Tags: Creswell Hall

photo of man with corn stalks
Genetics professor to lead corn pangenome project

Distinguished Research Professor Kelly Dawe in the department of genetics is principal investigator on a new project to sequence the genetic diversity of the world's largest cash crop: When the human genome was first sequenced in 2001, the project focused on a single individual. Since that time, several new genomes have been assembled and additional genetic data have been generated for thousands of individuals, producing a more complete picture…

drawings of a snake on different pieces of paper
Slithering Enhancers

Snakes weren't always legless; they evolved the loss of limbs over 100 million years ago and new research from genetics explains why snakes have held on to this limb circuitry through the ages: "There have been many millions of snake generations since they evolved a legless body, and we would generally expect the DNA associated with limb development to fade away or mutate to do another job, but that doesn't seem to have happened," he said…


Examining the history of plants

It sounds like the title of a cable documentary (a good one! And maybe it is) but scientists from North America, Europe and China have published a paper in PNAS that reveals important details about key transitions in the evolution of plant life on Earth: From strange and exotic algae, mosses, ferns, trees and flowers growing deep in steamy rainforests to the grains and vegetables humans eat and the ornamental plants adorning people's homes, all…


Microbiology researchers publish discovery on Earth's oldest life forms

This is a big discovery: University of Georgia researchers discovered important genetic clues about the history of microorganisms called archaea and the origins of life itself in the first ever study of its kind. Results of their study shed light on one of Earth's oldest life forms. "Archaea are an ancient form of microorganisms, so everything we can learn about them could help us to answer questions about the origin of life," said William…


New nanomaterials produce better DNA diagnostic tools

The physicist Richard Feynman gave his famous lecture, There's Always Room at the Bottom, in 1959, considered by many as the conceptual birth of nanotechnology. And ever since, nanotechnology has represented a very promising avenue for all manner of scientific research and application, from drug delivery to hydrogen fuel cell storage. As such it has attracted the attention of some of the world's premier researchers and we're now approaching, if…


Targeting Cellular Invaders

My colleague Sam Fahmy brings us this story today, from UGA researchers harnessing bacterial immune systems to fight infection and disease: “Scientists study bacteria and other microorganisms to understand essential life processes as well as to improve their use in the safe production of foods, biofuels and pharmaceuticals, and to fight those that cause disease,” said Michael Terns, a professor in the departments of biochemistry and molecular…
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