Genetics & Molecular Biology

Talk to any molecular biologist, and you'll find that most of them feel that there is something that we're missing when we analyze complex biological systems. These systems are often too difficult to…

There's a coevolutionary struggle between a New Zealand snail and its worm parasite but it ends up being sexually advantageous for the snail, whose females favor asexual reproduction in the absence…

One of my recently developed rules: avoid the last minute rush. I don't run to catch the Metro train, and I don't scramble to put my data into some sort of coherent form when I have to give a lab…

I assume all of you know this but, if not, here is the blurb I keep getting from the kind marketing folks at Science. The upside: $25,000 The catch: The topic is limited to molecular biology.  …

In all the talk about using skin cells to create pluripotent stem cells that don't need human embryonic destruction,  dental and tissue engineering researchers at Tufts University School of…

How do individual cells survive conditions that should kill them?  It's long been a mystery of nature but a team of researchers recently tracked the chemical changes in Desulfovibrio vulgaris,…

Researchers writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences say they have discovered that the sea lamprey, which emerged from jawless fish first appearing 500 million years ago,…

Scientists writing in Developmental Cell say they have identified a master regulator gene for early embryonic development of the pancreas and other organs, putting researchers closer to coaxing stem…

A new micro-tool allows researchers to measure and manipulate cellular forces as assemblies of living cells reorganize themselves into tissues.  The new technique allows researchers to gauge how…

Labyrinthulomycetes, single-celled marine decomposers that eat non-living plant, algal, and animal matter, are ubiquitous and abundant, particularly on dead vegetation and in salt marshes and…