A Chinese biotech firm has pushed biology professor Kathleen Pryer and her team over the top in their quest to fund the sequencing of the azolla genome and its associated symbiotic bacteria – a project ultimately aimed at combating global warming and boosting agricultural yields.Pryer shared the news with more than 80 crowdfunding backers late last week. “We are thrilled to announce that the Azolla Genome Project has found its ultimate advocate,” she said. A leading international genome sequencing center -- Beijing Genomics… read more about Crowdfunding for Azolla Fern Research Hits Target »
Junior Julian Kimura came to Duke with an interest in developmental biology and he found a home on his first day at the university in the lab of biology professor David McClay Kimura is investigating the evolutionary relationship between sea urchins and sand dollars by studying how their embryos develop. He hopes to understand how the two organisms have changed or stayed similar over millions of years.From Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., Kimura said he has long been interested in the complexity of the processes involved… read more about Julian Kimura: Evolutionary Paths of the Sea Urchin and the Sand Dollar »
Before biologists can understand the role of specific genes, they have to be able to determine whether those genes are "on or off." Howard Hughes Undergraduate Research Fellow Mitchell Lee is looking to make take process easier.Working with Nicholas Buchler, assistant professor of biology and physics, Lee is developing methods that will give synthetic biology researchers greater control over the expression of different genes.His research involves creating artificial two-gene circuits that can switch on and off in E. coli, a… read more about Mitchell Lee: Student Studies New Processes for Gene Expression »
Oh, the people you will meet when raising money for science. Biology professor Kathleen Pryer knows this now, after first writing an op-ed and then joining grad student Fay-Wei Li in launching a crowdfunding project on behalf of the tiny aquatic azolla, sidelined as a "lowly fern" in plant genome studies."This has been so much fun," she says. "I haven't felt so popular since ... well, never."Pryer is leading a group of researchers at Duke and Utah State University who are raising money through Experiment.com to sequence the… read more about Going Public With Research Funding »