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Tech + Society

Tech + Society

New technologies launched the genomic era. Now, progress in genomic research depends on further innovations in the tools that allow us to probe, manipulate, and analyze biological molecules. Whether focused on software or hardware, biomaterials or microfluidics, DNA editors or molecular motors, our technological research pushes the boundaries of the physically possible and paves the way for future discovery.

Featured Stories

Researchers genetically engineered the metabolic pathways in yeast to produce oxalic acid, which can be used to extract free rare earth elements from low-grade ore. Graphic courtesy Dan Herchek/LLNL
Diwakar Shukla, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering
A research group co-led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign predicts that a surprisingly adaptable species of marine archaea will play an important role in reshaping biodiversity in the planet’s oceans as the climate changes. Photo by Fred Zwicky
Researchers used microbes to convert plastic waste into pyruvate, an essential energy source for microbes that use it to generate other useful products. As a proof-of-concept experiment, they converted polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, from plastic bottles into the blue dye indigoidine. Photo by Fred Zwicky
Soybean cyst nematode. Image credit Esmaeil Miraeiz.
Biology professor Tong Wang (left) with bioengineering professor Sergei Maslov.