There are some genes that can promote cancer; they are sometimes called oncogenes, and in tumor cells, mutations are often found in these genes. When they are functioning normally, oncogenes are often ...

Despite progress in defining functional elements of noncoding DNA, it is still not fully understood. Researchers, using an experiment that elucidated the function of tens of thousands of noncoding ...

Researchers have refined a powerful DNA sequencing tool that can uncover hidden mutations that occur naturally in our bodies as we age. In the largest study to date, they have used the tool to provide ...

Scientists have created a new technique that can assess how mutations in the genome influence the packaging of DNA in cells. The genome is massive, and has to be carefully wrapped around proteins so ...

From the time we are conceived and through old age, genetic mutations accumulate in all our tissues, eluding the body’s typically efficient DNA repair machinery and potentially affecting our health ...

While most known types of DNA damage are fixed by our cells' in-house DNA repair mechanisms, some forms of DNA damage evade repair and can persist for many years, new research shows. This means that ...