An exceptional arrangement concluded for access to the HeLa cell line sequence highlights the problems involved in studies on « old » samples obtained before ethical and privacy safeguards were in place.

Le Prix Nobel de Chimie récompense cette année trois chercheurs qui ont découvert des mécanismes majeurs par lesquels les cellules réparent en permanence les altérations apparues dans leur ADN. Ces travaux remontent aux ...

The synthesis of a minimal bacterial genome comprising only 473 genes is an impressive achievement, yet it is only a step towards a really synthetic genome based on first principles: this set of genes was derived from a ...

Life expectancy curves for several nations provide an astonishingly precise image of the major events that occurred during the last century, highlight similarities between France and Great Britain, and reflect the tremendous ...

Since the completion of the first human DNA sequence, genomic approaches have penetrated into cancer research and therapy: first through expression profiling for diagnostic, prognostic and predictive purposes, then by ...

Bacteriophages were advocated as therapeutic agents more than a century ago, but the advent of antibiotics relegated them to a very minor role. Today, multi-drug resistant bacteria are a serious health problem, and phage ...

Recent efforts at gene therapy for haemophilia A and B using AAV-derived vectors show durable expression of coagulation factors at significant levels, resulting in almost complete correction of the phenotype. This is the ...