Molecular biologists, including the cool dudes from CSI, use gel electrophoresis to separate DNA fragments from each other in order to analyse the DNA. A team of researchers under the leadership Serge Lemay, has now shown for the first time how the gel influences the movement of the DNA. The researchers drove a single DNA molecule through a nanopore in order to analyse the forces on the DNA.

Kansas State University engineers think the possibilities are deep for a very thin material.

A new analysis has found that certain variations in genes that repair DNA can affect a person's risk of developing Hodgkin disease. Published in the April 1, 2009 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study indicates that differences in these genes should be further investigated to better understand individuals' susceptibility to this type of cancer.

Experiments at Johns Hopkins have found that the gradual maturing of embryonic cells into cells as varied as brain, liver and immune system cells is apparently due to the shut off of several genes at once rather than in individual smatterings as previous studies have implied.

Genetic variations in DNA repair patterns may increase risk of pancreatic cancer by as much as threefold or decrease it by as much as 77 percent, depending on the genes involved, according to a report published in the January 15, 2009, issue of Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Now, a pair of Scripps Research Institute scientists has taken a significant step toward answering that question. The scientists have synthesized for the first time RNA enzymes that can replicate themselves without the help of any proteins or other cellular components, and the process proceeds indefinitely.

Researchers at McGill University, the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI MUHC) and the McGill University and Génome Québec Innovation Centre, along with colleagues at other Canadian and Belgian institutions, have discovered DNA variations in a gene that increases susceptibility to developing Crohn's disease.

The enzyme machine that translates a cell's DNA code into the proteins of life is nothing if not an editorial perfectionist.

This month's issue of Cold Spring Harbor Protocols features two articles detailing experimental methods for the analysis of molecular processes involved in DNA repair and post-translational modification of proteins.

Arizona State University researchers Hao Yan and Yan Liu imagine and assemble intricate structures on a scale almost unfathomably small. Their medium is the double-helical DNA molecule, a versatile building material offering near limitless construction potential.

While examining patterns of DNA modification in lung cancer, a team of international researchers has discovered what they say is a surprising new mechanism. They say that "silencing" of a single gene in lung cancer led to a general impairment in genome-wide changes in cells, contributing to cancer development and progression.

Anyone who has watched crime dramas on TV knows that forensic scientists can use DNA “profiling” to identify people from evidence gathered at a crime scene, establish a paternity link or help free an innocent person who has been wrongly jailed.