Written by: Zoe Yeoh
Editors: Stephanie Palmer and Jennifer Baker
The University of Michigan’s Center for RNA Biomedicine hosted its 7th annual RNA symposium on March 23rd, 2023. The theme of this year’s symposium was “From Molecules to Medicines,” and it featured an impressive lineup of RNA experts who shared fascinating research on a wide range of RNA topics.
Continue reading “Center for RNA Biomedicine holds 7th annual symposium”Live blogger: Varsha Shankar
Editors: Sadie Gugel and Jennifer Baker
This piece was written live during the 7th annual RNA Symposium, “From Molecules to Medicines,” hosted by the University of Michigan’s Center for RNA Biomedicine. Follow MiSciWriters’ coverage of this event on Twitter with the hashtag #umichrna.
You may recall learning in high school biology that ribosomes are the smallest organelle. Despite their miniscule size, these organelles are one of the most critical – that’s why they, unlike some organelles, are present in both eukaryotes and prokaryotes. The site of protein synthesis in the cell, ribosomes are responsible for building proteins that dictate our bodily metabolic activity, and ultimately, who we are.
Continue reading “Joseph Wedekind: Redefining Riboswitches”Live blogger: Sadie Gugel
Editors: Varsha Shankar and Jennifer Baker
This piece was written live during the 7th annual RNA Symposium, “From Molecules to Medicines,” hosted by the University of Michigan’s Center for RNA Biomedicine. Follow MiSciWriters’ coverage of this event on Twitter with the hashtag #umichrna.
The nucleus, the endoplasmic reticulum, and the mitochondria are organelles likely familiar to many of us from biology class. These structures are separated from the rest of the cell by membranes and are used by eukaryotic cells to compartmentalize and organize molecules that support specific cell functions. While these organelles are certainly important, Dr. Amy Gladfelter and her group are interested in a different kind of cellular organization: biomolecular condensates.
Continue reading “Amy Gladfelter: Encoding temperature sensitivity in biomolecular condensates”Live blogger: Paul Dylag
Editor: Jennifer Baker
This piece was written live during the 7th annual RNA Symposium, “From Molecules to Medicines,” hosted by the University of Michigan’s Center for RNA Biomedicine. Follow MiSciWriters’ coverage of this event on Twitter with the hashtag #umichrna.
Biomolecular condensates are found throughout plant and animal cells in various organelles that lack membranes, such as the nucleolus and RNA granules. Normally, membraneless organelles would be an issue, as mixing their components with cytoplasm or extracellular fluid may result in mutations. However, there must be some chemical agents that prevent this, as otherwise life would not have evolved to such complex levels. Researchers are still investigating what prevents these issues from occurring, but one category of molecules called pickering agents have been determined to play a key role in this process.
Continue reading “Geraldine Seydoux: Regulation of biomolecular condensates by interfacial protein clusters”Live Blogger: Jennifer Baker
Editor: Eilidh McClain
This piece was written live during the 7th annual RNA Symposium, “From Molecules to Medicines,” hosted by the University of Michigan’s Center for RNA Biomedicine. Follow MiSciWriters’ coverage of this event on Twitter with the hashtag #umichrna.
The “central dogma” of biology – that DNA is transcribed into RNA is translated into proteins – is a scientific tenet that haunts many American 10th graders during high school biology class. You might recall seeing diagrams like this one of an mRNA molecule sandwiched between the two halves of a ribosome as a new strand of amino acids unfurls from the exit site.
However, it’s likely that your teacher didn’t spend much time on the how and why of this process – why does the ribosome bind to the mRNA? How does it find the start codon, the location on the mRNA that marks the spot where the ribosome starts translating?
Continue reading “Jody Puglisi: The Choreography of Translation Initiation”Live blogger: Eilidh McClain
Editors: Paul Dylag and Jennifer Baker
This piece was written live during the 7th annual RNA Symposium: From Molecules to Medicines, hosted by the University of Michigan’s Center for RNA Biomedicine. Follow MiSciWriters’ coverage of this event on Twitter with the hashtag #umichrna.
In response to multiple external factors, chromatin in chromosomes is able to dynamically shift in order to facilitate gene regulation. Gene expression is altered in part by the use of RNA-protein interactions within the chromatin. However, study of these interactions features many experimental requirements that are not optimized for studying chromatin dynamics as a whole and its role in gene regulation. Dr. Steve Henikoff and coworkers at the Basic Sciences Division of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center have tackled this RNA-protein interaction problem by developing new and powerful tools for studying those interactions. Now that these tools have been developed, they can provide interesting insights to the role of chromatin dynamics in regulation of gene expression and silencing with relative ease compared with previous methodology.
Continue reading “Steve Henikoff: Genome-Wide Mapping of Protein-DNA Interaction Dynamics”Written by: Jennifer Baker
Edited by: Christina Del Greco, Jessica Li, and Andrew Alvarez
Illustrated by: Katie Bonefas
Take a deep breath in … (it’s okay, I’ll wait) … aaaannnnndddd release. Feel better? While breathing deeply is relaxing and has psychological benefits, it also has a fundamental physiological function.
