Ancient viruses could help kill cancers

Health Problems

DNA “echoes” of viruses that infected our ancestors millions of years ago could help the immune system to identify and kill cancer cells, according to new research from Crick scientists. The new study, published in Genome Research, looked at “endogenous retroviruses,” fragments of DNA in the human genome that were left behind by viruses that infected our ancestors. Over millions […]

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First ancient syphilis genomes decoded

Health Problems

An international research team, including scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, the University of Tübingen, the National School of Anthropology and History in Mexico City, and the University of Zurich, has recovered the first historic genomes from the bacterium Treponema pallidum, which causes syphilis. It was previously not thought possible to recover DNA of […]

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