A little-known gene mutation that one in three women have can cause depression, gut issues, problems with pregnancy, birth defects and miscarriage. The ‘MTHFR mutation’ is a gene that means your body cannot absorb folic acid properly, it struggles to metabolise certain hormones and and it faces issues with properly detoxing your liver. If you … Read more
BREAKING NEWS: New COVID-19 variant is spreading through New York City – and it has a mutation that may weaken effectiveness of vaccines, researchers say B.1.526 variant first appeared in samples collected in New York City in November It now accounts for about 27 percent of viral sequences in databases used by scientists Scientists have … Read more
A fifth of the world’s population has a ‘superior resilience’ to colder temperatures thanks to a genetic mutation, allowing them to never feel the cold, study reveals. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden had 32 healthy men aged 18 to 40 sit in 14 degrees Celsius water until their body temperature dropped to 35.5C. They … Read more
A fifth of the world’s population has a ‘superior resilience’ to colder temperatures thanks to a genetic mutation, allowing them to never feel the cold, study reveals. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden had 32 healthy men aged 18 to 40 sit in 14 degrees Celsius water until their body temperature dropped to 35.5C. They … Read more
Catch of the millennia! Rare YELLOW lobster named Banana is a one-in-30 million find born with a genetic mutation that causes pigment reduction A Maine fisherman caught the yellow lobster and donated it to science Researchers have named it Banana and are now caring for the crustacean Banana was born with a condition called leucism that … Read more
By Eleanor Hayward Health Correspondent What is the South African variant? It was first found in Nelson Mandela Bay in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province in mid-October. Like the UK’s Kent variant, the mutant strain quickly became dominant and drove a ferocious second wave. There are two key mutations that give it an advantage – these are … Read more
The South African coronavirus mutation poses a ‘significant re-infection risk’ and could overpower vaccines, new research has found. The strains discovered in Britain, South Africa and Brazil all have mutations of a spike protein, which enables the virus to latch onto human cells and therefore plays a key role in driving infections. But it is one … Read more
Sir Patrick Vallance today insisted that the current crop of Covid-19 vaccines should work against the coronavirus variant that emerged in Kent and has now become the dominant strain in England. Offering hope that Britain’s inoculation drive won’t be in vain, No10’s chief scientific adviser claimed evidence suggests the highly-infectious variant will be susceptible to … Read more
Matt Hancock today revealed he is ‘incredibly worried’ about the highly-infectious South African coronavirus mutation which top experts fear could scupper Britain’s vaccine roll-out. The Health Secretary warned the variant — which has already been spotted in the UK — posed a ‘very, very significant problem’. His comments came after one of the Government’s coronavirus … Read more
Coronavirus vaccines could be ineffective against the highly-infectious South African mutation, a scientist who helped develop the Oxford jab has warned. Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at Oxford, said the African strain is more concerning than the Kent one. Vaccines are believed to be effective against the highly-infectious UK variant VUI-202012/01 currently causing … Read more