Cada célula del cuerpo humano logra comprimir más de 1,8 metros de ADN en un espacio tan diminuto que resulta invisible a simple vista, algo similar a meter una casa entera en un terrón de azúcar.

Para lograrlo y mantener el orden, el ADN se enrolla sobre proteínas agrupadas en estructuras llamadas nucleosomas.

Científicos de los Institutos Gladstone y el Instituto Arc de los Estados Unidos descubrieron que esas estructuras son mucho más dinámicas de lo que se creía, y esto puede tener implicaciones directas para el tratamiento de enfermedades complejas y el envejecimiento. Publicaron el hallazgo en la revista Nature.

Durante décadas, la visión dominante fue que el ADN quedaba tan apretado alrededor del nucleosoma que la célula básicamente no podía acceder a él.

Solo el ADN desenrollado parecía estar disponible para su uso. Esa idea de “encendido o apagado” quedó obsoleta con los nuevos hallazgos.

Vijay Ramani, investigador del Gladstone Institutes y uno de los líderes del estudio, lo explicó con una metáfora: “Antes pensábamos que los genes estaban encendidos o apagados, pero encontramos que es más como un dial de volumen”. Eso representa un código organizacional completamente nuevo para el genoma.

El equipo usó una herramienta de inteligencia artificial llamada IDLI, construida sobre una tecnología previa del laboratorio de Ramani: SAMOSA, la primera en mapear la posición de los nucleosomas en moléculas individuales de ADN.

IDLI va más lejos: analiza los datos en dos dimensiones, a lo largo de la fibra de ADN y dentro de cada nucleosoma, para explorar su estructura interna.

Cada nucleosoma se compone de ocho bloques distintos. IDLI detecta si todos esos bloques están presentes y bien unidos entre sí. Cuando alguno falta o está suelto, el nucleosoma aparece distorsionado y deja secciones de ADN parcialmente expuestas.

Al analizar células madre embrionarias de ratón, el equipo encontró que más del 85% de los nucleosomas presentaba algún grado de distorsión, lo que indica que el genoma es mucho más accesible de lo que se suponía.

Hani Goodarzi, investigador del Arc Institute y uno de los líderes del estudio, recurrió a otra metáfora: “Antes, nuestra comprensión de la cromatina era como leer un texto que solo tenía sonido y silencio, dos estados. Ahora podemos ver que hay letras y palabras, y descubrimos una nueva gramática que las controla”.

Los investigadores identificaron 14 estados estructurales distintos de nucleosomas, cada uno asociado a diferentes niveles de actividad genética.

Esos mismos patrones se replicaron en células humanas que se transformaban en células hepáticas y en células de hígado tomadas directamente de ratones.

Los factores de transcripción, que son proteínas especializadas en activar o apagar genes, también moldean la forma de los nucleosomas.

Al eliminar dos de estos factores en células de laboratorio, los patrones de distorsión cambiaron de forma predecible, lo que confirma que las distorsiones están programadas por la célula.

Muchas enfermedades complejas, como el cáncer o la neurodegeneración, no surgen de un solo cambio en el ADN, sino de pequeñas alteraciones simultáneas en muchos genes: uno que debería estar apagado se activa, o uno que debería funcionar al 100% opera a la mitad. Los 14 estados identificados ofrecen una herramienta para rastrear esas desviaciones.

La herramienta IDLI también promete avances en la investigación del envejecimiento. La estructura de la cromatina cambia de forma predecible con los años y algunos de esos cambios parecen ser reversibles.

Ramani plantea usar IDLI para mapear cómo evolucionan los estados de los nucleosomas en distintos tejidos, con miras a desarrollar terapias que restauren patrones saludables.

“Estamos leyendo el lenguaje, pero en última instancia queremos aprender a hablarlo para poder controlarlo y modificarlo”, afirmó Goodarzi. “No estamos aquí solo para observar la biología; en algún momento queremos intervenir”.

