Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB), or butterfly disease, affects 1 in 50,000 people, causing fragile skin that blisters easily, often likened to the delicacy of butterfly wings.

These mutations—whether in blood, skin or brain—rack up even though the cell’s DNA-copying machinery is exceptionally accurate, and even though cells possess excellent repair mechanisms.

A genomic study of skin cells shows that there’s a wide range in the normal number of somatic mutations that arise from exposure to UV light and that these mutations are independent of age. The work, ...

For seekers of a bronzed appearance, new methods of applying sunless tanning lotions provide a tanned effect without skin mutations. James Ferguson, MD, FRCP Rhainds M et al. A population-based ...

As The New York Times reports, most of what scientists knew of skin-color genetics came from studies of European populations, which found that mutations in the gene SLC24A5 caused cells to make less ...

DNA integrity is always under attack from environmental agents like skin cancer-causing UV rays ... however (Sinha & Hader, 2002). Mutations in an organism's DNA are a part of life.

The results of this study suggest that this strategy may be feasible for treating hereditary skin diseases resulting from point mutations. However, epidermal cells and hairs turn over rapidly and ...