What computer company is building a bar code reader for DNA?”
In this cross-section of the DNA Transistor, a single strand of DNA moves amidst (invisible) water molecules through the nanopore In this cross-section of the DNA Transistor, a single strand of DNA moves amidst (invisible) water molecules through the nanopore * * Imagine a world where medicine is guaranteed not to cause adverse reactions because it’s designed for an individual’s DNA. Imagine a diet tailored to the precise speed of a person’s metabolism. Using a little microelectronics, a little physics, and no small dose of biology, IBM has brought that futuristic world a little bit closer. The DNA Transistor is a project from IBM Research that aims to advance personalized medicine, by making it simpler (and much cheaper) to read an individual’s unique DNA sequence — the special combination of proteins that makes you unlike anyone else. The technology isn’t finished yet, but its potential is tantalizin enough that IBM wanted to share it with the world. And the company claims researcher
The task of identifying Earth’s estimated 10 million species has daunted biologists for centuries – fewer than two million have been named. Using a technique called DNA barcoding, researchers at Rockefeller University and two Canadian institutions have uncovered four new species of North American birds. The findings are reported in the September 28 issue of Public Library of Science (PLoS) Biology. The result is an important step toward proving that the sequence of a short stretch of DNA — a so-called DNA barcode — can be used genetically to identify known species and to find new ones. “A uniform system to use DNA to identify all plants and animals would allow many more people — from environmental regulators to nature lovers — to identify organisms,” says Mark Y. Stoeckle, M.D., guest investigator in the Program for the Human Environment at Rockefeller University. “For humans, birds are probably the easiest species to identify. They’re big, they’re colored differently, and they sin
