Imagine the human genome as a string stretching out for the length of a football field, with all the genes that encode proteins clustered at the end near your feet. Take two big steps forward; all the ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Scientists pored over the ...

Sections of DNA once dismissed as dormant and useless could in fact be recruited to fight certain types of drug-resistant blood cancers, new research has revealed. One category of non-coding DNA is ...

Ancient viruses left a legacy in your DNA. And it turns out, that legacy may be helping shape who you are. A recent international study has shown that certain bits of ancient viral DNA, long dismissed ...

Less than 2% of the genome codes for proteins; the rest, once called 'junk DNA', contains regulatory elements. Researchers analyzed 10,000 to reveal how variants shape gene activity.

Tiny "hidden" proteins lurking in DNA once dismissed as junk may hold the key to the next generation of obesity drugs, according to a new study that has uncovered dozens of new fat-regulating ...

Leuven, Belgium - VIB researchers linked to K.U.Leuven and Harvard University show that stretches of DNA previously believed to be useless 'junk' DNA play a vital role in the evolution of our genome.

Only around two percent of the human genome codes for proteins, and while those proteins carry out many important functions of the cell, the rest of the genome cannot be ignored. However, for decades ...

DNA that humans acquired from ancient viruses plays a key role in switching parts of our genetic code on and off, a new study has found. Nearly half of the human genome consists of segments called ...

Junk DNA may not be so useless after all. Scientists coined the term to describe the genetic wasteland within the human genome that consists of long stretches of DNA for which there was no known ...

The peripheral nervous system includes the nerves that connect the brain and spinal cord to the rest of the body. Peripheral neurons can be extraordinarily large, with their extensions reaching up to ...