Unless you are reading this atop Mount Everest where gas concentrations deviate from those at sea level (congrats on your successful ascent!), about 21% of the air you just inhaled is oxygen, a vital resource your cells need to survive. This oxygen is used by cells all over your body for chemical processes such as generating energy for cellular functions like building proteins, fixing cell membranes, and repairing DNA.
Continue reading “Elemental damage: When oxygen makes you short of breath”Written by: Lirong Shi and Manaswini Sarangi
Editor: Sarah Kearns and Alyse Krausz
Introduction
As a scientist working around scientists, we may not realize how much scientific waste we and our colleagues produce every day, just like everyone else who may not pay attention to how much household waste we produce in our kitchen. We are so used to the waste in the lab, and compared to the large garbage bin outside, we might think the small plastic bucket in the lab should be negligible. But that is not true. Accounting for only 0.1% of the population, scientists create approximately 5.5 million tons of plastic waste annually in life science alone, which accounts for approximately 2% of the plastic waste produced worldwide [1]. The large amount of plastic waste wandering around the oceans can disrupt carbon balance, poison fish, and end up on humans’ tables. Through experiments, scientists are attempting to improve everyone’s life while also literally contributing to the detriment of the world.
Continue reading “With experiments, comes waste: Scientific waste and where it ends up”Written by: Jessica Moser
Edited by: Courtney Myers
This piece was written in collaboration with the 2025 ComSciCon-MI Write-A-Thon.
Dementia is seen as a chronic and eventually fatal condition of the mind, but what if some patients have a related condition that, when treated, can give them their independence back? Danny Bonaduce from The Partridge Family was diagnosed with a “mystery illness” in 2023 that left him wheelchair-bound with dementia-like symptoms. A couple years following that, singer Billy Joel fell onstage and subsequently cancelled his concerts in 2025 due to what he mentioned as a “brain disorder” that caused him to feel like he was “walking on a boat.” What do these two people have in common? They were diagnosed with a condition called Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus. So, what is Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus and why is it known as “Treatable Dementia”?
Continue reading “Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus: A Treatable Dementia”When you move, I move: Exploring the science behind childhood physical activity
Written by: Stephanie Palmer
图文作者：斯蒂芬妮·帕尔默
Edited by: Chloe Rybicki-Kler, Emily L. Eberhardt, Sarah Bassiouni, and Jennifer Baker
编辑：克洛伊·瑞比基-克勒，艾米莉·L·艾伯哈特，莎拉·巴西奥尼，詹妮弗·贝克
Translated and Edited by: Zhiying Yang
中文翻译/编辑：杨知颖
嗨，亲爱的读者！这是“儿童体育活动决策和行为”两篇系列博客中的第一篇文章。本文将探讨影响“儿童体育活动决策”发展的因素。如需了解监护人如何影响儿童的基本运动技能发展和体育活动行为，请点此阅读第二部分！
写下这篇文章的时候，我三岁的侄女和五岁的侄子正身披自己用纸箱改造的“机器人铠甲”，在院子里疯跑着追赶鸡群。无论是孩子还是鸡，展现出来的体力和耐力都令人惊叹，也让我想起了自己儿时那些“疯玩”的时光。有一次，我为了让轮滑赛道更具挑战性（准确地说是更危险），直接往家里的车库里灌了将近五厘米深的水。还有一次，我和姐姐各自用胶带在身上绑了一个巨大的健身球，然后像开碰碰车一样不断撞向对方。
Continue reading “当你动起来的时候，我也会跟着做: 儿童运动行为背后的科学奥秘”Behind the Peel: The Chemical Complexities of Apples
Written by: Emily L. Eberhardt
作者：艾米莉·L·艾伯哈特
Edited by: Olivia Pifer Alge, Jessica Li, Jeremy Chen, and Ryan Schildcrout
编辑：奥利维亚·皮弗·阿尔，李锦湘，杰米·陈，瑞安·希尔德克劳特
Illustrated by: Paola Medina-Cabrera
插图：保拉·梅迪纳-卡夫雷拉
Translated and Edited by: Zhiying Yang
中文翻译/编辑：杨知颖
“疫苗里充满了化学物质！等等……所以苹果也是？”有天正在刷社交软件的我看到一张网络梗图：有个网友列出了苹果包含的化学物质，试图冒充疫苗成分。我看了看一连串冗长且带着连字符的化合物名称，开始搜索核对苹果的成分。我以为自己会找到一个简单的文献来源，结果却正相反——我发现人们对于数千种苹果和其化学成分的研究已持续了数十年。令人惊喜的是，人们在苹果相关领域的研究“成果丰硕”。
在开始讨论苹果的成分之前，让我们先来了解一下苹果的生长过程。种苹果不是一个简单的“挖洞”、“播种”、“浇水晒太阳”的过程。八万颗苹果种子当中，只有一颗最终能长成符合标准的果树。世界上有超过千种苹果（来自于持续不断地栽培选育），区别来自于不同环境因素导致的不同形状、质感和风味。美国目前约种植几百种，其中最受欢迎的是嘎啦（Gala）、红元帅（Red Delicious）和蜜脆（Honeycrisp）。
Continue reading “果皮之下：苹果的化学复杂性”Written by: Eileen Johnson
Edited by: Caroline Harms
This piece was written in collaboration with the 2025 ComSciCon-MI Write-A-Thon.
