Musings and Mutterings

Faster, cheaper DNA sequencing method developed

2009-12-22T01:30:15Z

Faster, cheaper DNA sequencing method developed

In another story from Boston University, researchers have developed a nanoscale sensor that detects DNA molecules as they pass through a 4 nanometer-wide silicon nanopore. The mouth of the nanopore is charged to attract the negatively charged DNA strands. Interestingly, the system works best with long DNA strands which could lead to much faster DNA processing. The system has also decreased by a factor of 10,000 the number of DNA molecules that must be captured so that DNA amplification may not be required, a step that can slow the detection process and introduce transcription errors.

comments

Autism and schizophrenia could be genetic opposites - health - 02 December 2009 - New Scientist

2009-12-05T11:51:09Z

Autism and schizophrenia could be genetic opposites - health - 02 December 2009 - New Scientist

Research at Simon Fraser University suggests that autism and schizophrenia may be at opposite ends of the same biological spectrum. The investigated four regions associated with increased risk of either condition and found that autism was associated with the presence of a particular copy-number variant while schizophrenia was associated with the absence of a copy-number variant. They suggest that these results support other studies "...that autism may be caused by overdevelopment of specific brain regions and schizophrenia by underdevelopment...".

comments

Girl with Y chromosome sheds light on maleness - life - 09 April 2009 - New Scientist

2009-04-10T16:37:02Z

Girl with Y chromosome sheds light on maleness - life - 09 April 2009 - New Scientist

A 7-year-old girl has Y-chromosome but none of the defects normally associated with it. Instead, doctors believe that she has a mutation in the CBX2 gene of chromosome 17. The gene's function is poorly understood, but they believe CBX2 shuts down SRY which is critical to male sexual development. Mice without CBX2 are normally sterile so time will tell if she will have the same problem.

comments