€1.3M pre-seed funding for Lucid Genomics

Startup will use funds to fine-tune their AI models for diagnostics and biomarker discovery

05-Sep-2024 - The Berlin-based startup Lucid Genomics, a spin-off from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics and the Institute of Medical Genetics and Human Genetics at the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, has raised €1.3 million in pre-seed funding in a funding round led by Caesar Ventures, ...

Why European Colonization Drove the Blue Antelope to Extinction

International team of scientists and start-up Colossal Biosciences decode the DNA of the bluebuck using state-of-the-art computer analysis software

17-Apr-2024 - An international team of researchers led by the University of Potsdam has generated and analyzed the first high-coverage nuclear genome of the extinct blue antelope in cooperation with Colossal Biosciences and the Museum of Natural History Berlin. The genomic data shed light on the evolutionary ...

Did Neanderthals already have a fatty liver?

What archeogenetics tells us about liver steatosis in ancient and modern humans

15-Mar-2024 - Ancient genomes show that the main genetic variant responsible for fatty liver diseases dates back to beyond the split from Neanderthals, where it reached 100% frequency, perhaps due to advantages in cold adaptation. Researchers from Würzburg University Hospital (UKW), Homburg University Hospital ...

Scientists “revive” Stone Age molecules

In a highly transdisciplinary study, scientists are rebuilding microbial natural products up to 100,000 years old

08-May-2023 - Breakthroughs in ancient genome reconstruction and biotechnology are now revealing the rich molecular secrets of Paleolithic microorganisms. In a new study published in Science, a transdisciplinary team of researchers led by the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection ...

Beethoven’s genome: New study reveals hereditary diseases and a family mystery

Scientists have sequenced the composer’s genome using five genetically matching hair locks

24-Mar-2023 - The study shows Beethoven was predisposed to liver disease, and infected with Hepatitis B, which – combined with his alcohol consumption – may have contributed to his death. Furthermore, DNA from modern relatives points to an extramarital ‘event’ in Beethoven’s paternal line. Johannes Krause, ...

1 million-year-old marine DNA found in Antarctic sediment

New technique helps decipher ‘who’ has lived in the ocean in the past and ‘when’

06-Oct-2022 - A new study led by the University of Tasmania – with the participation of the University of Bonn – discovered the oldest marine DNA in deep-sea sediments of the Scotia Sea north of the Antarctic continent. The material could be dated to one million years. Such old material demonstrates that ...

New method: Y chromosomes of Neandertals and Denisovans now sequenced

Neandertals have adopted male sex chromosome from modern humans

28-Sep-2020 - An international research team led by Martin Petr and Janet Kelso of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, has determined Y chromosome sequences of three Neandertals and two Denisovans. These Y chromosomes provide new insights into the relationships and ...

Neandertal genes in the petri dish

Researchers are studying the Neandertal DNA found in modern humans using stem cells and organoids

22-Jun-2020 - Protocols that allow the transformation of human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines into organoids have changed the way scientists can study developmental processes and enable them to decipher the interplay between genes and tissue formation, particularly for organs where primary tissue ...

A bucket full of genes: pond water reveals tropical frogs

30-Aug-2018 - When a frog jumps into a pond, it inevitably leaves behind traces of its genetic material. Using water samples from the Bolivian lowlands, Senckenberg scientists were now able to demonstrate that the analysis of this so-called environmental DNA allows the reliable identification of the frog ...

DNA from extinct humans discovered in cave sediments

New method retrieve hominin DNA from cave sediments – even in the absence of skeletal remains

02-May-2017 - While there are numerous prehistoric sites in Europe and Asia that contain tools and other human-made artefacts, skeletal remains of ancient humans are scarce. Researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, have therefore looked into new ways to get ...