Engineering Professor Hang Lu holds up a chip used to immobilize C. elegans roundworms for photographing by a microscope optic connected to a computer. The chip then sorts the worms into one of two channels for either mutants or non-mutants, a status an algorythm determines based on subtle phenotypical differences it recognizes in the microscope photo. Credit: Georgia Tech / Rob Felt

Secret Phenotypes: Disease Devils in Invisible Details

Atlanta

Computers viewing tiny traits could reveal previously invisible underpinnings of horrible diseases.

An atomic force microscope allows scientists to observe molecular interactions important to understanding life processes. Georgia Tech mechanical engineers focusing on biotechnology recently significantly improved AFM's sensitivity by adding electronic white noise. Credit: Georgia Tech /  Rob Felt

Catching Molecular Dances in Slow Motion by Adding White Noise

Atlanta

Counterintuitive addition of noise to AFM instrument requiring quiet boosts its performance

Researcher Roman Mezencev holds a sample of nanohydrogel developed for targeted delivery of siRNA to cancer cells and successfully tested in vivo in mice in John McDonald's Georgia Tech lab. Credit: Georgia Tech / Micah Eavenson / Adam Karcz

Punching Cancer With RNA Knuckles

Atlanta, GA

Eye-popping reduction of tumors achieved with help of siRNA inside targeted delivery gel.

Learning Morse Code without Trying

Atlanta, GA

Researchers have developed a system that teaches people Morse code within four hours using a series of vibrations felt near the ear

Gene puddle primeval, a drawing by first author Christine He to illustrate her discocery that viscosity moves DNA and RNA strands forward toward spontaneous gene strand replication. Credit: Georgia Tech / Christine He

Was the Secret Spice in Primal Gene Soup a Thickener?

Atlanta, GA

Searching for the origins of life, researchers add thickener to the broth

Startup Launch - Deadline Announcement!

Atlanta, GA

Startup Launch (formerly known as Startup Summer) is looking for the next great ideas from Tech students for its 2017 program.

A bacterial warrior the only one of its kind? This enzyme is "wacko" in many ways in its breakdown of a poison related to TNT. On top of that, 5NAA-A is known so far only to exist in a single living organism on Earth. Could it be the lone master of a rare bacterial enzymatic kung fu, in the war on potatoes? Or does a genomic clue point to its existence in one other solitary case?

Unique Bacterial Chemist in the War on Potatoes

Atlanta, GA

A bacterial warrior the only one of its kind? This enzyme is "wacko" in the ways it breaks down a poison related to TNT.

Aaron Blanchard and Khalid Salaita, associate professor of chemistry at Emory. 

Collegiate Inventors Competition Selects Georgia Tech/Emory Team as 2016 finalists

Atlanta, GA

The Collegiate Inventors Competition has selected a team of two Georgia Tech and Emory graduate students as finalists in its 2016 annual competition.

Images from the Encyclopedia of Life. Photo credits: Robertpollai, CC-BY; A. Fifis/Ifremer, CC-BY-NC; Kevin Raskoff & MPC, CC-BY-NC-SA; Sean McCann, CC-BY-NC-SA; Nick Hobgood, CC-BY-NC  

Addressing Environmental Challenges with Big Data and Artificial Intelligence

Atlanta, GA

NSF funding to link technologies from Georgia Tech, Smithsonian and IBM to study environment.

The schizophrenia simulator is a well-ordered, fine-tuned labyrinth of data from thousands of studies mathed with differential equations to be highly accurate. But the output to users is simple and playful -- a rainbow-colored mobile that displays the dynamics of the brain chemicals' interplay.

Schizophrenia Simulator: When Chemistry Upends Sanity's Balance

Atlanta, GA

Working memory disturbances wreck the mental coherence of schizophrenia sufferers, yet treatments for it are very limited. Biomedical engineers have built an accurate simulator of the brain chemistry behind it to help drug developers change that.