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Aug 26, 2024

Scientists discover new code governing gene activity

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

A newly discovered code within DNA—coined “spatial grammar”—holds a key to understanding how gene activity is encoded in the human genome.

This breakthrough finding, identified by researchers at Washington State University and the University of California, San Diego and published in Nature, revealed a long-postulated hidden spatial grammar embedded in DNA. The research could reshape scientists’ understanding of and how genetic variations may influence in development or disease.

Transcription factors, the proteins that control which genes in one’s genome are turned on or off, play a crucial role in this code. Long thought of as either or repressors of gene activity, this research shows the function of transcription factors is far more complex.

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