News and insights

Subscribe to our newsletter

There are not many genes on human chromosome 18, especially in comparison to its 23 siblings. Yet chromosome 18 is far from a genomic backwater. Indeed, as described by a research team led by Ó³»­´«Ã½ scientists in the September 22 issue of Nature, evolution has worked hard to conserve a surprisingly large number of non-gene regions of the chromosome. This discovery offers tantalizing evidence that "extra" sequence plays an important role in genome function.

The first comprehensive comparison of the genetic blueprints of humans and chimpanzees shows our closest living relatives share perfect identity with 96 percent of our DNA sequence, an international research consortium reported today. Led by scientists from the Ó³»­´«Ã½ of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and the Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis, MO, the Chimpanzee Sequencing and Analysis Consortium reported its findings in the Sept. 1 issue of the journal Nature.

RNA interference (RNAi) has been hailed as a revolutionary new approach to basic biological research as well as drug development and discovery. One measure of how RNAi has caught the imagination of scientists is the fact that it was featured in the July 26, 2005, broadcast of NOVA scienceNOW. Ó³»­´«Ã½ director Eric Lander participated in the program by helping to explain the genetic mechanisms by which RNAi carries out its tasks.