Monya Baker

Digital PCR hits its stride

As the less familiar cousin of quantitative PCR moves mainstream, researchers have more options to choose from.

MicroRNA profiling: separating signal from noise.

Various platforms for measuring microRNAs can provide different answers.

Metabolomics: from small molecules to big ideas

The focus of metabolomic studies is shifting from cataloging chemical structures to finding biological stories.

Next-generation sequencing: adjusting to data overload

To keep pace with accelerating sequencing machines, genomics researchers clean house and move toward the cloud.

De novo genome assembly: what every biologist should know

As more genomes are assembled from scratch, scientists are struggling to assess and improve their quality.

Gene-editing nucleases

ways to modify sequences in the genome, a powerful technique. Even as the genome sequences of many organisms are being revealed, understanding what those genes really do requires tweaking the sequences, deleting or modifying genes, and studying the consequences. With the exceptions of those from mice and yeast, however, eukaryotic genomes generally resist this type of precise tinkering. Engineered gene-editing nucleases are now poised to change that. Over the past 15 years, researchers have been optimizing ZFNs. More recently, a DNA-binding motif that has been identified in proteins known as transcription activator–like effectors (TALEs) has also been attached to nucleases. Although they have not been as thoroughly tested, these nucleases, or TALENs, are so far proving to be easier to design and capable of performing the same feats. And the feats are impressive: just this year, researchers working with human pluripotent stem cells used TALENs to replace disease alleles with healthy ones and to look for differences between otherwise genetically identical cells. In other work, genes from one species have been replaced with related genes from another to see how genomic context affects gene function. Specific genes in rats, roundworms and other organisms can now be targeted with engineered nucleases in ways once thought impossible.

Making membrane proteins for structures: a trillion tiny tweaks.

Researchers try multiple means to get high-quality membrane proteins for X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy studies.

Long noncoding RNAs: the search for function

Transcripts are easy to find: sorting out what they do is a challenge.

Structural variation: the genome's hidden architecture

Next-generation sequencing is uncovering more variants than ever before, but it also faces limitations.

Clever PCR: more genotyping, smaller volumes

With microfluidics and multiplexing, researchers can get more information from PCR products in less time and with fewer reagents.