The DNA packed inside every human cell contains instructions for life, written in billions of letters of genetic code. Every time a cell divides, the complete code, divided among 46 chromosomes, must ...

Every day, billions of cells in your body divide, helping to replace old and injured cells with new ones. And each time this happens, your entire genetic library—your genome, which totals more than 3 ...

We tend to think of the DNA strands that contain our genetic code as consistent, stable units. But in reality, the cells that make up our bodies are constantly replicating and changing. Even as you ...

Not all parts of our genetic code are equal, even when they appear to say the same thing. Scientists have discovered that cells can detect less efficient genetic instructions and selectively silence ...

During DNA replication, the unwinding of strands leaves a single strand vulnerable. How does the cell protect these strands from damage? How would you identify the protein that serves as a connector ...

What scientists once dismissed as junk DNA may actually be some of the most powerful code in our genome. A new international study reveals that ancient viral DNA buried in our genes plays an active ...

DNA is the blueprint of the human body. However, tens of thousands of DNA lesions occur in our bodies every day. In ...

On a foggy Saturday morning in 1953, a tall, skinny 24-year-old man fiddled with shapes he had cut out of cardboard. They represented fragments of a DNA molecule, and young James Watson was trying to ...