Scientist Spotlight: Orianna Bretschger

Most of us have never thought about how to make more water or cleaner water or develop unique sources of energy but that’s exactly what Orianna Bretschger does at JCVI. She is working at the intersection of engineering, physics, and biology to design small machines powered by bacteria that...

Having Fun with Genomics

I am the generation after landing on the moon. As a child, I don’t recall having any science inspiration. I was fortunate to have parents that made it possible for me and my siblings to get a very good education. I went to a small parochial school outside of Washington, DC. It was a great...

AGBT, Marco Island 2010

I just got back from AGBT in Marco Island, Florida and I am still in awe. As noted in the name, this conference highlights advances in both genome biology and technology. The biology seemed to be very human genome centric. Many of the talks presented full genome sequences of cancer genomes or...

Influenza H1N1pdm sequencing project overview

Since 2004, the JCVI Influenza Genome Sequencing Project, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), has sequenced thousands of human, swine, and avian influenza isolates from collections around the world to provide researchers with a better understanding of...

High Impact Science in Antarctica

Big changes in store for the Mertz Polynya: in February 2010 iceberg 9B9 collided with the Mertz Glacier, breaking the 70 km floating glacier off at the base. The Mertz Polynya was extensivley sampled by scientists at the JCVI in the summer of 2007/08, and this metagenomic survey will form an important baseline for evaluating on-going changes in the area.

Rocky Hill MS Explodes with Science

Mrs. Jill Maisch is the 7th Grade Science teacher at Rocky Hill Middle School who is responsible for the explosion with Science in Clarksburg MD. She, along with new teachers and veteran teachers to the DiscoverGenomics! Science Education Program attended our annual professional development...

New ways to analyze metagenomics data

Are you looking for new tools to analyze your metagenomics data? Are you using MG-RAST, IMG/M or MEGAN for your daily metagenomics work? JCVI is working on a user friendly alternative that you might be looking for - a new tool kit for metagenomics data visualization and analysis...

DNA microarrays vs RNAseq — The winner and new heavyweight champion is?... It’s a draw.

In the past year or so there have been several articles stating that the death of microarray technology is growing near. These proclamations are due to the more recently introduced methodology referred to as RNAseq. At first glance I wrote these claims off as being silly and premature. Over...

Science Festivals

With spring around the corner (or at least we hope), there are several upcoming science festivals. These festivals are designed to provide students and families opportunities to find out what is happening in local science research institutes, universities and companies. These organizations...

Hair claimed to belong to Leonardo da Vinci to undergo DNA testing

Critics, however, argue that this effort is flawed from the beginning

Students learn about genomics, a life in science, at J. Craig Venter Institute