Low Pittcon attendance doesn’t deter from quality program

March 11, 2020 — Attendance was down at last week’s Pittcon conference in Chicago, but organizers of the meeting for laboratory scientists may actually have been lucky that their show took place at all, given the wipeout of science and health meetings in March due to the coronavirus outbreak.
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New machinery digests toxic proteins to protect DNA replication

March 9, 2020 — Researchers have identified molecular machinery that helps repair damaged DNA that occurs during DNA replication and transcription. This work, published in Nature Communications on March 9, reveals how specific enzymes “eat” or break down proteins that cause broken DNA.
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Chemists develop method to identify protein neighbors

March 6, 2020 — A new technology called µMap uses photocatalysts, molecules that spur a chemical reaction when activated by light, to identify spatial relationships of cell surface proteins. The results are described by scientists from Princeton University and Merck in the March 6 edition of Science.
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Zigzag DNA provides insight into chromosome organization

March 4, 2020 — New Z-loops — DNA folded into a zigzag structure and guided by essential condensin proteins — have been caught on camera for the first time. The results of the study provide insight into the organization of chromosomes and were published in Nature on March 4.
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New coronavirus puts focus on the science of naming new viruses

March 3, 2020 — What’s in a name? Possibly a lot, when it comes to determining how to name new virus species based on genetic characteristics. The initial confusion over the naming of the novel coronavirus indicates that the scientific community still has work to do when defining the proper taxonomy of viruses, according to an article published in Nature Microbiology on March 2.
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From lab to clinic: How AI can help

March 2, 2020 — Clinical trials are an important checkpoint in moving therapies from the lab to the clinic, and artificial intelligence (AI) software can help researchers and clinicians reach their goals in several ways, according to a new article by U.K. market research firm Signify Research.
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