idea that meteorite impacts are responsible for the origin of life on Earth.

The CRISPR tool is often referred to as “genetic scissors,” but a new improvement turns it into a “genetic Swiss Army Knife.”

Researchers from the University of Virginia may have found a way to prevent infections. The team has uncovered how pathogenic E. coli senses its environment to stay stealthy until it reaches the right spot to kickstart an infection.

Our bodies aren't great at regeneration. Other creatures have mastered this skill though, and now scientists at the University of California Davis (UC Davis) and Harvard have sequenced the RNA transcripts for the immortal hydra and figured out how it manages to do just that.

Under the right conditions, DNA can last for thousands of years. RNA, on the other hand, degrades much more quickly and was thought impossible to recover in older samples. But now researchers have isolated and sequenced the RNA of a 14,000-year-old wolf found frozen in the Siberian permafrost.

The CRISPR gene-editing system is a powerful tool, but sometimes cutting and pasting can have unwanted side effects. Now researchers from MIT and Harvard have developed a new CRISPR-based system that can insert new DNA sequences without cutting, which should make the process safer and more accurate.

Bacteria are quickly evolving resistances to antibiotics, to the extent that our best drugs might not work in the terrifyingly-near future. Now, researchers from Thomas Jefferson University have found a new way to weaken bacterial defenses, slowing down the development of antibiotic resistance.

The CRISPR gene-editing system is incredibly accurate, but it’s not unusual for it to be a little bit off target sometimes. Now, biomedical engineers at Duke University have created an RNA “lock” that can apparently make the system far more precise, and it works with all kinds of CRISPR variations.

How did life emerge from non-living matter? The prevailing hypothesis is that life got started in the ocean, where hydrothermal vents provided just the right chemical reactions. But a new MIT study has found that ancient oceans probably didn’t have enough nitrogen – but shallow ponds might have.

​A huge variety of disease essentially stems from a dysfunctional immune system. After ten years of work a new study has revealed, for the first time, the discovery of a molecule that has been found to modulate the immune system’s activity.​

In the body, mRNA molecules are in charge of instructing cells to produce specific proteins, and hijacking this natural system is emerging as a promising new way to treat a wide variety of illnesses. A new inhalable mRNA aerosol could be a potential new treatment for cystic fibrosis or lung cancer.