U of A Comprehensive Cancer Center Director Dr. Dan Theodorescu plans to study loss of Y chromosome biology and investigate potential therapies for bladder and other cancers.

The largest-ever study on neophobia, or fear of novelty, has discovered the key reasons why some bird species are more fearful of new things than others.

Testing for the study, published in PLOS Biology, took place in 24 countries across six continents. Overall, across 136 species tested – representing 25 taxonomic orders from penguins to parrots – the study found that two ecological drivers strongly predicted neophobia: dietary specialisation and migratory behaviour.

Neophobia plays a crucial role in how animals balance risk and opportunity, and understanding neophobia has important implications for conservation, for example with helping species experiencing habitat change or being reintroduced into the wild from breeding programmes.

MIT engineers designed a control mechanism, known as DIAL, that allows them to establish a desired protein level, or set point, for any synthetic gene circuit.

Researchers from the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will partner with investigators from industrial and academic institutions, including Ginkgo Bioworks, Baylor University, University of Minnesota, Oregon State University, and Oregon Health & Science University, on a five-year initiative funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health and overseen by Program Manager Andrew Brack, PhD. The project, “Microbe/phage Investigation for Generalized Health TherapY (MIGHTY),” aims to harness the natural predators of bacteria – known as phages – as precision tools to shape the human microbiome and promote health.

A National Science Foundation grant will support Anne Brown’s goal to enhance the technical and practical data science skills of students studying molecular bioscience.