biological

The intense, laserlike x-rays are siphoned off into 14 beamlines that scientists will use to image materials and biological structures at atomic to nanometer scales and take snapshots of chemical reactions over nanosecond time frames.

Publishing in the journal Nature Communications, School of Biological Sciences Postdoctoral Scholar Ankush Auradkar and Professor Ethan Bier led the creation of a new genetic system that converts insecticide-resistant forms of mutated insect genes back to their natural, native form.

"We have developed an efficient biological approach to reverse insecticide resistance without creating any other perturbation to the environment," said Bier, a professor in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, of the self-eliminating allelic drive, or "e-Drive."

"We started with 37 Florida panther samples and four polymorphic sites, but as we began to incorporate more samples from Central and South America, we found more and more diversity," says Sharkey, who is now a graduate student in biological anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis.

A suite of agricultural techniques called integrated pest management combines biological, chemical and mechanical controls to sustainably manage pests.