A close-up of colorful test tubes sitting on a lab bench.

Nano-sized sensors learn new biological tricks

Christopher Jackson, a graduate student in the Landry Lab at QB3-Berkeley, explores how a better understanding of nanotechnology interactions with biological systems can improve neuroimaging and COVID-19 testing.

Searching for adaptation secrets in the Sahara Desert

Graduate student Diana Aguilar Gómez tells the story of Joana Rocha, a visiting scholar in the Rasmus Nielsen lab who ventured into the Sahara Desert to study the genetic adaptations that help desert foxes thrive in extreme environments.

Megaphages harbor mini-Cas proteins ideal for gene editing

While the DNA-cutting proteins central to Jennifer Doudna’s CRISPR-Cas9 and related gene-editing tools originally came from bacteria, a newfound variety of Cas proteins apparently evolved in viruses that infect bacteria.