Engineered in lab mice, this gene produced a protein (named OPG) that vastly increased bone strength and thickness-without causing any harmful side effects.

FORBES: Biotech Behemoth

The biggest reward of Amgen's early genome work, however, may be the osteoporosis drug dubbed AMG 162, based on the bone gene that Amgen lab coats were so surprised to discover in fetal rat intestines in 1995.

FORBES: Companies, People, Ideas

Patsalis of the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics said his team is developing a noninvasive method to test for Down syndrome by comparing fetal DNA to the mother's using standard lab equipment, instead of pricey gene-sequencing gear.

WSJ: New Prenatal Tests Offer Safer, Early Screenings

Previous efforts to create light-emitting plants in the lab have made use of a luciferase gene derived from fireflies.

BBC: The light fantastic: Harnessing Nature's glow

In a lab at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, Gene-Jack Wang is injecting overeaters with a radioactive sugar solution and putting them into a positron-emissions tomography machine to see how their brains react to food.

FORBES: Food on the Brain

The gene produces a protein that already has reversed diabetes in some lab animals.

CNN: Experimental gene therapy offers hope to diabetics

Outside the lab, rescue workers in the less-developed world might use portable gene machines to trace bacteria or viruses causing waterborne epidemics.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Lander and his colleagues say evolution's lab book points to only 30, 000 genes--if a gene is defined as a stretch of DNA that codes for one of the proteins from which the body is built.

FORBES: Magazine Article

In 2001, researcher Brian Kaspar in his lab noticed that the virus called AAV, which is often been used in gene therapy experiments, had an unusual property.

FORBES: Gene Therapy Slows A Killer

In 2000 Schwab's lab and other scientists at Yale University and in England silenced the skeptics, finally cloning the gene for a protein they dubbed Nogo.

FORBES: Magazine Article