Monday, April 16, 2007

broadcast of the day:

Macaque Genome Analysis Will Help Find Human Disease Genes
The rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) is physiologically similar to humans. Its genome was sequenced in 2005 (2.9 billion DNA base pairs). The humans and chimpanzees are so closely related(6 million years) that a comaparative genomic study is not as informative as using the macaque. The different studies involve studying the common genes between these 3 genomes, differences between the Indian and Chinese macaques (for example, Chinese macaques develop AIDS-like symptoms more slowly than Indian macaques).

Full Article
Medicinal leeches have been misclassified for centuries
Until now, the leeches were assumed to be the species Hirudo medicinalis, but new research reveals they are actually a closely related but genetically distinct species, Hirudo verbana. Wild European medicinal leeches are at least three distinct species, not one.
Full Article

Human sperm made from bone marrow

Stem cells from the bone marrow have been used to create immature sperm cells. It is expected that this research can be be used in the future to find a cure for male infertility. Currently, mature sperms have not been created. Of course, with the bans, moral, ethical issues involved in stem cell research in addition to the scientific fact that manipulating stem cells can cause lasting genetic changes that may not all be desirable, its too early to jump to any conclusions.

1 comment:

Rohit Ranganathan said...

long time since you updated this blog
i think you are not finding time frm your internship
Anyways all the best
keep goin