Haydeh Payami helped uncover the genetic basis of Parkinson’s disease. Now, she hopes to find new ways to treat the disease by studying the gut microbiome.

Scientists have genetically modified isolated microbes for decades. Now, using CRISPR, they intend to target entire microbiomes.

Studies The Scientist covered this year illustrate the expanding importance of genetic and genomic research in all aspects of life science, from ecology to medicine.

A study traces the effects of a mite outbreak from the earth to the heavens.

genome sequence will help in developing protection against the disease. Robert Walgate discovers that it might - but perhaps not in the most obvious ways.

SENSE OF PROPORTION: "more needs to be done relative to the scale of the problem," remarks Stanford ecologist Gretchen Daily. The worldwide spate of emerging and reemerging infectious diseases in the first half of this decade has prompted a growing recognition of the connection between global climate change and human health. Individual researchers from such disparate disciplines as epidemiology and public health, ecology, virology, climatology, nutrition, and biomedicine have directly addresse

As nonconventional medical treatments become increasingly mainstream, we take a look at the science behind some of the most popular.

Photo: Steve Bunk Dave Tinnin, field research associate in the University of New Mexico's biology department, takes blood samples and measurements of rodents caught on the research station grounds. At the end of a freeway exit near Soccoro, N.M., the hairpin turn onto a gravel road is marked by a sign that warns, "Wrong Way." But it isn't the wrong way if you want to reach the University of New Mexico's (UNM) long-term ecological research (LTER) station. The sign's subterfuge is the first indi

George Church is at it again, this time using multiplex gene editing to create virus-proof cells, improve organ transplant success, and protect elephants.

Scientists who work with foreign biological specimens face a patchwork of permits that threaten to block their projects, with potentially harmful consequences for the ecosystems they study.