Search Results for: research organisms

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Meet Nels Elde and His Team’s Amazing, Expandable Viruses

Credit: Kristan Jacobsen Nels Elde, Ph.D. Fields: Evolutionary genetics, virology, microbiology, cell biology Works at: University of Utah, Salt Lake City When not in the lab, he’s: Gardening, supervising pets, procuring firewood Hobbies: Canoeing, skiing, participating in facial hair competitions “I really look at my job as an adventure,” says Nels Elde. “The ability to …

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Field Focus: Our Microbial Menagerie

Trillions of microorganisms inhabit us—inside and out. Scientists are surveying these microbial metropolises to learn more about their role in health. Microbiologists Darren Sledjeski of NIGMS and Andrew Goodman of Yale University share a few details of what researchers have learned so far. Researchers are surveying the microbes that inhabit us to learn more about …

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Field Focus: Making Chemistry Greener

NIGMS’ Bob Lees answers questions about green chemistry. Credit: National Institute of General Medical Sciences. Chemists funded by NIGMS are working to develop “greener” processes for discovering, developing and manufacturing medicines and other molecules with therapeutic potential, as well as compounds used in biomedical research. One of our scientific experts, organic chemist Bob Lees, recently …

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Surprising Role for Protein Involved in Cell Death

Many of the key players in regulating apoptosis were discovered in C. elegans. This tiny roundworm has more than 19,000 genes, and a vast number of them are very similar to genes in other organisms, including people. Credit: Ewa M. Davison. Our cells come equipped with a self-destruct mechanism that’s activated during apoptosis, a carefully …

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How Instructions for Gene Activity Are Passed Across Generations

Images of C. elegans embryos show transmission of an epigenetic mark (green) during cell division from a one-cell embryo (left) to a two-cell embryo (right). Credit: Laura J. Gaydos. Chemical tags that cells attach to DNA or to DNA-packaging proteins across the genome—called epigenetic marks—can alter gene activity, or expression, without changing the underlying DNA …

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Meet Jennifer Doudna

Credit: Jennifer Doudna Jennifer Doudna Fields: Biochemistry and structural biology Studies: New genome editing tool called CRISPR Works at: University of California, Berkeley Raised in: Hilo, Hawaii Studied at: Pomona College, Harvard University Recent honors: Winner of the Lurie Prize in the Biomedical Sciences , an annual award that recognizes outstanding achievement by promising scientists …

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4 Timely Facts About Our Biological Clocks

Genes and proteins run biological clocks that help keep daily rhythms in synch. Credit: Wikimedia Commons. After you roll your clocks back by an hour this Sunday, you may feel tired. That’s because our bodies—more specifically, our circadian rhythms—need a little time to adjust. These daily cycles are run by a network of tiny, coordinated …

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Nobel Prize for Powerful Microscopy Technology

The cells shown here are fibroblasts, one of the most common cells in mammalian connective tissue. These particular cells were taken from a mouse. Scientists used them to test the power of a new microscopy technique that offers vivid views of the inside of a cell. The DNA within the nucleus (blue), mitochondria (green) and …

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