Biology
Developmental genes often take inputs from two independent sources.
| 3 min read
These days, phylogeneticists – experts who painstakingly map the complex branches of the tree of life – suffer from an embarrassment of riches. The genomics revolution has given them mountains of DNA data that they can sift through to reconstruct the evolutionary history that connects all living beings. But the unprecedented quantity has also caused a serious problem: The trees produced by a number of well-supported studies have come to contradictory conclusions.
| 3 min read
Whitehead Institute Founding Member Rudolf Jaenisch, who helped transform the study of genetics by creating the first transgenic mouse in 1974, is again revolutionizing how genetically altered animal models are created and perhaps even redefining what species may serve as models.
| 3 min read
Research utilizing a systems approach demonstrates that different vaccines lead to immunity via distinct immune response pathways. Published findings include interactive figures linked to the underlying data allowing readers seamless access to investigate new hypotheses.
| 3 min read
In a classic case of turning an enemy into a friend, scientists have engineered a protein from flesh-eating bacteria to act as a molecular “superglue” that promises to become a disease fighter.
| 3 min read
Combining neuroscience and chemical engineering, researchers at Stanford University have developed a process that renders a mouse brain transparent. The postmortem brain remains whole — not sliced or sectioned in any way — with its three-dimensional complexity of fine wiring and molecular structures completely intact and able to be measured and probed at will with visible light and chemicals.
| 5+ min read
Study of receptor protein could provide clues for fighting diseases.
| 2 min read
Thirty years ago, the future lay in programming computers. Today, it’s programming cells.
| 4 min read
New insight into the structural nature of Deinococcus manganese complexes in the world’s toughest microbe, Deinococcus radiodurans, gained by using advanced spectroscopy techniques, may ultimately accelerate the development of pharmaceuticals aimed at slowing down the aging process.
| 2 min read
A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientist and his colleagues have opened the door to development of more heat-tolerant crops by crystallizing a plant protein that plays a key role in photosynthesis.
| 2 min read
Researchers in the Evolutionary Bioinformatics Laboratory at the University of Illinois in collaboration with German scientists have been using bioinformatics techniques to probe the world of proteins for answers to questions about the origins of life.
| 3 min read
