Week in Review: April 14–18

Genome-wide effects of trisomy 21; RNA-based signs of transgenerational stress; depression and resilience; a call to overhaul US biomedical research system

| 2 min read

Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
2:00
Share

U.S. DOE, HUMAN GENOME PROJECTThe third copy of chromosome 21—the hallmark of Down’s syndrome—can affect transcriptional regulation throughout the genome, a team led by investigators at the University of Geneva Medical School in Switzerland has found. Their work was published in Nature this week (April 16).

Studying a rare monozygotic twin pair in which only one sibling has the disorder, the Swiss team found striking differences in genome-wide gene expression between them. “The fact that they’ve got these really nice domain structures genome-wide further implicates the rising perception of the Down’s syndrome response as being more of a systems-level response,” Robin Dowell of the University of Colorado at Boulder, who was not involved in the work, told The Scientist.

WIKIMEDIA, RAMAMolecular remnants of early-life stress in mice can be passed down across generations, scientists from the University of Zurich in Switzerland and their colleagues showed in Nature Neuroscience this week (April 13). The team found that RNA-based markers in the sperm of rodents that were stressed early on in their lives correlated with certain aversive behaviors, and that these same marks could be found in their offspring, and in some cases, in their offspring’s offspring.

This study “really adds a new dimension in terms of what impact dad can have,” said Stephen Krawetz, the associate director of the C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth and Development at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan, who was not involved in the work.

FLICKR, LIFE MENTAL HEALTHIncreasing depression-causing neuronal activity in mice can reverse behaviors associated with the disorder, investigators at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York have found. Their results were published in Science this week (April 17).

This work ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

The Scientist Logo
Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!
Already a member? Login Here
3D illustration of a gold lipid nanoparticle with pink nucleic acid inside of it. Purple and teal spikes stick out from the lipid bilayer representing polyethylene glycol.
February 2025, Issue 1

A Nanoparticle Delivery System for Gene Therapy

A reimagined lipid vehicle for nucleic acids could overcome the limitations of current vectors.

View this Issue
Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Lonza
An illustration of animal and tree silhouettes.

From Water Bears to Grizzly Bears: Unusual Animal Models

Taconic Biosciences
Sex Differences in Neurological Research

Sex Differences in Neurological Research

bit.bio logo
New Frontiers in Vaccine Development

New Frontiers in Vaccine Development

Sino

Products

Tecan Logo

Tecan introduces Veya: bringing digital, scalable automation to labs worldwide

Explore a Concise Guide to Optimizing Viral Transduction

A Visual Guide to Lentiviral Gene Delivery

Takara Bio
Inventia Life Science

Inventia Life Science Launches RASTRUM™ Allegro to Revolutionize High-Throughput 3D Cell Culture for Drug Discovery and Disease Research

An illustration of differently shaped viruses.

Detecting Novel Viruses Using a Comprehensive Enrichment Panel

Twist Bio