Will we ever have a set of standardized biochemical devices that synthetic biologists can snap together to make more complex systems? I'm skeptical that any single standardized biological device will…

Engineering A Biological Pulse Generator I've got my issues with synthetic biology. Either synthetic biologists do something trivial dressed up in elaborate engineering language, or they achieve…

With hot, new technologies, biologists are taking higher-resolution snapshots of what's going on inside the cell, but the results are stirring up controversy. One of the most interesting recent…

As you know, when different species directly compete for the same finite resource, only the fitter will survive.  A new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) says…

Genome sequencing is getting better and faster.  Two months ago we had the first draft of the neanderthal genome and now scientists from the University of Maryland have published their assembly…

The circadian clock coordinates physiological and behavioral processes on a 24-hour rhythm, allowing animals to anticipate changes in their environment and prepare accordingly. Scientists already…

Sigh - I was going to recommend this piece about recent human genome research in Scientific American, by a leading researcher in comparative genomics, Katherine Pollard, until I came to the last…

Drs. Fred Cross and Eric Siggia have produced a steady stream of outstanding systems-level studies of one of the most important biological oscillators: the cell division cycle. I'll have more later…

Down syndrome is one of about twelve identified chromosomal disorders- some of which are caused by additional chromosome, in whole or in part.  With Down syndrome, that extra chromosome is added…

Health and death have genetic risk factors. International research has linked ten gene variations to sudden cardiac death (SCD). What is SCD? It is death resulting from an abrupt loss…