GCB News

GCB WELCOMES NEW MEMBERS

This fall, GCB welcomed two new members: Anne Yoder, Ph.D., and Purushothama Rao Tata, Ph.D.

Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative Tackles Synthetic Biology

Lingchong You, Ph.D., and Ashutosh Chilkoti, Ph.D., are collaborating with researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, Princeton University, and University of North Carolina on a five-year, $7.5 million Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) award from the Department of Defense.

“For the longest time, the central dogma of biology was that structure equals function,” Chilkoti said. “But some proteins lack that structure, so they had been considered unimportant.” Research now, though, is showing that is not the case. 

Research Roundup: October 2020

Here are summaries of a selection of the papers published by GCB faculty in October 2020:

COVID-19

Greg Wray and team used statistical methods they developed to identify adaptive changes that arose in the SARS-CoV-2 genome in humans, but not in closely related coronaviruses found in bats and pangolins to help figure out what makes the virus so unique. Read more

GCB helps spin out success

In FY20, 17 new start-up companies formed at Duke, according to Duke’s Office of Licensing and Ventures (OLV).