DNA

Study finds DNA contamination persists in SMA newborn screening

DNA contamination from sample processing remains a major problem in spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) newborn screening, a study reported. Researchers proposed analytic cut-off values to clearly separate samples testing positive for SMA from negative samples. Data also showed that adding a freezing step before DNA extraction led to…

Scientists create SMN super minigene as tool for studying SMA

A team of scientists in Iowa have created a super minigene  — a small gene fragment used as a tool to study genetic manipulation — that recapitulates essential features of the natural SMN1 and SMN2 genes linked to spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and its severity. One of the most…