Some of us get mosquito bites that look more like marble-sized welts while others get bites that barely leave a mark. It turns out that our genetics plays a role...

June 19th is World Sickle Cell Awareness Day. About one in 12 people with African ancestry in the U.S. carries a copy of the mutation causing sickle cell disease. Do you?

In the United States alone, about 100,000 people have sickle cell disease and roughly one in 500 black or African-American babies is born with it. The genetic mutation underlying this condition causes red blood cells to take on a "sickle" shape, which makes it harder to deliver oxygen to certain parts of the body. But why would a mutation that causes a harmful disease survive through evolution to the high frequency with which we observe it today?

Each year at least 350 million people around the world are infected by malaria parasites.   More than one million people, mainly young children, succumb to the disease.   But...

Malaria, a strong evolutionary pressure in humans, has also shaped the baboon genome, new research says. Each year at least 350 million people around the world are infected by malaria...

Malaria is one of the leading causes of death in the developing world, claiming nearly a million victims each year. The great majority of them are African children below the...

Last week in the Spittoon we reported on a new study that identified an interesting genetic trade-off – a genetic variant known that has one effect on a person’s vulnerability...

Last month I had the opportunity to go to the Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution conference in the striking city of Barcelona. This is the premiere conference for geneticists...