DNA

Our Lise Meitner group leader receives the Bayer Early Excellence in Science Award for her successful research. She investigates the spatial organization of DNA and its relationship with gene activity. more

Cell identity and fate are determined by a cell’s repertoire of expressed genes. Gene expression is regulated at the level of DNA-dependent RNA polymerases, which make RNA copies from DNA templates through a process called transcription. Transcription is regulated both during initiation and elongation of the RNA chain. In two new studies, scientists of the MPI-BPC have determined the molecular basis of critical steps regulating elongation. more

Genes make up only two percent of our DNA – but the DNA regions between the genes also fulfil vital functions. However, these so-called regulatory DNA regions were hard to find until now. Scientists around Patrick Cramer at the MPI for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen und Julien Gagneur at the TU Munich have developed a new method to find regulatory DNA regions which are active. more

The "core business" of DNA is undoubtedly to code and store our genetic information. However, DNA can also catalyze chemical reactions like an enzyme. For the first time, Göttingen researchers now solved the spatial structure of a DNA enzyme in atomic detail. They thus provide evidence that also DNA can fold into complex three-dimensional shapes to be catalytically active.

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