Why Cas12a Offers Advantages Over Cas9 for Certain Applications
When sticky ends, self-processing guides, and AT-rich access make Cas12a the smarter choice
Genome-Wide Association Studies: From Statistical Signals to Mechanistic Understanding
Why finding disease variants is only the beginning of understanding what they do
Ancestral Sequence Reconstruction Reveals Enzyme Evolution
Resurrecting ancient proteins reveals evolutionary trajectories and provides unexpected starting points for modern enzyme engineering.
How Split Intein Systems Enable In Vivo Protein Assembly
Trans-splicing inteins seamlessly join protein fragments in living cells, bypassing the size limits that constrain gene therapy delivery.
How Phage-Assisted Continuous Evolution Accelerates Protein Engineering
Linking protein function to phage survival enables autonomous evolution at unprecedented speed and scale.
Codon Optimization's Hidden Tradeoffs in Protein Expression
Why replacing rare codons with abundant ones often decreases protein yield instead of improving it
How Transposon Mutagenesis Maps Fitness Landscapes at Genomic Scale
Systematic transposon insertion libraries enable genome-wide fitness mapping that reveals essential genes and quantifies selection coefficients under defined conditions
Why Anti-CRISPR Proteins Matter for Gene Therapy Safety
Natural CRISPR inhibitors offer precise temporal control and emergency shutdown capabilities essential for safe therapeutic gene editing
Why Directed Evolution Outperforms Rational Design for Enzyme Engineering
Understanding why evolutionary algorithms discover enzyme variants that computational predictions consistently miss reveals fundamental truths about protein complexity.
Synthetic Minimal Genomes Reveal What's Actually Essential for Life
Building cells from scratch reveals that one-third of essential genes remain functionally mysterious, exposing the gap between genetic manipulation and understanding.
Base Editing's Precision Problem: Managing Bystander Mutations
Why base editors hit neighboring nucleotides and how protein engineering is solving the single-base precision challenge for therapeutic applications
How Multiplexed CRISPR Screens Decode Gene Interaction Networks
Pairwise gene knockouts reveal hidden cellular dependencies and functional modules that single-gene disruptions cannot expose.
How Prime Editing Bypasses CRISPR's Double-Strand Break Problem
Prime editing rewrites DNA without breaking it, slashing mutation rates and unlocking thousands of genetic diseases previously too dangerous to touch.
Why Horizontal Gene Transfer Rewrites Bacterial Evolutionary Trees
Bacterial genomes are genetic marketplaces where DNA flows across species boundaries, transforming evolutionary trees into tangled webs of shared innovation.