New research reveals that a unique Indian skink species arrived on the subcontinent by rafting across the ocean from Southeast Asia millions of years ago, a journey made possible by fluctuating sea levels.

DNA

Kolkata

New research sheds light on how electrons interact with the innate vibrations within DNA molecules, known as phonons, which could be harnessed for future technologies.

Bengaluru

New research shows how tiny saliva, hair, or scat traces can accurately identify individual carnivores, paving the way for smarter conflict resolution.

Mumbai

For generations, a tiny piece of DNA has mastered the art of inheritance by hijacking the yeast cell’s division machinery, despite providing no known benefit to its host, the yeast.

Bengaluru

Our genetic material is a big molecule of DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid, whose structure is a double-stranded wound-up helix. It contains specific instructions that run a living cell, and these instructions are written on the strands. When cells divide, the DNA replicates too. In this process, the contents of the strands are read and copied carefully by unwinding the strands. But that's not as simple!

Bengaluru

Study from the Ashoka Trust from Research in Ecology and the Environment details the importance of a global standard to curb the adulteration of herbal medicines.

Bengaluru

Dr Ganesh Nagaraju, Associate Professor at the Department of Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, has been awarded the 2018 Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in Biological Sciences for his work on DNA repair, chromosome instability, genetic diseases and cancer.

Bengaluru

Scientists are always on the lookout for novel chemical compounds with medicinal properties to fight many of the diseases we know. In one such effort, researchers from the Aligarh Muslim University, Uttar Pradesh, and their collaborators have developed three compounds with steroids and pyrimidines with remarkable biological applications. The results of the study are published in the International Journal of Biological Macromolecules.

Bengaluru

Haven’t we all heard about DNA, the genetic material that makes who we are? Short for Deoxyribonucleic acid, the DNA is made of two chains that coil around each other forming the double helix structure as we know it today. Although Friedrich Miescher first isolated the DNA molecule in 1869, it was not until 1953 that we understood its structure. Two scientists, James Watson and Francis Crick, are well-known for showing us the double-helix structure of the DNA.

Thiruvananthapuram

Researchers from Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala and Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh have developed a novel method to synthesize 2 dimensional nanosheets decorated with DNA molecule. The design strategy allows for an ultra dense array of DNA molecules to be grown on 2 D crystalline nanosheets.

Bengaluru

Scientists from Council of Scientific and Industrial Research – Indian Institute of Toxicology Research (CSIR-IITR) and Amity University, Uttar Pradesh have been studying the harmful effects of Zinc Oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) on living tissue and genes in mice, and their study reveals a potential threat lurking, if increasing use of such nanoparticles is not addressed soon.

Search Research Matters