Every cell in the human body carries the same 3 billion letters of DNA, yet a neuron, a heart muscle cell and a pancreatic beta cell each use that shared code to do entirely different jobs. How cells ...

What makes the human brain distinctive? A new study published in Cell identifies two genes linked to human brain features and provides a road map to discover many more. The research could lead to ...

One of the most detailed 3D maps of how the human chromosomes are organized and folded within a cell's nucleus is published in Nature. Chromosomes are thread-like structures that carry a cell's ...

Twenty-two years after the completion of the Human Genome Project, scientists have unveiled the most expansive catalog of human genetic variation ever compiled. Across two new papers published ...

A deeper understanding of how DNA changes over generations helps scientists learn why people differ and how diseases develop. Until recently, many fast-changing parts of the human genome remained ...

Humans are closely related to chimpanzees and bonobos, but what are the key factors that make humans genetically different? A new study looks at the process of DNA methylation, in which chemical tags ...

Researchers at the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences (LMS) and collaborators have uncovered one of the earliest steps in DNA replication: the moment a cell first opens its DNA to begin making a copy ...