Posts categorized Science & Technology

Given the widespread attention regarding the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa, four Medical Center faculty with expertise in viral infections field questions about the outbreak, the nature of pandemics, vaccines, and what a U.S. outbreak might look like.

The National Institutes of Health has invited the Medical Center to join the NIH Accelerating Medicines Partnership in Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lupus Network. Made up of 11 research groups from around the country, its aim is to develop new treatments for patients with the conditions.

Scientists have recently developed several ways—some simple and some involving new technologies—to hide objects from view. The latest effort, developed by physics professor John Howell and graduate student Joseph Choi, not only overcomes some limitations of previous devices, but uses inexpensive, readily available materials in a new way. “This is the first device that we know of that can do three-dimensional, continuously multidirectional cloaking,” said Choi.

Biology researchers Vera Gorbunova and Andrei Seluanov report that the “jumping genes” in mice become active as the mice age when a multi-function protein stops keeping them in check in order to take on another role. A protein called Sirt6 is needed to keep the jumping genes—technically known as retrotransposons—inactive.

Biologists Vera Gorbunova and Andei Seluanov have discovered one reason for the the increase in DNA damage as we age: the primary repair process begins to fail and is replaced by one that is less accurate.

Anton Zeilinger, one of the world’s leading experts in the field of quantum optics, will present a free, public lecture Tuesday at the University of Rochester. The talk is designed to convey the exciting frontiers of quantum mechanics to a general audience.

For the first time, the middle-steps in the process that creates the protein-making machinery of bacterial cells—called the ribosomes—has been isolated. A new study by biologist Gloria Culver suggests that blocking these pathways may help kill off drug-resistant bacteria.

A new combination of materials can efficiently guide electricity and light along the same tiny wire, a finding that could be a step towards building computer chips capable of transporting digital information at the speed of light.