Viviane Callier

1 week ago | quantamagazine.org | Ariel Bleicher |Yasemin Saplakoglu |Veronique Greenwood |Viviane Callier

Like many proud parents, David Ginty has decorated his office with pictures of his genetic creations. There’s the prickly one sporting a spiked collar and the wannabe cowboy twirling a lasso. There’s the dramatic one, always reacting to the slightest provocation; the observant one that notices every detail; the golden child Ginty loves to boast about. “They’re like a family,” he said.

2 weeks ago | knowablemagazine.org | Viviane Callier

Four billion years ago, our planet was water and barren rock. Out of this, some mighty complicated chemistry bubbled up, perhaps in a pond or a deep ocean vent. Eventually, that chemistry got wrapped in membranes, a primitive cell developed and life emerged from the ooze. But how? Among the many mysteries is a chicken-and-egg problem to solve. The proteins called enzymes that get chemical reactions going inside cells are created from instructions carried in genetic material: DNA or RNA.

1 month ago | quantamagazine.org | Viviane Callier

“Those chemical modifications that decorate [histones] and modify gene expression — they’re metabolites, full stop,” said Finley, the cancer biologist. “Chemical modifications themselves are metabolites, and their removal is dependent on metabolites.”Fifteen years ago, when Kathryn Wellen was a postdoc studying cancer cells, she discovered that the epigenetic marks on histones change in response to the presence of nutrients. When food is plentiful, mitochondria make a metabolite called acetyl-CoA.

1 month ago | nautil.us | Viviane Callier

Elephants rarely get cancer. This fact has captivated scientists for decades. And, it turns out, elephants are not alone in the animal kingdom in having built-in cancer resistance. Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . Back in 1977, British epidemiologist Richard Peto noticed something surprising about cancer rates across different species.

Jan 22, 2025 | scientificamerican.com | Viviane Callier

Evolution is a master recycler. It often uses old structures (or ancient genes) for new jobs. The mammalian ear is a perfect example. Over the eons, the jawbones of our fish ancestors became three separate small bones that transmit sound waves from the eardrum to the inner ear. Now a new study shows that there was another hand-me-down from fish to mammals.