-
Jan 14, 2025 | 
the-scientist.com | Danielle M. Gerhard
Endometriosis affects nearly one in 10 women of reproductive age and is marked by the growth of uterine-like tissue outside of the organ, causing severe pelvic pain and infertility. With no cure for endometriosis, treatments are limited to pain relivers, hormonal contraceptives and agonists, and surgery. However, these can lead to menopausal symptoms and bone density loss, and surgery has a high relapse rate.
-
Jan 13, 2025 | 
the-scientist.com | Shelby Bradford |Danielle M. Gerhard |Laura Tran |Hannah Thomasy
Article A Sweeter Living Space Promoted Bacterial Survival in Flies Patients with increased blood sugar concentration often experience increased disease severity following infection.1 In 2015, Brian Lazzaro, a geneticist studying host-pathogen interactions at Cornell University, and his group demonstrated that lifetime high-sugar diets made flies more susceptible to Providencia rettgeri .2 “I was interested in looking into what were some of the physiological mechanisms that led to diet having...
-
Dec 2, 2024 | 
the-scientist.com | Laura Tran |Shelby Bradford |Danielle M. Gerhard |Hannah Thomasy
ArticleProtein Makeover with Custom Amino AcidsProteins are built by mixing and matching amino acids, but researchers want to create new functions by adding noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs). However, this process often requires complex whole genome editing. This inspired Ahmed Badran, a chemical and synthetic biologist at the Scripps Research Institute, to develop an easier method for adding ncAAs to proteins.
-
Nov 15, 2024 | 
the-scientist.com | Danielle M. Gerhard
A decade ago, Aki Sinkkonen, an ecologist at the Natural Resources Institute Finland, went on a wilderness hike with an immunologist colleague.
-
Nov 15, 2024 | 
the-scientist.com | Laura Tran |Shelby Bradford |Danielle M. Gerhard |Stella Zawistowski
Epic Fail| ArticleThe Great Flask-tastropheAs a master’s student at Colorado State University in the late 1980s, I worked on developing a purification protocol for an antiviral enzyme, 2-5A synthetase.1 This enzyme, induced by interferons, targeted viral RNA with an RNase, and was enriched in immature red blood cells called reticulocytes. Collecting large amounts of rabbit reticulocytes took weeks of preparation.
-
Nov 12, 2024 | 
the-scientist.com | Danielle M. Gerhard
During gestation, the placenta takes on the roles of many of the fetus’ developing organs and serves as a barrier between parent and child. Critical to this is the outermost layer of the organ, the syncytiotrophoblast (STB), a single, multinucleated cell that forms from repeated fusion events between mononucleated cytotrophoblasts (CTB). In addition to producing pregnancy hormones, the STB plays important roles in nutrient and waste exchange and metabolism.
-
Nov 12, 2024 | 
the-scientist.com | Danielle M. Gerhard
Tucked away on the kitchen countertop sits a bubbling, living goop in a jar. Each day, a mixture of flour and water feeds the beige concoction, commencing a ritualistic dance that summons wild yeast and bacteria from the air. This transformation turns simple ingredients into a tangy, fermenting marvel embraced by professional bakers and home chefs alike to create rustic bread loaves. Cooking is deeply rooted in science.
-
Oct 25, 2024 | 
xpresschronicle.com | Danielle M. Gerhard
Shortly after Hurricane Helene’s torrential rains and storm surge subsided, Florida’s Department of Health had a new, but familiar, problem on their hands. They recorded an increase in cases of vibriosis, characterized by skin swelling, redness, pain, and blistering at the site of a wound alongside fever and nausea. For some, the infection has been life-threatening. As of October 25, 2024, there have been 77 cases and 15 deaths, up from 46 cases and 11 deaths in 2023.
-
Oct 25, 2024 | 
the-scientist.com | Danielle M. Gerhard
Shortly after Hurricane Helene’s torrential rains and storm surge subsided, Florida’s Department of Health had a new, but familiar, problem on their hands. They recorded an increase in cases of vibriosis, characterized by skin swelling, redness, pain, and blistering at the site of a wound alongside fever and nausea. For some, the infection has been life-threatening. As of October 25, 2024, there have been 77 cases and 15 deaths, up from 46 cases and 11 deaths in 2023.
-
Oct 22, 2024 | 
xpresschronicle.com | Danielle M. Gerhard
In March 2022, Judit Pénzes, a virologist at Rutgers University, was contacted by a farmer in Utah who was worried about the wide-scale die-offs happening in his superworm populations.
