By harnessing both experimental and computational methods, researchers have identified a significant role for randomness in disease manifestation. A genetic disorder may affect one person differently from another, even if they both have the same mutation. This anomaly has long been attributed to the varying effects of environmental or other competing genetic factors. But now […]
Built from one of the world’s largest collections of epigenetic data, the newly developed model Sei predicts how DNA sequence variation alters gene expression, advancing our understanding of human traits, disease and evolution. The launch of the Human Genome Project in 1990 was accompanied by the hope that, when completed, the resulting full human genome […]
Could a new approach to drug discovery lead to treatments for diseases like ALS and Parkinson’s? The summer before her junior year at Princeton, Alice Zhang ’10 had an experience that would change the course of her studies, career, and life. As an intern in a National Institutes of Health lab in Washington, D.C., her hometown, […]
By building a biophysical model that incorporates real-world biological complexity, scientists discover important links between the nanometer-sized motors that power a cell’s cilia and the macroscopic fluid flows their collective beating creates. Nearly 350 years ago, Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek peered into a vial of lake water through a self-made magnifying lens. Through this […]
A new study reveals that communication between cells encasing the developing fruit fly egg chamber induces unequal cell division, shedding light on a fundamental biological process. In a burning forest, fire moves quickly but unevenly, destroying entire sections of forest while leaving others untouched. A similar phenomenon occurs with a fast-moving viral infection as it […]
As an influenza epidemic raged through Hungary in 1951, Gyula Takátsy, MD, had a problem. He was running out of critical influenza virus testing supplies, such as test tubes and pipettes. His solution to the shortage? The physician hand-machined a block of plastic with 6 rows of 12 indentations, each roughly the diameter of a […]
