Scientists from EMBL Heidelberg have discovered that the collection of proteins in an animal cell - called the proteome - is substantially affected by both the animal's sex and its diet.

As the world struggles to meet the increasing demand for energy, coupled with the rising levels of CO2 in the atmosphere from deforestation and the use of fossil fuels, photosynthesis in nature simply cannot keep up with the carbon cycle. In a recent paper, researchers report significant progress in optimizing systems that mimic the first stage of photosynthesis, capturing and harnessing light energy from the sun.

In a series of studies that volleyed between large databases and research in zebrafish, investigators have discovered a link between vascular biology and eye disease.

Any organism is a by-product of both its genetic makeup and the environment. To understand this in detail, we must first appreciate some basic genetic vocabulary and concepts. Here, we provide definitions for the terms genotype and phenotype, discuss their relationship and take a look at why and how we might choose to study them.

Given the complexity of cancer, it’s arguably unlikely that single molecules will work as clinically meaningful biomarkers for cancer. Today, biomarker discovery involves detecting patterns – characteristics or phenotypes that can be measured and monitored throughout a patient’s journey. Here, we look at two approaches being explored in this evolving field.

When developing diagnostic tests or evaluating results, it is important to understand how reliable those tests and therefore the results you are obtaining are. By using samples of known disease status, values such as sensitivity and specificity can be calculated that allow you to evaluate just that.

In an age where advanced high-throughput-omic technologies allow for cheaper and faster screening of the genome, consumer genomics is becoming increasingly mainstream and a growing number of people are opting to purchase genetic tests for a variety of purposes, including personalized nutrition advice.

Identical male twins Scott and Mark Kelly - both (now retired) NASA astronauts – spent one year apart as Scott travelled to and inhabited the International Space Station (ISS), whilst Mark stayed at home on earth. Researchers have gained valuable insights from the study results as to the physiological effects of space travel.

The Boyce Thompson Institute's Plant Genome Editing Database has been created by scientists to encourage sharing of data from experiments where CRISPR/Cas9 technology, along with other approaches to gene editing, have been used to study economically important traits in plants. We spoke to Zhangjun Fei and David Stern from the institute to learn more.