When people think of DNA, they usually think of genes, the parts that code for proteins and drive inherited traits. But there's a whole lot of DNA beyond genes that we are just starting to understand.

The genetic code is the recipe for life, and provides the instructions for how to make proteins, generally using just 20 amino acids. But certain groups of microbes have an expanded genetic code, in ...

Our genetic heritage is not a blueprint or an algorithm, as many biologists have imagined, but something else entirely.

The DNA of nearly all life on Earth contains many redundancies, and scientists have long wondered whether these redundancies served a purpose or if they were just leftovers from evolutionary processes ...

Most hypotheses suggest that earlier forms of life had partial genetic codes and used fewer than 20 amino acids. To test these hypotheses, a team from Columbia and Harvard decided to see if they could ...

Synthetic biologists from Yale were able to re-write the genetic code of an organism—a novel genomically recoded organism (GRO) with one stop codon—using a cellular platform that they developed ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Recent breakthroughs in genetics research may have uncovered new genes underlying common psychiatric disorders. Schizophrenia and ...

A group of scientists at VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center has revealed a new genetic code that acts like a cancer ringleader, recruiting and deploying a gang of tumor cells to incite a ...

Scientists at Houston Methodist Research Institute have discovered that a fast-rising strep bacterium comes in more forms than expected, including ones that may lead to life-threatening infections.

DNA modifications drive aging, neurodegeneration, carcinogenesis and chemotherapy drug action. Accurate mapping of diverse DNA modifications with single-nucleotide precision in complex genomes remains ...

Synthetic biologists from Yale were able to re-write the genetic code of an organism — a novel genomically recoded organism (GRO) with one stop codon — using a cellular platform that they developed ...