The common fluorescent marker GFP traveled a long road to take its popular place in molecular biology today.

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

Recent advances in modeling the human placenta, the least understood organ, may inform placental disorders like preeclampsia.

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.

Programs Author: Karen Young Kreeger (Ranked by scores on a survey of scholarly quality of program faculty among peers. Scores on a scale of 0 to 5*") Rank Institution Score Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 1 University of California, San Francisco 4.84 2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 4.83 Stanford University 4.83 3 University of California, Berkeley 4.81 4 Harvard University 4.80 5 Yale University 4.59 Cell and Developmental Biology 1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 4.86 2 Ro

Animals with human cells could provide donor organs or help us understand neuropsychiatric disorders.

COOPERATIVE CELLS:Courtesy of Michael CarrollThe evolution of complex biologic organisms began with the symbiotic relationship between pro- and eukaryotes (I). This relationship gave rise to mitochondria (II), and the resulting diversity of unicellular organisms (III) led to their metabolic cooperativity (IV) mediated by ligand-receptor interactions and cell-cell signaling. Natural selection generated an increasing complexity (V). Failed homeostatic signaling (VI) recapitulates hylogeny/ontogeny

Sequences for the model organism and two of its kin reveal how these plants got their oversized genomes.

From detecting gravity and the Earth’s magnetic field to feeling heat and the movement of water around them, animals can do more than just see, smell, touch, taste, and hear.