A fold of loose skin on the back of an infant's neck can be a sign of one of several serious syndromes. Although these syndromes might seem to be alarming, your child should still be able to enjoy a happy, industrious life as long as any...
Genes are the individual building blocks that provide information for how the body is built. When a gene is damaged or mutated, information may be lost, and the result may be a genetic disease. An analogous situation would be baking from a recipe...
Telomerase is a protein that protects chromosome integrity by adding small pieces of DNA nucleotides to the ends of chromosomes. Importantly, telomerase is expressed in 90 percent of cancers, but not or only transiently expressed in normal cells,...
The overall goal of chemotherapy drugs is to kill cells that divide abnormally. This is done by disrupting cell processes related to cell division and DNA duplication. Chemotherapeutic agents tend to group together in families based on how they...
Two types of cell division exist: meiosis, the division of sex cells that reduces the number of chromosomes (genetic material) by half, and mitosis, which is the type that most people refer to when speaking of cell division. Mitosis, the...
The type of chemotherapy drug depends on the type and stage of the cancer. An oncologist can choose the right combination of chemotherapy drugs that will work for specific cancer cells in your body. Alkylating agents, which were among the first...
From the time of conception until life’s end, the human being continually develops, ever changing, ever growing. The miracle of life begins at fertilization, when two cells, an egg and a sperm, unite, each carrying half of the genetic...
The International Mosaic Down Syndrome Association estimates that one in 27,000 people suffer from Mosaic Down syndrome, a genetic condition in which a subset of cells inherits three copies of chromosome 21. Normal cell division in a developing...
Almost all human disease has a genetic basis, even those associated with lifestyle choices such as obesity, heart disease and alcoholism. So why do genetic diseases occur in some people, but not in others? The answer lies in the human genome. ...
