Insights on Sex and Death from a Mutant Roundworm

Patrick McGrath holds up dishes with two lab strains of the C. elegans roundworm. Strain LSJ2 (dish on right) dramatically changed its survival strategy to live longer and have fewer offspring due to a tiny mutation on its NURF-1 gene. Researchers at Georgia Tech confirmed the effects of the mutation by duplicating it in lab strain N2 (dish on left) via an injection with CRISPR Cas9. 
Jul 28, 2016 - Atlanta, GA
Do genetic regulators guide survival strategies in hard times? A tiny mutation in a roundworm says they may well.

Secret Phenotypes: Disease Devils in Invisible Details

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
Nov 23, 2016 - Atlanta
Computers viewing tiny traits could reveal previously invisible underpinnings of horrible diseases.
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