FIRST ON FOX: South Carolina Republicans are pushing to strip funding from the state’s only public HBCU after the university rescinded Republican Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette’s commencement invitation following student protests and security concerns.

What began as a student protest over a conservative commencement speaker, resulted in «credible safety threats,» according to Evette, who spoke to Fox News Digital after her commencement address at South Carolina State University was canceled. Following an uproar from students, who decried Evette’s views on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), abortion and her support for President Donald Trump, among other issues, the University president put out a statement indicating that «out of an abundance of caution for safety» the college would be «mov[ing] in a different direction for this Spring commencement.»

«From the outset, our decision to invite Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette as our Spring 2026 Commencement speaker was rooted in her record as a business leader and entrepreneur. As the founder and former CEO of a company that grew from a startup into a billion-dollar enterprise, she represents the kind of innovation, resilience and real-world achievement that aligns with the aspirations of our graduates,» the statement read. «We are grateful to Lt. Gov. Evette for her willingness to engage with our students and for her time and consideration in accepting the invitation.»

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Pressure from students, including multiple protests around South Carolina State’s campus, led up to the ultimate decision to rescind the invitation for Evette, which the Lt. Gov. said was sent to her in December. The Lt. Gov. indicated to Fox News Digital that she never publicized her address, or shared publicly what she would speak about.

Evette described the protesters as a «woke mob,» earning her backlash, but she refused to back down from the statement when talking to Fox News Digital. According to Evette, attorneys from South Carolina State called attorneys in her office, telling them the reason for canceling the event was due to «credible threats.»

«It’s what we’ve seen all across the country,» Evette, who is also running for governor in The Palmetto State, told Fox News Digital. «Somebody with a conservative point of view shows up and everybody wants to cancel them. We saw it with Charlie Kirk, and we saw with Riley Gaines, and we’ve seen it with Ben Shapiro. I never thought I’d be in that kind of list, but here we are and it’s a real shame and it has to end.«

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Alexander Conyers, South Carolina State University’s President, announced the decision to rescind Evette’s invitation to a round of applause from students — a decision he said he made personally. In video of the announcement caught by local news, Conyers said he doesn’t want people to think students at South Carolina State are «thugs» or a mob.»

«We are not a mob. We are just aware,» South Carolina State University students, who repeatedly insisted their protests were peaceful, could be heard chanting as they marched in large groups around campus, seen in video shared by local South Carolina reporter Michael White.

Then interim South Carolina State University President stands next to former President Joe Biden during the school’s commencement ceremony in 2021. (MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

«Hey, hey! Ho! Ho! Pamela Evette gots to go!,» the crowds chanted, including at night, around campus.

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In another alleged sit-in-style protest, students were filmed inside a campus building decrying Trump as a pedophile, bigot, racist and a supporter of the police.

«Being conservative is not the issue — that’s alright, we all have our own political views. But she’s explicitly said ‘I am a Trump conservative.’ Okay, if you believe in Trump you support pedophilia, you support bigotry, you support racism, what else, pro-police — the same police that’s killing our people — and also she supports ICE,» one of the sit-in protesters can be heard saying in a video circulating on social media. «She also would like to have  — because I’m going to say a concentration camp  — that’s not what they calling it but you all want to bring on of those here to or state. We don’t believe in that.»

Zaria Tucker, the South Carolina State Student Government Association President, echoed the point about students’ anger not being about politics during an address at a board of trustees meeting.

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«Commencement is not about politics, but more about representation. What we need as students. Not someone to come and tell us what they need to do as governor, or another position that they’re running for in this state,» Tucker said in the video shared online by White. «But, more to uplift us as students. So, necessarily, that’s what the main goal will always be, as the Student Government Association president.»

In response to the decision from Conyers and South Carolina State University, Republican state legislators from the House Freedom Caucus called the decision by the college «shameful» and «inexcusable» that the university had to cancel Evette’s speech «because her safety could not be guaranteed on a state-funded campus.»

The campus of South Carolina State University. (Jacob Boomsma)

The letter ended by requesting that «no funding» be included in the upcoming version of the state’s funding.

