The DNA packed inside every human cell contains instructions for life, written in billions of letters of genetic code. Every time a cell divides, the complete code, divided among 46 chromosomes, must ...

Scientists have discovered a new property of the molecular motors that shape our chromosomes. While six years ago they found that these so-called SMC motor proteins make long loops in our DNA, they ...

A new article analyzes in depth the physical problems associated with DNA packaging that have often been neglected in structural models of chromosomes. The study demonstrates that the multilaminar ...

Cells have evolved careful checks to ensure DNA is copied only once, but how they switch on replication at the right moment ...

Among the many marvels of life is the cell's ability to divide and thus enable organisms to grow and renew themselves. For this, the cell must duplicate its DNA—its genome—and segregate it equally ...

An international team of researchers co-led by Job Dekker, PhD, at UMass Chan Medical School, have identified rules that tell cells how to fold DNA into the tightly packed, iconic X-shaped chromosomes ...

Small, cancer-associated DNA circles "hitchhike" on chromosomes during cell division to spread efficiently to daughter cells by co-opting a process used to maintain cellular identity through ...

Scientists from the Kavli Institute of Delft University of Technology and the IMP Vienna Biocenter have discovered a new property of the molecular motors that shape our chromosomes. While six years ...