DNA contamination

From diagnosis to tracking treatment responses, bacteria and other microbes in the blood, gut, and tumors of cancer patients may provide helpful hints for improving their care.

Published genomes are chock-full of contamination. But as awareness of the problem grows, so do methods to help combat it.

From tossing out cross-contaminated cell lines to flagging genomic misnomers, a push is on to tidy up biomedical research.

This year in life science was marked by paltry federal funding increases, revelations of sequence contamination, and onerous regulations.

Funding for African science; microbiome studies may have contamination worries; mind-controlled gene expression; DNA record keeper

A study documenting the ubiquity of DNA contamination calls into question a recent paper on food-derived nucleic acids in the human bloodstream.