The Genes Making News

In September 2026, scientists confirmed the tilcayo tiger cat (Leopardus tilcayo) in Bolivia's Yungas cloud forest — the first wild cat species newly identified in more than 100 years. Genetic data revealed that South America's tiger cats are in fact five distinct species, the tilcayo among them.

In 2024, scientists described the clouded tiger cat (Leopardus pardinoides), a small spotted cat of the high Andean cloud forests. Genetics showed it had split from the other tiger cats more than two million years ago — a distinct species hiding in plain sight, and already under threat.

In 2024 researchers revealed the northern green anaconda (Eunectes akayima) — one of the largest, heaviest snakes on Earth. It's 5.5% genetically divergent from the green anaconda it was long mistaken for, a bigger gap than the one between humans and chimpanzees.

Named in 2024, the “vampire hedgehog” (Hylomys macarong) is a soft-furred gymnure from Vietnam's forests with little fang-like tusks. DNA revealed it as new to science — after sitting overlooked in a museum drawer since 1961.

EGFR is a normal growth-signal switch on our cells — but specific mutations in it drive a large share of lung cancers, including in people who never smoked. Understanding that gene opened the era of precision oncology: pinpoint pills that target the exact mutation and have transformed outcomes for patients once out of options.

In December 2023 regulators approved Casgevy — the world's first CRISPR gene-editing therapy. It works by switching off BCL11A in blood stem cells, reawakening the fetal hemoglobin we all make before birth, to treat sickle cell disease.

The first drugs shown to slow Alzheimer's — lecanemab and donanemab — have put APOE back in the headlines, since a person's APOE type shapes both their risk and how they respond. It remains the most studied gene in the science of memory.

Named after a Greek goddess of fate, klotho is one of the most exciting genes in aging research. Higher levels are linked to sharper minds and longer life in study after study — and boosting it is an active frontier in longevity science.

Myostatin puts a natural brake on muscle growth — and animals (and rare people) with less of it grow extraordinarily strong. It's a hot target for therapies aiming to fight muscle-wasting and frailty as we age.

Ancient-DNA studies keep rewriting the story of lactase persistence — the mutation near LCT that lets many adults still digest milk. It swept through populations only a few thousand years ago, one of the fastest changes in our recent evolution.

A rare variant of CCR5 closes the door HIV uses to enter cells, granting natural resistance — the basis of the only people ever cured of HIV. It also sits at the heart of the ongoing ethical debate over editing the human genome.

FOXP2 was the first gene ever tied to human speech, and researchers still study it to understand how our species became the one that tells stories. New work keeps refining just how it shaped the human capacity for language.

BRCA1 is one of our great cellular guardians, repairing damaged DNA. Public conversations about it reshaped modern preventive medicine — turning a gene into a symbol of taking charge and protecting the people you love.

G6PD is one of the clearest fingerprints of human adaptation: common variants spread precisely where malaria was deadliest, offering a measure of protection. It's a living record of our ancestors' fight to survive.

Every Games, ACTN3 makes headlines as 'the gene for speed' — it builds the fast-twitch fibers behind explosive power, and one version is far more common among elite sprinters than in the rest of us.