Laura Tran

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 10, 2024 | the-scientist.com | Laura Tran

Love them or hate them, vegetables are a staple at the dinner table—whether served plain or dressed up. For many, Brussels sprouts and other leafy vegetables share a distinct bitterness that divides opinions. While some eagerly tuck into their meal, others push the greens around their plate to avoid them altogether. Researchers have tried to get to the root of how and why people experience the same vegetables so differently and how to make these flavors more enjoyable.

Dec 2, 2024 | the-scientist.com | Laura Tran

Historically, researchers impaled giant squid, snail, and frog axons with electrodes to study nerve function by measuring ion channels. Today, electrophysiologists have enhanced their ability to assess electrical impulses by clamping onto the mammalian cell membrane, improving their understanding of how cells process and transmit electrical signals.

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 | Laura Tran

Sourdough bread has a longstanding history with humans. People love sourdough’s tangy flavor, but the microbes within the living starters that create these delicious loaves remain a mystery. To find answers, Rob Dunn, an ecologist and evolutionary biologist at North Carolina State University, launched the citizen science project The Science of Sourdough in 2016. Dunn’s group partnered with other researchers to study how a starter’s geographical location influenced microbial species.