«If the Lt. Gov. of South Carolina is unwelcome due to different political ideologies and an inability to keep her safe, it is time to defund and reevaluate.,» the letter, signed by nine GOP South Carolina State legislators, concluded.

During Evette’s comments to Fox News Digital she said that she and current South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster have always ensured Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the state are funded, noting that despite a Republican super majority in the state legislature «we have been very supportive.» Evette added that President Trump «has done more for them than any president and in history.»

The South Carolina State House is seen in Columbia, South Carolina. (LOGAN CYRUS/AFP via Getty Images)

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Meanwhile, the school invited former Democratic Party President Joe Biden to speak at their commencement ceremony in 2021, when Conyers was interim president of the school at the time.

«Where is the faculty and where is the leadership and why aren’t they setting the record straight why do these young people who obviously are very bright  — they’re graduating college  — not know these basic facts about what’s happening at the university they’re attending.»

After a two-week manhunt, authorities have arrested the suspected fugitive mother-in-law accused of killing a former Mexican beauty queen, Mexican officials announced Thursday.

Authorities said 27-year-old Carolina Flores Gómez, who was crowned Miss Teen Universe Baja California in 2017, was fatally shot April 15 inside her apartment in one of Mexico City’s most affluent neighborhoods, according to local outlet El País.

Erika María Herrera was captured in Venezuela after Mexican authorities obtained an arrest warrant and worked in coordination with Interpol to issue a Red Notice, enabling Venezuelan law enforcement to locate and detain her after the alleged murder, Mexican officials said. 

«The detained individual is currently in the custody of authorities in that country, while the necessary procedures are carried out to formalize her extradition to Mexico,» the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office said.

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Herrera was identified as a lead suspect in the murder investigation, according to local reports, after video evidence later surfaced on social media showing the mother-in-law at the scene.

The victim was found with 12 gunshot wounds, including six to the head and six to the chest, inside a Polanco neighborhood apartment she shared with Herrera’s son, Alejandro, and the couple’s 8-month-old child, Mexican outlet Record reported. 

The son is also under investigation after reports indicated he allowed his mother to flee before reporting the shooting the next day, raising the possibility of a cover-up, El País added.

CALIFORNIA MAN ACCUSED OF KILLING WIFE AND FLEEING WITH KIDS NABBED IN SOUTH AMERICA

A woman identified as Erika Maria Herrera was arrested in Venezuala this week in a homicide case in Mexico. (@FiscaliaCDMX/X)

Video recorded by a baby monitor and released by local outlet Reforma, appeared to capture the moments leading up to the alleged killing, all while the son was nearby caring for the baby.

In the clip, the mother was seen following Flores into a room before multiple gunshots were heard followed by a scream.

In response, the son appeared to walk into the frame holding his child to confront his mother, asking what had happened.

CONNECTICUT MAN ALLEGEDLY KILLED A MOTHER, HER INFANT SON OVER $400 SHE OWED HIM FOR RENTING CAR

Mexican prosecutors have opened a homicide case in the death of former beauty queen Carolina Flores Gómez. (Jam Press)

In a baffling turn, Maria appeared to respond callously to her son.

«Nothing, she just made me angry,» the mom said as she walked away.

«What are you doing? She is my family,» he said. 

The mother was then heard explaining, «You are mine, and she stole you.»

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Former beauty queen Carolina Flores Gómez, 27, was found dead in her Mexico City apartment. (Jam Press)

Flores’ mother, Reyna Gomez Molina, told Univision News the son allegedly delayed reporting the incident out of fear that the child would be placed in foster care.  

«Thinking that if he was arrested, the baby would go to a children’s home. He made sure to record videos so they would know how to feed the child while he was away taking care of all the paperwork. That’s what he told me,» she said, adding that her offer to take care of her grandson was declined.

She had also pressed the son to clarify whether he had been next to the victim the entire time before reporting the incident but did not provide further details, according to the outlet.