Scientists have long known that the DNA code in genes is not the only way to pass genetic traits from parents to offspring. "Epigenetic" marks—chemical modifications to DNA that don't change the DNA ...

Forty years ago, a postdoctoral researcher named James McGrath who would go on to spend more than three decades as a clinical geneticist and research scientist at Yale, made a discovery that advanced ...

Many times, scientists embark on a study looking for evidence for a particular hypothesis, and in the process, they come across something totally unexpected and different from their original purpose.

The blueprint of who we are begins with the genes passed down from our parents. While these inherited traits give us our eye color and height, they can also contain instructions that increase our risk ...

Mendel's famous laws of heredity, established over a century ago, may not be as universal as once thought. A recent study on ...

Small plastic or metal bits at the end of shoelaces, known as aglets, prevent laces from unraveling and protect them from wear and tear. Similarly, chromosomes are capped by telomeres—specialized ...

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a public health challenge that affects more than 800 million people worldwide. 1 CKD can be caused by a variety of disease processes. Many causes are difficult to ...