Most of them come from a subset of viruses called retroviruses, which infect host cells and then trick them into making the proteins that they need to replicate. Occasionally, a retrovirus will embed ...

Around 8 percent of human DNA is made up of genetic sequences acquired from ancient viruses. These sequences, known as human endogenous retroviruses (or Hervs), date back hundreds of thousands to ...

Some viruses mutate more rapidly than others. Learn more about why that is and what that means for your health.

New research reveals that triggering a cell’s DNA damage response could be a promising avenue for developing novel treatments against several rare but devastating viruses for which no antiviral ...

An investigation into cellular components in bacteria has unexpectedly uncovered a feature with relevance across many life ...

Human DNA is not always making us function in ways we understand. Some of our genome is just there, and we’re not sure what it does. In fact, 8% of our DNA are viruses our ancestors caught one day and ...

Scientists uncovered how childhood BK virus infections may set off cancer-causing mutations decades later: by activating a ...

Neanderthals may have caught the same viruses that cause modern colds, cold sores, and some cancers. It's possible ancient humans introduced these unfamiliar viruses to their relatives. Understanding ...

CRISPR-Cas9 is a customizable tool that lets scientists cut and insert small pieces of DNA at precise areas along a DNA strand. This lets scientists study genes in a specific, targeted way. (NHGRI via ...

To our immune system, a potentially lifesaving gene therapy can look a lot like a dangerous infection. That's because most ...

A tiny, four-fingered "hand" folded from a single piece of DNA can pick up the virus that causes COVID-19 for highly sensitive rapid detection and can even block viral particles from entering cells to ...

A research team led by Prof. Sun Chaomin from the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS) has ...