Health & Medicine
Sickle-cell gene therapies offer hope — and challenges
Doctor Erica Esrick discusses existing treatments and an ongoing clinical trial for a gene therapy to treat sickle cell disease.
HS-LS3-2
Make and defend a claim based on evidence that inheritable genetic variations may result from: (1) new genetic combinations through meiosis, (2) viable errors occurring during replication, and/or (3) mutations caused by environmental factors.
More Stories in HS-LS3-2
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AnimalsWill the woolly mammoth return?
Scientists are using genetic engineering and cloning to try to bring back extinct species or save endangered ones. Here’s how and why.
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AnimalsCloning boosts endangered black-footed ferrets
A cloned ferret named Elizabeth Ann brings genetic diversity to a species that nearly went extinct in the 1980s.
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MicrobesExplainer: Virus variants and strains
When viruses become more infectious or better able to survive the body’s immune system, they become a type of variant known as a strain.
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Health & MedicineCOVID-19 can infect kids — and risks sickening some severely
Not all are equally impacted. Even among supposedly low risk groups, concerns intensify as the super-contagious delta variant sweeps across the globe.
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GeneticsJust a tiny share of the DNA in us is unique to humans
Some of these tweaks to DNA, however, may have played a role in brain evolution.
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Health & MedicineOne key change may have helped the coronavirus become a global menace
One key mutation may have helped the virus behind COVID-19 better infect human cells.
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LifeThese rabbits can’t hop. A gene defect makes them do handstands
Mutations in a gene that helps nerve cells work properly rob rabbits of their ability to hop. Instead, the animals use their front paws to move.
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AnimalsScience and Indigenous history team up to help spirit bears
When scientists and Indigenous people work together, their efforts can benefit bears and people.
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Health & MedicineBringing COVID-19 vaccines to much of world is hard
The price of not vaccinating nearly everyone across the world could be a longer pandemic and more troubling variants of the new coronavirus.