Researchers at Arizona State University’s (ASU) School of Molecular Sciences and the Biodesign Institute’s Center for the Mechanism of Evolution have discovered an unprecedented pathway producing ...

Telomerase promotes proliferation of resting stem cells through a mechanism that does not involve the extension of chromosomal telomeres, researchers report in Nature this week. "This is a completely ...

It is difficult to underestimate the importance of telomerase, an enzyme that is the hallmark of both aging and the uncontrolled cell division associated with cancer. In an effort to understand and ...

A new study has discovered an unprecedented pathway producing telomerase RNA from a protein-coding messenger RNA (mRNA). For the very first time, a study led by Julian Chen and his group in Arizona ...

Much the way the caps on the ends of a shoelace prevent it from fraying, telomeres — regions of repetitive DNA sequences and a protein structure — protect the tips of chromosomes from damage. Every ...

Study shows how telomerase can run amok, deleteriously capping damaged DNA, were it not for a first responder to DNA damage. The natural ends of chromosomes appear alarmingly like broken DNA, much as ...

Specialized nucleoprotein structures, termed telomeres, cap the ends of human chromosomes. These terminal structures, composed of repetitive arrays of guanine-rich hexameric DNA together with specific ...

The central dogma of molecular biology showing what is happening in this study. Credit: Julian Chen For the very first time, a study led by Julian Chen and his group in Arizona State University's ...

Why do our cells age? Part of the answer is hidden at the very ends of our chromosomes, where telomeres are located. These small structures act like protective caps: they prevent our DNA from ...