The same amino acid can be encoded by anywhere from one to six different strings of letters in the genetic code. Andrzej Wojcicki/Science Photo Library via Getty Images Nearly all life, from bacteria ...

The genetic code is the recipe for life, and provides the instructions for how to make proteins, generally using just 20 amino acids. But certain groups of microbes have an expanded genetic code, in ...

There are few hard and fast rules in the study of life, but perhaps the closest we get is the central dogma of molecular biology: DNA is transcribed to RNA, which gets translated into proteins. The ...

Despite awe-inspiring diversity, nearly every lifeform – from bacteria to blue whales – shares the same genetic code. How and when this code came about has been the subject of much scientific ...

DNA coding theory bridges the disciplines of mathematics, computer science and molecular biology by applying advanced algebraic and combinatorial techniques to the design of nucleotide sequences. This ...

In the last decade, archaeologists have learned to read the genetic traces that ancient humans and Neanderthals left not only ...

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 ...

Mutations are changes in the molecular "letters" that make up the DNA code, the blueprint for all living cells. Some of these changes can have little effect, but others can lead to diseases, including ...

As one of the inventors of next-generation DNA sequencing, Sir Shankar Balasubramanian could claim to be responsible for a revolution in the life sciences. Balasubramanian and chemist David Klenerman, ...

To our immune system, a potentially lifesaving gene therapy can look a lot like a dangerous infection. That's because most ...

MSK researchers are shedding new light on G-quadruplexes, a type of secondary DNA structure that can cause DNA replication to stall. The structures are a potential therapeutic target in cancer. Image ...