Features Articles - genetics & genomics, cell & molecular biology and immunology

Targeting DNA

By Jef Akst | June 1, 2012

After 20 years of high-profile failure, gene therapy is finally well on its way to clinical approval.

Telomeres in Disease

By Rodrigo Calado and Neal Young | May 1, 2012

Telomeres have been linked to numerous diseases over the years, but how exactly short telomeres cause diseases and how medicine can prevent telomere erosion are still up for debate.

15 Comments

Are Cancer Stem Cells Ready for Prime Time?

By Suling Liu, Hasan Korkaya, and Max S. Wicha | April 1, 2012

A flood of new discoveries has refined our definition of cancer stem cells. Now it’s up to human clinical trials to test if they can make a difference in patients.

48 Comments

Child-Proofing Drugs

By Edyta Zielinska | March 1, 2012

When children need medications, getting the dosing and method of administration right is like trying to hit a moving target with an untried weapon.

6 Comments

The Enigmatic Membrane

By Muriel Mari, Sharon A. Tooze, and Fulvio Reggiori | February 1, 2012

Despite years of research, the longstanding mystery of where the autophagosome gets its double lipid bilayers is not much clearer.

6 Comments

Resolving Chronic Pain

By Claudia Sommer and Frank Birklein | January 1, 2012

The body’s own mechanism for dispersing the inflammatory reaction might lead to new treatments for chronic pain.

76 Comments

Top Ten Innovations 2011

By The Scientist Staff | January 1, 2012

Our list of the best and brightest products that 2011 had to offer the life scientist

5 Comments

Sensing Fat

By Beverly J. Tepper and Kathleen L. Keller | December 1, 2011

Are genes that alter the perception of fat making us fat?

33 Comments

Matters of Taste

By Thomas E. Finger and Sue C. Kinnamon | December 1, 2011

Compounds we perceive as sweet or bitter in the mouth trigger similar receptors and signaling pathways elsewhere in the body, helping to regulate digestion, respiration, and other systems.

7 Comments

Early sequencing evolved into the publication of genomes for myriad species, including our own, within the span of two and a half decades. Bioinformatician Stephen Friend opines on what's in store as the next quarter century of omics takes shape.

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