Three Brothers Are Making Research a Family Affair
Three undergraduate brothers are developing nanoparticles to deliver cancer-treating medicines with funding from the Kansas INBRE program.
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Career Conversations: Q&A With Biological Engineer Brian Munsky
Dr. Brian Munsky went from playing practical jokes with computer programming to using it to study complex cell processes. Learn how in this Q&A
It’s Elementary: Celebrating National Chemistry Week
Happy National Chemistry Week! In honor of this celebration, we’re showcasing posts that focus on elements crucial for human health and scientific exploration. NIGMS-supported scientists are studying how each of these elements (and many others) can impact human health. Check out the list below to learn more, and let us know what your favorite element …
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Scientist Studies Burn Therapies After Being Severely Burned as a Child
“If I was going to do science, I wanted it to help people,” says Julia Bohannon, Ph.D., an assistant professor of anesthesiology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. Bohannon researches therapies that could help prevent infections in patients with severe burn injuries. Infections are common in these patients because burn injuries typically …
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Making a MARC at Vanderbilt
“What we’re trying to do is support the students’ attachment to being a scientist, to becoming part of the community,” says Douglas McMahon, Ph.D., the Stevenson Professor of Biological Sciences at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and a co-director of Vanderbilt’s Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) program. MARC focuses on undergraduates from diverse backgrounds …
Year in Review: Our Top Three Posts of 2020
Over the year, we dove into the inner workings of cells, interviewed award-winning researchers supported by NIGMS, shared a cool collection of science-themed backgrounds for video calls, and more. Here, we highlight three of the most popular posts from 2020. Tell us which of this year’s posts you liked best in the comments section below! …
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Helium: An Abundant History and a Shortage Threatening Scientific Tools
Most of us know helium as the gas that makes balloons float, but the second element on the periodic table does much more than that. Helium pressurizes the fuel tanks in rockets, helps test space suits for leaks, and is important in producing components of electronic devices. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines that take images …
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Computational Biologist Melissa Wilson on Sex Chromosomes, Gila Monsters, and Career Advice
Dr. Melissa Wilson. Credit: Chia-Chi Charlie Chang. The X and Y chromosomes, also known as sex chromosomes, differ greatly from each other. But in two regions, they are practically identical, said Melissa Wilson , assistant professor of genomics, evolution, and bioinformatics at Arizona State University. “We’re interested in studying how the process of evolution shaped the …
What Zombie Ants Are Teaching Us About Fungal Infections: Q & A with Entomologists David Hughes and Maridel Fredericksen
I can still remember that giddy feeling I had seven years ago, when I first read about the “zombie ant.” The story was gruesome and fascinating, and it was everywhere. Even friends and family who aren’t so interested in science knew the basics: in a tropical forest somewhere there’s a fungus that infects an ant …
Feeling Out Bacteria’s Sense of Touch
Our sense of touch provides us with bits of information about our surroundings that inform the decisions we make. When we touch something, our nervous system transmits signals through nerve endings that feed information to our brain. This enables us to sense the stimulus and take the appropriate action, like drawing back quickly when we …