Junk DNA in birds may hold key to safe, efficient gene therapy

The recent approval of a CRISPR-Cas9 therapy for sickle cell disease demonstrates that gene editing tools can do a superb job of knocking out genes to cure hereditary disease. But it's still not possible to insert whole genes ...

Study discovers colliding ribosomes activate RNA repair

Aldehydes are toxic compounds that are produced in the body by metabolic processes, especially upon alcohol consumption. They are dangerous because they bind to cellular macromolecules, such as DNA, RNA, and proteins, and ...

Singling out a bacterium from the crowd

Bacteria are nearly ubiquitous and have tremendous impacts on human and ecological health. And yet, they remain largely mysterious to us. Princeton MOL faculty Zemer Gitai, Britt Adamson and Ned Wingreen launched a joint ...

How one of nature's most fundamental molecules forms

Life runs on ribosomes. Every cell on Earth needs ribosomes to translate genetic information into all the proteins needed for the organism to function—and to in turn make more ribosomes. But scientists still lack a clear ...

Humans vs. bacteria: Differences in ribosome decoding revealed

Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital revealed that human ribosomes decode messenger RNA (mRNA) 10 times slower than bacterial ribosomes, but do so more accurately. The study, published today in Nature, used ...

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