New York, NY (Scicasts) – Chromosomes are strands of DNA that contain the blueprint of all living organisms. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes that instruct how genes are regulated during development of the human body. While scientists have developed an understanding of the one-dimensional structure of DNA, until today, little was known about how different parts of DNA are folded next to each other inside the nucleus.

Arlington, VA (Scicasts) -  Scientists have synthesized from scratch a so-called chromosome 'arm' -- 1 of the largest DNA molecules ever synthesized, and developed a new method for shuffling an organism's genetic deck, according to a report by the National Science Foundation.

New Orleans, LA (Scicasts) - GenoVive has announced the launch of a personalized approach to weight loss and sustained healthy eating. This new program, created by the GenoVive scientists and chefs, tailors home-delivered meal programs and exercise plans to each unique metabolism and empowers consumers to achieve their weight loss goals. GenoVive provides a long-term lifestyle solution to healthy weight management and a better quality of life.

Berkeley, CA (Scicasts) - DNA construction, also known as DNA cloning or recombinant DNA technology - among a host of other terms - is one of the principal tools of modern biotechnology, used for a wide variety of purposes, including genetic studies, medical research, and the development of advanced biofuels.

Seattle, WA (Scicasts) - The Allen Institute for Brain Science has released the world's first anatomically and genomically comprehensive human brain map, a previously unthinkable feat made possible through leading-edge technology and more than four years of rigourous studies and documentation. The unprecedented mappings are the foundation for the Allen Human Brain Atlas, an online public resource developed to advance the Institute's goal to accelerate understanding of how the human brain works and fuel new discovery among the global research community.

London, UK (Scicasts) - Research being presented today (01 April) at the UK National Stem Cell Network annual science conference provides another piece in the puzzle of why it can be so hard to produce large numbers of the same type of cell in the lab – a process that is vital for scaling up stem cell production for therapeutic use. This knowledge will help researchers to develop strategies for obtaining the desired cell type for use in either research or medicine.

Detroit, MI (Scicasts) - A Wayne State University School of Medicine physician-researcher has developed a personalized therapy to treat a wide range of cancers. According to the report from the university, the treatment is based on a naturally occurring human enzyme that has been genetically modified to fool cancer cells into killing themselves.

Victoria, Australia (Scicasts) – According to a report from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, scientists  have begun to unravel how blood stem cells regenerate themselves, identifying a key gene required for the process.

Munich, Germany (Scicasts) - Defects in the genome are the cause of many diseases. Gene therapy – direct replacement of mutant genes by intact DNA copies – offers a means of correcting such defects.

San Francisco, CA (Scicasts) - Researchers at The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)  have tackled a decade-long scientific conundrum, and their discovery is expected to lead to significant advances in using stem cells to treat genetic diseases before birth. Through a series of mouse model experiments, the research team determined that a mother's immune response prevents a foetus from accepting transplanted blood stem cells, and yet this response can be overcome simply by transplanting cells harvested from the mother herself.

Edinburgh, Scotland and London, UK (Scicasts) – According to research performed by scientists at the Roslin Institute and Cambridge University, a Bird flu epidemics could be prevented by a new strain of chickens that do not spread avian flu to other birds.

Austin, TX (Scicasts) - The source of HIV infection in two separate criminal cases in which men were convicted of intentionally infecting their female sexual partners was confirmed by scientists from The University of Texas at Austin and Baylor College of Medicine using evolutionary forensics.

Boston, MA (Scicasts) - A team of biomedical engineering researchers at Boston University was awarded a $4.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to refine its nanoscale, low-cost, ultra-fast DNA sequencing method that could lead to individual genome sequencing for less than $1,000.

Cambridge, MA (Scicasts) - Human pluripotent stem cells, which can become any other kind of body cell, hold great potential to treat a wide range of ailments, including Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injuries. However, scientists who work with such cells have had trouble growing large enough quantities to perform experiments — in particular, to be used in human studies. Furthermore, most materials now used to grow human stem cells include cells or proteins that come from mice embryos, which help stimulate stem-cell growth but would likely cause an immune reaction if injected into a human patient.

New York (Scicasts) - Systems biologists at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City have integrated genetic, cellular and clinical information to discover the reasons behind medicines triggering fatal heart arrhythmias, which is a major step towards predicting adverse drug reactions in clinical trials. This new genetic framework could be used to study other cardiac disorders and certain neurological diseases, including epilepsy and autism, and could aid the advance of personalized medicine.

München, Germany (Scicasts) - The old excuse, "I am only overweight because of my genes," is suddenly gaining credibility as researchers uncover ever more evidence that the way our bodies digest and process nutrients in the food we eat is different for every person. The budding discipline of metabolomics strives to investigate these differences in a scientific manner. Nutrition scientists and food chemists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen are on the front line: They have joined forces with outside experts to form the Munich Functional Metabolomics Initiative, an interdisciplinary network for driving research in this field.

Hinxton, UK (Scicasts) - Just like members of an orchestra are active at different times although playing the same piece of music, every cell in our body contains the same genetic sequence but expresses this differently to give rise to cells and tissues with specialised properties.

Edinburgh, UK (Scicasts) - What makes some viral infections fatal and others much less severe is largely a mystery. It is thought that a part of the variability can be attributed to differences in how individuals respond to infection.