genes

Traditional blood tests still do a better job flagging common inherited diseases. Gene sequencing can be useful for detecting some conditions, but the results can be difficult to interpret.

Formerly considered useless, or maybe a parasite, the stretch of DNA known as LINE-1 actually plays "a key role" in creating an embryo and embryonic stem cells, research shows.

There's an explosion of interest in personalized diet approaches and at-home test kits are popping up everywhere. Part of the approach includes analyzing your DNA, but genes can only tell us so much.

If you're a crayfish, North Carolina is where it's at. In general, the state is among the most biologically-diverse for several reasons. Additionally, there are a couple of thoughts as to why we live in the Mudbug Mecca. In a way, crayfish are islands unto themselves. Most species carry with them Branchiobdellida, a species of worm that live life on the clawed critter.

You are you because of a unique combination of your parents' genes, coded into the strands of DNA molecules, coiled tightly around an “X-shaped” structure. This is a chromosome, and you have 23 pairs of them, deep down in the nucleus of all 37 trillion cells in your body.

Dr. Beth Sullivan, Associate Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at Duke University, studies chromosome rearrangements in her lab and how they may cause disease. 

A study offering the parents of newborns a scan of thousands of the baby's genes raises a big question: Do you want this kind of information on disease risk in your child's permanent record?