Genetic Mutations Found

A woman developed 12 tumors — seven benign and five cancerous — before her 40th birthday. Medical researchers recently discovered why she's so prone to the abnormal growths: She carries a set of genetic mutations never seen before in humans.

The woman, now 36 years old, carries two mutant copies of a gene called MAD1L1, one from each parent, according to a new report, published Wednesday (Nov. 2) in the journal Science Advances(opens in new tab). The gene codes for a protein called MAD1, which fulfills a crucial role in cell division.

When one cell splits into two, it first duplicates all its DNA and then packages the genetic material into compact structures called chromosomes. The chromosomes then line up neatly along the cell's midline and get yanked in half; that way, when the mother cell splits in two, half of the DNA ends up in each daughter cell. 

The MAD1 protein helps ensure that the chromosomes line up correctly during this process, so all cells end up with the usual 23 pairs of chromosomes, according to UniProt(opens in new tab), a database of protein sequence and functional information.  READ MORE...

Physics Could Predict Genetic Mutations

The researchers believe that they can exploit this new physics law and find the probability of 

mutations before they take place.

A University of Portsmouth research team has found a potential way to predict genetic mutations before they occur.

According to a University of Portsmouth study, a new physics law could allow for the early prediction of genetic mutations.

The study discovers that the second law of information dynamics, or “infodynamics,” behaves differently from the second law of thermodynamics. This finding might have major implications for how genomic research, evolutionary biology, computing, big data, physics, and cosmology develop in the future.

Lead author Dr. Melvin Vopson is from the University’s School of Mathematics and Physics. He states “In physics, there are laws that govern everything that happens in the universe, for example how objects move, how energy flows, and so on. 

Everything is based on the laws of physics. One of the most powerful laws is the second law of thermodynamics, which establishes that entropy – a measure of disorder in an isolated system – can only increase or stay the same, but it will never decrease.”

This is an undisputed law relating to the arrow of time, which demonstrates that time only moves in one direction. It can only flow in one direction and cannot travel backward.

He explains, “Imagine two transparent glass boxes. In the left side, you have red gas molecules, which you can see, like red smoke. In the right side, you have blue smoke, and in between them is a barrier. If you remove the barrier, the two gases will start mixing and the color will change. 

There is no process that this system can undergo to separate by itself blue and red again. In other words, you cannot lower the entropy or organize the system to how it was before without energy expense, because the entropy only stays constant or increases over time.”  READ MORE...