Ten years ago, scientists put DNA barcodes in AAV vectors, creating an approach that simplified, expedited, and streamlined AAV screening. 

This year’s crop of winning products features many with a clinical focus and others that represent significant advances in sequencing, single-cell analysis, and more.

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

Genetic engineering pioneer Kevin Esvelt’s work highlights biotechnology’s immense potential for good—but also for catastrophe.

Advances in the functional characterization of newly discovered microproteins hint at diverse roles in health and disease.

A green fluorescent dye with a novel DNA binding mechanism improves signal-to-noise in different DNA amplification assays.

Graphic: Cathleen Heard Law enforcement officials routinely use DNA fingerprinting as a tool to get the guilty punished. Defense lawyers often rely on the same tool to free the innocent. Though their labs may be less dramatic settings than criminal courtrooms, life science researchers also use DNA fingerprinting, but rather than capturing criminals, their goal is to keep tabs on a different sort of culprit: infectious disease. The technology has revolutionized the way diseases are tracked and th

Modifications to the DNA-slicing program allow for monitoring the movement of messenger RNA.