In my clinical practice, many women planning pregnancy ask whether age can affect the health of their baby. Over the last few decades, it has become common for women to start families later because of ...

Humans carry 46 chromosomes. We get one from each parent, making 22 pairs of autosomal chromosomes, and one pair of sex chromosomes. Women usually carry two X (sex) chromosomes, while men typically ...

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 ...

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 ...

By examining “junk DNA,” scientists are finding clues to understanding human biology.

Chromosomes are thread-like structures located inside the nucleus of animal and plant cells. Each chromosome is made of protein and a single molecule of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Passed from ...

Since the 1 920s, when researchers began to study chromosomes, the analysis of human chromosomes has presented a particularly tough technological challenge, simply because there are so many of them.

Neil Hunter, a professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, has discovered a crucial step in how chromosomes stay connected during the development for egg cells and sperm, ...