Behind the paper
The real stories behind the latest research papers, from conception to publication, the highs and the lows
From metagenomics of hot springs to bioinformatics software development
The motivation behind developing a new tool for taxonomic classification of metagenomic high-throughput sequencing data.
Seeing the Tree in a forest of microbial diversity
Access to a wealth of environments and the ability to reconstruct genomes for previously unknown and uncultured lineages has lead to a huge expansion in our understanding of the diversity of life on earth. We wanted to explore that diversity with a Tree of Life for the genomic era.
The birds and the bees: Bacterial sex and its implications in spreading antibiotic resistance
The story behind understanding the influence that antibiotics have on conjugation
From the NICU to the lab and back
With the science in mind and curious about how what we learn in the lab might impact the care of preterm infants, I had the opportunity to observe grand rounds in the NICU in Saint Louis Children’s Hospital. The first thing I noticed was a room full of equipment and nurses. Then I saw the babies. Fragile human lives, some no bigger than the size of a soda can, alive due to the advances in medical science. Research just met real life.
Unexpected excursion into phytoplankton ecology
Context, behind the scenes, and unexpected research path behind phytoplankton bloom dynamics study
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