Genetics & Molecular Biology

Howard Berg is a physicist turned systems biologist, and he's been a systems biologist long before it was trendy to be one. He's one of the smartest systems biologists around, and a nice guy too (one who was nice enough to sit down for lunch next ...

Blog Post - Michael White - Oct 22 2008 - 10:24pm

Genetic Fingerprinting Enhanced- DNA May Even Tell Your Surname

Scientists at the University of Leicester, where genetic 'fingerprinting' was invented by Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys, say they are developing techniques which may one day allow police to work out someone’s surname from DNA alone. Research by Tur ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 7 2008 - 7:30pm

John Derbyshire Misunderstands Race and Genetics

There's been some comment recently about pundit John Derbyshire's belief that Obama will try to shut down biology because it has validated racism. Needless to say, Derbyshire is full of it, and he has a poor grasp of what recent genetics has actu ...

Blog Post - Michael White - Oct 22 2008 - 10:06pm

Green Fluorescent Protein Is Cool, But Is It Nobel Prize-Level Cool?

This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to three scientists responsible for transforming a green-glowing jellyfish protein into a ubiquitous tool in molecular biology. Green fluorescent protein (or GFP in lab jargon) and its various colored relative ...

Article - Michael White - Oct 11 2008 - 12:23pm

Great big Fat Prize!

In the beginning... Osamu Shimomura of Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), Woods Hole, MA, USA; Martin Chalfie of Columbia University, New York, NY, USA, and Roger Y. Tsien of the University of California, San Diego, CA, USA were awarded the Nobel Prize i ...

Blog Post - TK Kenyon - Oct 22 2008 - 9:52pm

Bald Biology: Hair-Loss Gene Discovered (And It Isn't Just Because Of Grandpa)

Scientists at Bonn and Düsseldorf Universities investigated over 500,000 positions in the human genome and found a gene variant which occurs clearly more frequently in bald men than in control persons. This means they have found a new hair loss gene, accor ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 12 2008 - 3:02pm

Biologists 'GoogleEarth' Complete Developmental Blueprint Of A Vertebrate

To get from one cell to a complex organism, cells have to divide, travel around the body and arrange intricate shapes and specialized tissues. The best way to understand these dynamic processes is to look at what happens in the first few hours of life in e ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 12 2008 - 1:05am

Molecular Origin Of Proportional Development

When it comes to embryo formation in the lowly fruit fly, a little molecular messiness actually leads to enhanced developmental precision, according to a study in the Oct. 14 Developmental Cell from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. While ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 13 2008 - 11:22pm

Cellular Border Patrol- How Proteins Control What Gets In

The means by which proteins provide a 'border control' service, allowing cells to take up chemicals and substances from their surroundings, whilst keeping others out, is revealed in unprecedented molecular detail for the first time in Science Exp ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 16 2008 - 6:34pm

Using Evolution to Predict Disease Mutations

As many readers here know, evolution isn't just some esoteric topic disconnected from the rest of biology. It's a core theory that is underlies all of biology. Today our department heard a talk from Dr. Sudhir Kumar, a U of Arizona Arizona State ...

Blog Post - Michael White - Oct 20 2008 - 10:07am