Schematic of gRNA binding, R-loop formation and Markov chain model

Development of Novel CRISPR-Based Methods for Transcriptional Control Over Bacterial Gene Expression

May 31, 2019

One of the challenges of the 21st century is creating a sustainable economy that is able to serve the needs of a growing population with the decreasing supply of natural resources. In addition to alternative energy sources, renewable economy concerns production of materials and chemicals. The chemical and polymer industries...

A picture from research performed by John Nardini

The Influence of Numerical Error on Parameter Estimation and Uncertainty Quantification for Advective PDE Models

May 29, 2019

Advective partial differential equations can be used to describe many scientific processes. Two significant sources of error that can cause difficulties in inferring parameters from experimental data on these processes include (i) noise from the measurement and collection of experimental data and (ii) numerical error in approximating the forward solution...

images of adult mouse cardiomyocytes

Three-dimensional encapsulation of adult mouse cardiomyocytes in hydrogels with tunable stiffness

May 28, 2019

Numerous diseases, including those of the heart, are characterized by increased stiffness due to excessive deposition of extracellular matrix proteins. Cardiomyocytes continuously adapt their morphology and function to the mechanical changes of their microenvironment. Because traditional cell culture is conducted on substrates that are many orders of magnitude stiffer than...

Inside Hire Ed

Pedigree and Productivity

May 1, 2019

A 2015 study found that “social inequality” across a range of disciplines was so bad that just 25 percent of Ph.D. institutions produced 71 to 86 percent of tenured and tenure-track professors, depending on field. The effect was more extreme the farther up the chain the researchers looked, based on...

Graphs for article of 'Pedigree is not Destiny"

'Pedigree is not destiny' when it comes to scholarly success

May 1, 2019

What matters more to a scientist’s career success: where they currently work, or where they got their Ph.D.? It’s a question a team of researchers teases apart in a new paper published in PNAS . Their analysis calls into question a common assumption underlying academia: that a researcher’s productivity reflects...

A picture from research performed by Christopher Weiss-Lehman

Stochastic processes drive rapid genomic divergence during experimental range expansions

April 10, 2019

Range expansions are crucibles for rapid evolution, acting via both selective and neutral mechanisms. While selection on traits such as dispersal and fecundity may increase expansion speed, neutral mechanisms arising from repeated bottlenecks and genetic drift in edge populations (i.e. gene surfing) could slow spread or make it less predictable...

A picture from research performed by Sam Way and Aaron Clauset

Environmental Changes and the Dynamics of Musical Identity

April 9, 2019

Musical tastes reflect our unique values and experiences, our relationships with others, and the places where we live. But as each of these things changes, do our tastes also change to reflect the present, or remain fixed, reflecting our past? Here, we investigate how where a person lives shapes their...

A picture from research performed by Patrick Heenan

Imaging DNA Equilibrated onto Mica in Liquid Using Biochemically Relevant Deposition Conditions

April 2, 2019

For over 25 years, imaging of DNA by atomic force microscopy has been intensely pursued. Ideally, such images are then used to probe the physical properties of DNA and characterize protein–DNA interactions. The atomic flatness of mica makes it the preferred substrate for high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) imaging, but the...

Earth

Do all networks obey the scale-free law? Maybe not

March 4, 2019

As Benjamin Franklin once joked, death and taxes are universal. Scale-free networks may not be, at least according to a new study from CU Boulder. The research challenges a popular two-decade-old theory that networks of all kinds, from Facebook and Twitter to the interactions of genes in yeast cells, follow...

Data

Association studies of up to 1.2 million individuals yield new insights into the genetic etiology of tobacco and alcohol use.

Jan. 13, 2019

Tobacco and alcohol use are leading causes of mortality that influence risk for many complex diseases and disorders 1 . They are heritable 2,3 and etiologically related 4,5 behaviors that have been resistant to gene discovery efforts 6-11 . In sample sizes up to 1.2 million individuals, we discovered 566 genetic...

Pages