Stress is part of everyday life, and while some stress is healthy for growth and safety, an overstimulated stress response can cause mental and physical harm. Understanding the evolutionary pathways that organize this stress response and how to manage them can help us find a healthy balance between stress and rest.
Instincts are the summary of inherited survival knowledge an animal depends on to survive. Information is accumulated and distilled over generations until it is embedded in every member of the species. Automatic and potent, the brain responds to both internal and external stressors by flooding the body with chemicals called stress hormones. The sympathetic nervous system is responsible for producing these hormones and inducing one of three main reactions: fight, flight, and freeze. How hormones turn into instincts depends on the shared experiences of long-lost ancestors, guiding the functional changes in mind and body to improve survival chances.
Continue reading “Posterity, Perseverance, and You”Written by: Antara Paul
Edited by: Courtney Myers
This piece was written in collaboration with the 2025 ComSciCon-MI Write-A-Thon.
The Big Bang created matter and antimatter in equal amounts at the beginning of the universe. Why then, after billions of years, do we see only matter around us? Physicists have been trying to find clues to this question for centuries.
The universe we live in is composed of atoms, which in turn contain tinier particles called protons, neutrons, and electrons. These particles were individually discovered by scientists during the early twentieth century. For the next few decades, it was believed that protons and neutrons were fundamental particles. However, in the 1960s, it was discovered that they were composed of groups of even smaller particles called quarks. At the time, only three types of quarks were discovered.
Continue reading “Towards understanding the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe”Written by: Nina Aitas
Edited by: Lauren Heinzinger
This piece was written in collaboration with the 2025 ComSciCon-MI Write-A-Thon.
What is your body made of? You could say it is made up of different organs like your heart, lungs, and muscles. But what if you were to zoom in on your organs? What are they made of?
Your organs are made up of millions of cells!
Cells are too small to see without a microscope. They make up every single part of your body and hold the tools needed to carry out everything your body does. Your muscle cells contract so you can pick up a book. Your brain cells form your thoughts about how you want to become a lawyer one day. Your skin cells come together to heal your paper cut.
Continue reading “Listen Up, Your Cells Are Talking!”Written by: Jessica Lysne
Edited by: Lauren Heinzinger
This piece was written in collaboration with the 2025 ComSciCon-MI Write-A-Thon.
“I’m working in a staph lab,” I tell a friend from college when we see each other for the first time in a while.
“Ugh! Staph! I hate staph!” She says with a full-body shudder. As a fully licensed pharmacist these days, she works in the Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital on our old university campus. She adds, after the shudder, “Oh, but I’m glad you like it!”
Continue reading “The Skinny on Staph in the US”Written by: Lacey Bishop-Schouster
Edited by: Courtney Myers
This piece was written in collaboration with the 2025 ComSciCon-MI Write-A-Thon.
When we think about intelligence in the animal kingdom, our minds often go straight to ourselves. Then maybe to apes cracking nuts with tools, dolphins playing games, or elephants who “never forget.”
However, there’s another group of animals that is often overlooked and should be included with these examples: the cephalopods. Cephalopods—octopuses, squids, cuttlefish, and nautiluses—are a class of mollusks distinguished by their soft bodies, tentacles, and ability to move by jet propulsion. Although they are invertebrates, they show some of the most complex behaviors on the planet. In fact, they have the largest brains of any invertebrates, and their path to intelligence looks nothing like ours.
Continue reading “Intelligence without a backbone”Written by: Hasnaa H. Abo Shosha
Edited by: Jessica Li
This piece was written in collaboration with the 2025 ComSciCon-MI Write-A-Thon.
I was amazed when I first learned that something as small as a particle of soot could shift the Earth’s climate. These particles are so tiny that you could line thousands of them across a single strand of hair. And yet, they have the power to change how much of the Sun’s energy warms our planet. I like to often think of them as invisible sun catchers floating in the sky.
Continue reading “How Tiny Particles Shape Climate”Written by: Carly Blair
Edited by: Charukesi Sivakumar
This piece was written in collaboration with the 2025 ComSciCon-MI Write-A-Thon.
Almost every cell in the human body contains around two meters (or 6.5 feet) of DNA, encoding the complete instructions for all of your body’s functions. Hair, stomach, brain, skin; each part so vastly different, but all stemming from the same base instructions. So what stops a skin cell from producing stomach acid, or the brain from producing hair? The answer lies in epigenetics.
Continue reading “Epigenetics: How Cells Keep their Sense of Self”
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