News

Ken Maeda, a researcher in OIST’s Marine Genomics Unit, has identified a new freshwater goby species on the islands of Okinawa and Iriomote. The species, Stiphodon alcedo, is described in the latest issue of the journal Cybium.

To respond to the body’s needs, our cells are constantly switching specific genes on or off. Flipping the switch means the cells either start or stop making copies of a gene out of molecules known as RNA; these so-called “transcripts” are then read by protein-making machinery to manufacture the gene’s final product.

Have you ever wondered if our universe is just a tiny speck in a much larger cosmos? The Theory of Quantum Matter Unit here at OIST examines this idea on a much smaller scale.

The Trans-Membrane Trafficking Unit is taking a sort of good cop-bad cop approach to one membrane protein complex, using two different means to grill it for information.

In a paper published yesterday in Science, a team of researchers that includes OIST's Nick Luscombe shows that the long-accepted view of how male fruit flies manipulate their genes’ activity should be revised. Their finding shows how cells use a single, crucial regulator to change the activity of large numbers of genes at the same time.