Dueber lab engineers opium poppy pathway

yeast

Researchers in professor John Dueber’s lab have taken us one step closer to producing more medications through synthetic biology by replicating some of the chemical processes of the opium poppy in yeast. Will DeLoache, bioengineering graduate student and study lead author, and collaborators, were able to synthesize the poppy compound reticuline from tyrosine, a derivative of glucose.

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Conboy and Schaffer discover new drug to rejuvenate aging tissues

Hippocampus tissue

Bioengineering professors Irina Conboy and David Schaffer, have discovered a small-molecule drug that simultaneously revives old stem cells in the brains and muscles of mice. This is excellent news for anti-aging research, giving hope that there could exist a single intervention that rescues the function of multiple tissues throughout the body.

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Video cellscope automates detection of parasites in blood

video cellscope

The CellScope team in Professor Dan Fletcher’s lab have made another breakthrough in mobile microscopy, using video to automatically detect and quantify infection by parasitic worms in a drop of blood. The new device can help revive efforts to treat common, neglected filarial diseases in Africa, such as river blindness.

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Whitaker Fellowship for Cheung

Congratulations to graduating senior Shin Yu Celia Cheung, recipient of a 2015 Whitaker International Fellowship! Cheung will begin research this Fall at Imperial College London, under the mentorship of Dr. David Klug.

Congratulations also to incoming PhD student, Alisha Geldert, also a 2015 Whitaker Fellow.

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Marriott lab finds uses for bioluminescent protein

LUMP protein

Professor Gerard Marriott’s lab has found amazing applications for a new type of genetically encoded fluorescent protein that is found in a symbiont populating the light organ of the ponyfish. The uniquely low mass and long fluorescence lifetime of the protein make it potentially useful as a biosensor to carry out rapid, quantitative and proteome-wide analyses of specific protein interactions, or to screen for drugs designed to disrupt a specific protein complex in a living cell.

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