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A tour of techniques for measuring DNA hydroxymethylation

With Alfred D. Hershey, she established DNA as the genetic material

Companies are bursting at the seams with tools to engineer pharma’s next magic bullet: the new and improved antibody.

My Top Five | The Matthew Binns Selection I think all molecular biologists would recognize that the papers describing di-deoxy sequencing1 and Kary Mullis' PCR technique2 have changed the world of science profoundly. Mullis, a true "gonzo" scientist, includes a favorite quote in a chapter of a book he edited that describes the development of PCR: "There is a place in your brain, I think, reserved for 'the melancholy of relationships past.' It grows and prospers as life progresses, forcing

When linezolid (Zyvox) received federal approval in early 2000, it was the first completely new antibiotic compound to reach the pharmaceutical market in 35 years. The synthetic compound even proved effective against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE) bacteria, for which no other line of defense existed. Its creator, New Jersey-based Pharmacia, sounded confident that few people would become resistant to the drug. It was not to b

Comparative sequencing reveals enormous variation in genomes from horizontal gene transfer

A snapshot of the most highly ranked articles in evolutionary biology, from Faculty of 1000

By Jef Akst Baffling base Images of GFP-labeled Purkinje cell nuclei (left) and the chromatography results of the DNA nucleotides. The pencil points out the mysterious presence of hmC. Courtesy of Skirmantas Kriaucionis Postdoctoral researcher Skirmantas Kriaucionis sat at the computer in the lab of molecular biologist Nathaniel Heintz at the Rockefeller University in New York, looking at an unidentified spot that hung mysteriously on the s

wrote a case note on the first-ever biotech patent case, which involved a genetically engineered bacterium that consumed oil spills.

Indifferent to textbook dogma, some researchers have long suspected that bacteria really do have sex. They merge their genomes, research suggests, possibly by whole-cell fusion. Investigators liken the phenomenon to egg fertilization and distinguish it from conjugation, in which bacteria pass along bits of genetic material. A decade ago, Jean-Pierre Gratia, now at the Pasteur Institute of Brussels, Belgium, reported that mixing two nonconjugating Escherichia coli strains produced cells with both