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DNA

Gattaca and the dangers of eugenics

2023-04-30T10:08:21+02:007 March 2023|Categories: Curiosity|Tags: , , , |

The world in Gattaca (1997) is immersed in a dystopia based on genetic determinism. Set in “near future”, the film analyzes themes of eugenics and genetic engineering, and the ethical implications of using these technologies to manipulate human biology. In the movie, human embryos are selected through in vitro fertilization and modified before conception of the fetus to ensure the best genes, and therefore the birth of the best possible individuals. This technological development has led to a new form of discrimination, that based on genes: indeed, the genetic makeup of individuals is the only determinant [...]

Unexpected mutations in gene editing

2022-02-08T18:59:56+01:008 February 2022|Categories: Medicine and Research|Tags: , , |

Many of you will have already heard of CRISPR-Cas9, the so-called molecular scissors that serve to modify the DNA of many organisms. This technique has represented a revolution in the field of genetic engineering in recent years due to its ability to "cut and sew" a specific DNA sequence to make corrections in target genes. So much so that it has opened new avenues and new possibilities for gene therapy, that is, the possibility of treating or preventing diseases by intervening directly on the patient's genome. But how advanced are these techniques today? And what are the risks? The use of CRISPR which created more [...]

How- DNA does -not- change

2021-08-03T10:16:51+02:003 August 2021|Categories: Medicine and Research|Tags: , , , |

With the problem of RNA vaccines, fear of changes in our DNA has also risen. What are we really talking about? There is this risk? Let's try to explain it. The structure of DNA is a relatively young discovery, which has less than 70 years. Editing - modification- genica has even fewer years of history behind it, so much so that the most advanced technique that is known won the Nobel only last year. So we can say that the unscientific community, who is not so familiar with these hi-tech stuff, he didn't have much time to understand concepts like genetics, the term [...]

DNA come biomateriale

2021-07-02T16:22:46+02:001 July 2021|Categories: Medicine and Research|Tags: , , , |

Our genetic instructions are invaluable: DNA not only determines who we are, but it can also be used in medicine for gene therapy. It's not all: looking at it from a structural and physical point of view, a team of biotechnologists and materials physicists has developed the so-called "DNA hydrogels", antigenico. These can be used in various biomedical applications: in the formulation of drugs, in gene therapy and cell therapy approaches. DNA as a biomaterial shows qualities such as biocompatibility and biodegradability, that [...]

European Biotech Week 2015

2018-12-16T22:15:43+01:0026 July 2016|Categories: |Tags: , , , |

On the occasion of the European biotech Week, Minerva and the Department of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Bologna organize the following events: 12 of October 2015: Let's get involved - Bologna, ore 8.15-11.20 Fermi Scientific High School, Via Giuseppe Mazzini, 172 14 of October 2015: Biotechnologies and animals, together towards the future - Bologna, ore 14.30-16.30 Room C Physiology Piazza di Porta S. Donato 2 16 of October 2015: Follow the trail: DNA barcoding - Ozzano dell’Emilia, ore 11.00-13.00 Cugnini class , Via Tolara di Sopra, 50 17 of October 2015 Let's get involved - Bologna, ore 8.15-11.20 Fermi Scientific High School, Via Giuseppe Mazzini, 172DELETED Hereafter on [...]

Stop aging: telomeres as molecular clocks

2021-03-14T13:01:37+01:0025 February 2016|Categories: Medicine and Research|Tags: , , , , |

What determines the aging of an organism? Through what mechanisms it is established? Once the latter are understood, it is possible to stop its progress? Since time immemorial, man has been asking himself similar questions, as numerous as the attempts to arrive at a solution. Magic, alchemy and religion are just some of the means employed over the millennia to attempt to penetrate the secrets of concepts such as eternal youth and immortality. Seduced by the mirage of an unlimited life and the ambition to subjugate time to one's will, our ancestors sought, with the tools at their disposal, to arrive at answers that later proved to be unsuccessful. These ancients [...]

The origin of multicellular life forms

2017-07-12T17:18:04+02:0011 February 2016|Categories: No Category|Tags: , , , , , |

What allowed at the evolutionary level, the appearance of multicellular organisms? This question, remained unsolved for a long time, may have finally found an answer. A recent study has in fact revealed the origin of one of the essential events for the existence of multicellularity: the correct orientation of the mitotic spindle. Let's try to understand what it is. […]

Pollution and fine dust: how to see clearly in the fog of public debate

2017-07-12T17:35:24+02:004 February 2016|Categories: No Category|Tags: , , , , , , , |

Whether you are readers attentive to current events or ordinary citizens who use their own vehicles, you will certainly not have missed the attention it mediates, institutions and administrations are reserving the issue of urban pollution. Words like fine dust, suspended particulate matter or abbreviations such as PM10 have now been completely cleared of customs from their purely technical meaning and have become public domain. But what are we referring to when we hear these terms? Trying to shed some light, we could say that the focus of the discussion revolves around the concept of suspended particulate matter (In English "particular matter", abbreviated with the abbreviation "PM"), or [...]

Neanderthallergici

2017-07-12T17:32:46+02:009 January 2016|Categories: No Category|Tags: , , , , , , , |

The crosses between sapiens, Neanderthals and the still little known Asian species of the Denisovians, led some modern Europeans and Asians to inherit immune regulation genes derived from their non-sapiens ancestors. These genes may have favored their carriers in the past by helping them protect themselves from microorganisms with aggressive immune responses, but they are also probably responsible for the predisposition to allergies of many of the modern humans who express them. […]

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