You are you because of a unique combination of your parents' genes, coded into the strands of DNA molecules, coiled tightly around an “X-shaped” structure. This is a chromosome, and you have 23 pairs of them, deep down in the nucleus of all 37 trillion cells in your body.
Dr. Beth Sullivan, Associate Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at Duke University, studies chromosome rearrangements in her lab and how they may cause disease.
Lurking in the Eastern forests, from Mississippi to Maine, is a living hybrid. With the combined genetics of three distinct animals, it's a survivor, and a better predator. How is this animal a lot like you and me?
You are a paleontologist on expedition hunting dinosaur fossils. For all your efforts, you've unearthed just a few bone fragments. Back at the lab, you and your team determine that, based on their shape and size, you're looking at a colossal waste of time and resources. But a new tool is emerging which allows us to use dinosaur DNA to better understand prehistoric evolutionary trees. It may also help to find life on Mars, or treat human diseases.
With great complexity, we manufacture things like jet airplanes, interplanetary probes, medical tools, and microprocessors. We build with a top-down approach, starting with a big picture concept which we then design and assemble in pieces.
Duke University professor of computer sciences, Dr. John Reif, notes that nature works from the bottom up to assemble complex structures in three dimensions. He and his lab are working on that.
A Duke University scientist is cracking the mystery of microcephaly. How might this help in Zika research?
