Research & Innovation Office eNews - October 2020

Thirty years after beginning her training as a postdoctoral scholar in the CU Boulder lab of Nobel laureate Thomas Cech, biochemist Jennifer Doudna on Wednesday won her own Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the co-development of the revolutionary genome editing tool CRISPR-Cas9.

New findings from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission suggest that the interior of the asteroid Bennu could be weaker and less dense than its outer layers—like a crème-filled chocolate egg flying though space. The findings could give scientists new insights into the evolution of the solar system’s asteroids.

Diseases of the blood have traditionally taken a full day, tedious lab work and expensive equipment to diagnose, but researchers at CU Boulder and CU Anschutz have developed a way to diagnose these conditions with greater sensitivity and precision in only one minute.

CU Boulder will be one of four national centers designed to advance the application of cryoelectron tomography (cryoET), which helps visualize in 3D the fine-structure of intact cells and tissues. CU Boulder scientists, who have been at the forefront of this technology, have won a six-year, $7M grant for the center.

In September, the Yidan Prize Foundation awarded Carl Wieman the prestigious Yidan Prize in Education Research for his “contribution in developing new techniques and tools in STEM education.” Wieman will use prize and project money to support CU Boulder’s award-winning PhET Interactive Simulations.

The College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS) launched three new interdisciplinary research themes this summer as part of a broad push into critical areas of study. Join the virtual open house on Wednesday, November 4 to meet the IRT directors, hear their plans and learn how you can participate.

CU Boulder's third annual Research & Innovation Week—celebrating research, scholarship and creative work across campus—took place from October 12–16. Recordings of the three main events (featuring the MOSAiC mission, the RIO Faculty Fellows and the university's ATLAS Institute) are now available.