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DNA mapping tool helps scientists better understand how genes are regulated

Scientists have devised a powerful new tool for understanding how DNA controls gene activity in cells. The tool allows researchers to map at high resolution, across large swaths of a cell’s genome, which DNA nucleotides work to regulate gene activity. “This is the first method that enables us to simultaneously test thousands of human DNA regulatory regions for their ability…

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Altering the ‘Flavor’ of Humans Could Help Fight Malaria

A new study by Johns Hopkins researchers suggests that a specialized area of the mosquito brain mixes tastes with smells to create unique and preferred flavors. The findings advance the possibility, they say, of identifying a substance that makes “human flavor” repulsive to the malaria-bearing species of the mosquitoes, so instead of feasting on us, they keep the disease to…

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Decoding of Tarsier Genome Reveals Ties to Humans

Small enough to fit into the palm of your hand, with enormous eyes and an appetite for meat, tarsiers are an anomaly of nature. They are also our distant cousins, according to scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, who recently sequenced and analyzed the tarsier genome. The findings, published Oct. 6 in Nature Communications, place tarsiers on…

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Three ISG “alums” have published papers in the most recent issue of Science, Technology & Human Values

Three ISG “alums,” Laura Foster, Ruha Benjamin, and Lindsay Smith,  have published papers in the most recent issue of Science, Technology & Human Values, in a special issue entitled “Resisting Power, Retooling Justice: Promises of Postcolonial Technosciences. See the full issue here: Special Issue: Resisting Power, Retooling Justice: Promises of Feminist Postcolonial Technosciences

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Yes, Computing Genetic Ancestors is Super Accurate

Remnants of extinct monkeys are hiding inside you, along with those of lizards, jellyfish and other animals. Your DNA is built upon gene fragments from primal ancestors. Now researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have made it more likely that ancestral genes, along with ancestral proteins, can be confidently identified and reconstructed. They have benchmarked a vital tool that…

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