Genetics

A groundbreaking study hints at a hazy boundary between “life” and “non-life,” as well as two distinct origins of biology on Earth

A genetic study shows how smell capabilities were maintained in a hunter-gatherer population

One in 7,000 people carry this gene mutation

Centuries-old DNA that was found in these mummies belongs to an extinct viral lineage of smallpox that was brought across the Atlantic during European colonization of the Americas

Scientists analyzing modern genomes may have found a long-lost branch of the human family tree

Developing software to reveal large genetic changes that lead to cancer

The noted aging researcher talks about how scientists are like birds

Eight years after a Chinese scientist's report of gene-edited babies shocked the world, U.S. scientists reported editing embryos not meant for pregnancies using a more precise technique

Stuart Orkin and Swee Lay Thein shared a Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for their research on genetic causes of sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia that set the stage for approved gene therapies. The treatments are not accessible to everyone, though

Three 2026 Breakthrough Prize winners reflect on developing Luxturna, a gene therapy that treats blindness caused by rare inherited eye diseases

Scientist and medical technology entrepreneur J. Craig Venter published the first bacterial genome ever decoded in 1995. The result heralded a new age of discovery for genetics

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) can have the same genetic cause, a discovery that won two neurogeneticists a portion of the 2026 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences