In cancer research, one person's junk is increasingly becoming another person's treasure. Scientists have uncovered new ...

Junk DNA may not be so useless after all. Scientists coined the term to describe the genetic wasteland within the human genome that consists of long stretches of DNA for which there was no known ...

Imagine the human genome as a string stretching out for the length of a football field, with all the genes that encode proteins clustered at the end near your feet. Take two big steps forward; all the ...

Only around two percent of the human genome codes for proteins, and while those proteins carry out many important functions of the cell, the rest of the genome cannot be ignored. However, for decades ...

So-called junk DNA was given that unfortunate nickname because its function was so mysterious. These vast regions of the genome do not code for protein and are made up of highly repetitive sequences.

Some 8 to 10 percent of our DNA is actually leftover from ancient viruses that co-evolved with animal DNA for hundreds of a millions of years. While scientists have long thought this DNA was “junk,” ...

For decades, scientists have known that, despite its name, "junk DNA" in fact plays a critical role: While the coding genes provide blueprints for building proteins, which direct most of the body's ...

Scientists at Sydney’s Centenary Institute report that the 97% of human DNA long referred to as junk can actually play a significant role in controlling cell development. Based in the institute’s gene ...

The recent approval of a CRISPR-Cas9 therapy for sickle cell disease demonstrates that gene editing tools can do a superb job of knocking out genes to cure hereditary disease. But it's still not ...

Although the DNA found throughout our bodies contains the biological blueprint that makes us who we are, it’s not exactly a clean spec sheet. All kinds of stuff that appears to have no function at all ...