Articles by Karen Hopkin

With dogged persistence and an unwillingness to entertain defeat, Bruce Beutler discovered a receptor that powers the innate immune response to infections—and earned his share of a Nobel Prize.

Gregory Hannon believes in taking risks—an approach that’s enabled him to make exciting new discoveries in the world of small RNAs.

While exploring the genetics of a rare type of tumor, Stephen Baylin discovered an epigenetic modification that occurs in most every cancer—a finding he’s helping bring to the clinic.

Unwilling to accept the finality of terminal differentiation, Helen Blau has honed techniques that showcase the flexibility of cells to adopt different identities.

In exploring how embryos take shape, John Wallingford has identified a key pathway involved in vertebrate development—and human disease.

Associate Professor in Molecular Cell & Developmental Biology at the University of Texas at Austin, John Wallingford, makes his living using cutting-edge microscopic techniques to watch developmental events unfold in real time.

For Michael Dickinson, Drosophila are more than winged gene holders—they’re sophisticated systems for translating sensory information into flight instructions.

With persistence and pluck, Leslie Vosshall managed to snatch insect odorant receptors from the jaws of experimental defeat.

In pondering genome structure and function, evolutionary geneticist Laurence Hurst has arrived at some unanticipated conclusions about how natural selection has molded our DNA.

With strong foundations in both art and science, Ahna Skop has been able to capture the marvel of—and mechanisms behind—cytokinesis.

With an eye to understanding animal regeneration, Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado has turned a freshwater planarian into a model system to watch.

Elaine Mardis can make DNA sequencers sing, generating genome data that shed light on evolution and disease.

Through a series of sustained collaborations, Joshua Sanes has deciphered the molecular synergy that guides synapse formation.

Philippa “Pippa” Marrack has made some unanticipated discoveries about how the immune system functions in health and disease.

Dissatisfied with the uncertainty of crystallography, Ned Seeman invented a new way of assembling the molecules that encompass the logic of life.