Over their 3.8 billion years of evolution, living organisms have developed countless strategies for monitoring their surroundings. Chemists at UC Santa Barbara and University of Rome Tor Vergata have adapted some of these strategies to improve the performance of DNA detectors. Their findings may aid efforts to build better medical diagnostics, such as improved HIV or cancer tests. The research was led by the team of Kevin Plaxco, a professor of chemistry. Alexis Vallée-Bélisle, a postdoctoral fellow, is the first author of the study. READ MORE (UCSB Featured News)

Kevin Plaxco (left)
and Alexis Vallée-Bélisle
Credit: Rod Rolle