Chicken Fat

Research provides insights into genetic basis of obesity

Oct. 28, 2015–Just as poultry is steadily gaining in popularity on dinner plates, the chicken is growing in attractiveness as a biomedical model for studying health issues ranging from headaches and ovarian cancer to cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy.

It turns out that the chicken may also help researchers better understand diabetes and obesity.

July 28, 2015–Dr. Liang Sun’s recent successful dissertation defense marked an important milestone, both for him and for the Bioinformatics Graduate program.

Dr. Sun is the first student to graduate from the Bioinformatics & Systems Biology PhD Program, which was launched in Fall 2012.

His dissertation, performed under the supervision of Dr. Carl Schmidt, Professor of Animal and Food Sciences, was focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying heat stress.

11:25 a.m., June 17, 2015–When cataracts encroach on the eyes, the only effective remedy is to surgically replace the eyes’ lenses with synthetic substitutes.

But what if scientists found a way to delay or prevent cataracts from forming in the first place?

Researchers at the University of Delaware may have found such an opportunity by identifying the prime suspects in the formation of cataracts – deficiency of two genes that encode regulatory proteins.

2:04 p.m., June 9, 2015–Big data is being used for applications ranging from analyzing the popularity of beer to mapping the world’s ecosystems. While having more information can lead to more accurate analysis of a problem, the more isn’t always the merrier when it comes to data. What happens when the needle can’t be found because the haystack is so big?

Pharmaceutical companies, for example, face the daunting task of narrowing millions of potential molecules down to a small pool of the most promising candidates for wet-lab testing.