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Jan 22, 2025 | 
ucsf.edu | Sarah Williams
Women are born with two X chromosomes and inherit one from each parent. But in every cell of their body, just one X chromosome is needed – so the other is randomly inactivated. Some cells use only a maternal X chromosome; others rely only on the paternal X.
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Jan 17, 2025 | 
ucsf.edu | Sarah Williams
A typical human pregnancy lasts 40 weeks, but most parents know this number is only a rough estimate. Babies are born on a seemingly unpredictable timeline, with a normal pregnancy ranging from 38 to 42 weeks. And 10% of all births are preterm, meaning they occur before 37 weeks of gestation, which puts babies at risk of a host of complications.
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Nov 22, 2024 | 
nature.com | Sarah Williams
AbstractA long-standing goal in neuroscience is to understand how a circuit’s form influences its function. Here, we reconstruct and analyze a synaptic wiring diagram of the larval zebrafish brainstem to predict key functional properties and validate them through comparison with physiological data. We identify modules of strongly connected neurons that turn out to be specialized for different behavioral functions, the control of eye and body movements.
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Nov 11, 2024 | 
pme.uchicago.edu | Sarah Williams
Today, most graphite — a form of carbon used in electronics and batteries — comes from environmentally damaging mining or a synthetic process that relies on crude oil. Both ways of obtaining graphite have a large carbon footprint and energy demand. Now, researchers at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering have invented a new method to produce graphite from charred plant material.
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Oct 30, 2024 | 
broadinstitute.org | Sarah Williams
A single biopsy from a metastatic breast cancer tumor contains hundreds of thousands of cells – some cancerous and others part of the complex web of immune cells, blood vessels, and supportive tissue that surround a tumor. Researchers have typically analyzed these cells as a mixed-together group, but this approach can miss rare cell types, and makes it difficult to draw conclusions about how cells interact to drive the disease.
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Oct 23, 2024 | 
broadinstitute.org | Sarah Williams
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Jul 9, 2024 | 
pme.uchicago.edu | Sarah Williams
Quantum computers offer powerful ways to improve cybersecurity, communications, and data processing, among other fields. To realize these full benefits, however, multiple quantum computers need to be connected to build quantum networks or a quantum internet. Scientists have struggled to come up with practical methods of building such networks, which must transmit quantum information over long distances.
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Jul 4, 2024 | 
biorxiv.org | James M. Fulcher |Hugh Mitchell |Sarah Williams |Kristin M Engbrecht
AbstractSingle-cell multiomics provides comprehensive insights into gene regulatory networks, cellular diversity, and temporal dynamics. Here, we introduce nanoSPLITS (nanodroplet SPlitting for Linked-multimodal Investigations of Trace Samples), an integrated platform that enables global profiling of the transcriptome and proteome from same single cells using RNA sequencing and mass spectrometry-based proteomics, respectively.
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Jun 17, 2024 | 
pme.uchicago.edu | Sarah Williams
The liquid crystals that regulate the brightness in computer monitors, TVs, and countless other modern devices appear as translucent oil to the naked eye, but can show vibrant colors under polarized light. The fine optical textures seen under the microscope enable scientists to study the precise molecular details of liquid crystals.
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Mar 11, 2024 | 
medicalxpress.com | Sarah Williams
All living cells teem with ribonucleic acid (RNA), molecules that relay genetic messages to keep cells functioning. But these necessary molecules can also set off cellular alarms. The long twisted-together strands of RNA in viruses, for instance, are a tell-tale sign of an invader and the human immune system triggers inflammation in their presence.
