News

New study shows how white rot fungus processes could advance biofuels

News Outlet: 
The Huntsville Times
Date published: 
July 2, 2012

 

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Huntsville genetic researchers say a 360-million-year-old fungus may make future biofuels easier to develop.
 
Jeremy Schmutz, a faculty genomic researcher at Huntsville's HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, is one author of a study on the fungus published last week in the journal Science. The research is drawing attention because it also says that same fungus could explain why the Earth contains only one big subterranean band of coal.
 
To read the rest of the article in The Huntsville Times, click here. 

IDair's fingerprint technology making identification more secure

News Outlet: 
The Huntsville Times
Date published: 
June 20, 2012

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Forget the key card to your office building? Just wave your hand at the door, and you're in. "You don't have to stop at a station. Nobody checks your ID. You just walk through," explains Clemson-educated physicist Joel Burcham of his new Huntsville company called IDair.
 
IDair makes a machine that Burcham says can photographically capture a fingerprint from as far away as six meters in enough detail to match against a database. Add facial and iris-recognition technology, Burcham said, and you have the basis for a good biometrics system that can control access to any building or room within a building.
 
To read the rest of the article, click here. 

HudsonAlpha — Nature Conference on Immunogenomics

Scheduled October 1-3 at the Jackson Center, adjacent to HudsonAlpha

The first HudsonAlpha-Nature Conference on Immunogenomics will bring together four areas to shape this emerging field: scientists in genomics and genetics, immunology, bioinformatics and methodology, and clinical research. Invited talks will cover a range of topics:

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HudsonAlpha researcher featured in OncLive article

News Outlet: 
OncLive
Date published: 
June 10, 2012

 

As the cost of sequencing and analyzing genetic data continues to fall, the nation’s leading cancer centers keep unveiling ambitious new clinical programs and research projects that will change the way every cancer specialist practices.
 
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, along with Brigham and Women’s Hospital, has launched one of the biggest research programs to date, in which the Boston, Massachusetts, centers seek to make the tumors of every patient with cancer a subject of genetic research.
 
To read the rest of the OncLive story, click here. 
 

Gov. Bentley wants Alabama biotech industry to grow, favors incentives

News Outlet: 
The Huntsville Times
Date published: 
June 1, 2012

 

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Gov. Robert Bentley told biotechnology companies and researchers on Wednesday that he wants to see Alabama's biotech industry continue to expand and favors incentives to help fuel that growth.
 
Bentley, speaking at BioAlabama's 2012 annual meeting at the newEvonik Degussa Corp.'s new offices in Homewood, talked about "renewal," which to him means turning an idea into a product, a product into a company and a company into jobs for Alabamians. Biotechnology is that type of industry, Bentley said.

Relative reference: Foxtail millet offers clues for assembling the switchgrass genome

News Outlet: 
U.S. Dept. of Energy Joint Genome Institute
Date published: 
May 14, 2012

Arranging DNA fragments into a genome sequence that scientists can interpret is a challenge often compared to assembling a puzzle, except there is no box to provide an idea of what the picture is even supposed to be. Sometimes there's guidance in the form of other publicly-available DNA sequences from related organisms that can be used to guide the assembly process, but its usefulness depends on how closely related any two sequences are to one another. For example, a reference genome might be so distantly related from the one being assembled, it would be akin to comparing a Model-T to a contemporary hybrid car.

The beads and string of DNA

You may have heard the analogy “beads on a string” to describe genetic code. Two new papers from the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology report that both the beads and string contribute to how genetic code relates to human health.

Envision DNA as a very long string, wrapped around millions of beads made of proteins. To regulate genes, cells use thousands of different proteins.  Imagine the beads are made of thousands of combinations of different colors and designs. The technique used in these papers, chromatin immunoprecipitation or ChIP-seq, allows researchers to go in and pick out the specific protein-DNA complexes, or individual beads from this huge jumble, that they want to study.

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Alabama students and teachers celebrate DNA Day

HudsonAlpha team travels around the state to offer encouragement and guidance

As part of DNA Day celebrations, more than 2,500 Alabama students  participated in multiple DNA walks and a GenomeCacheTM exercise this week.

GenomeCacheTM is a free app developed by the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology education team. Along with its accompanying website, this app helps teachers assemble a “Genome Walk,” a physical representation of the human genome that includes information on over 150 genes of interest. The GenomeCacheTM app uses the Genome Walk as the setting for a genomic scavenger hunt, similar to the way geocacheing uses GPS coordinates in the search for treasures.

Leaders laud Ag day

News Outlet: 
Moulton Advertiser
Date published: 
April 19, 2012
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application/pdf iconPrint Version > Leaders laud Ag day.pdf

HudsonAlpha educational outreach team conducts DNA extractions with 500 students at agriculture event

Agriculture was front and center last Friday during the Agricultural Initiative Career Day, a cooperative effort of the Lawrence County school system and the Alabama Chicken & Egg Festival. The event drew effusive praise from state educational and agriculture officials, along with local leaders.

 

Click on PDF above for the rest of the story.

Why we have plenty of fish in the sea

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- New work from the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, with collaborators at Stanford University and five other groups, has pinpointed evolution in action.
 
By determining genomic sequence from many groups of stickleback fish, the scientists were able to show specific genomic changes leading to the ability of different fish populations to adapt to new environments. “We were pleased with the ability of genomics to show us what molecular changes are important in evolutionary processes,” said Richard Myers, Ph.D., president and director of HudsonAlpha. 
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