Hearing Update: Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Holds Confirmation Hearing for Department of Energy Secretary

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Lewis-Burke Associates LLC – January 19, 2017 On January 19, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a confirmation hearing for President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination for Secretary of Energy, former Texas Governor Rick Perry.  Although the three-hour hearing concluded without a scheduled vote, it is expected that the Committee will report a favorable recommendation … Read more

Hearing Update: Senate HELP Committee Holds Confirmation Hearing for Secretary of Health and Human Services Nominee

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Lewis-Burke Associates LLC – January 19, 2017 On January 18, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) nominee Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), an orthopedic surgeon by training, testified before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee as part of his confirmation process. The HELP Committee does not vote on the HHS Secretary nomination, but … Read more

Alternative careers in science: My experience as an informal educator

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By Courtney Price, Education & Outreach Specialist,  Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center & Center for Applied Plant Sciences, and Plantae Fellow With a passion for life science, conservation and education, my academic and professional experience has taken me on a convoluted path. That unique path has led me to my current role as the Education & … Read more

What We’re Reading: January 20th

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Two Reviews: CRISPR/Cas for genome engineering in plants, and Genome editing in cereal crops ($) The gene-editing technology CRISPR/Cas, which introduces double-strand breaks that are repaired by non-homologous end joining (NHEJ), is best known for the promise it holds in modifying an organism’s DNA sequence without the introduction of exogenous genes. However, as Puchta describes … Read more

In Brief: More than Window Dressing: Revealing 5-Methylcytocine Patterns that Decorate Arabidopsis RNA

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IN BRIEF by Jennifer Lockhart jlockhart@aspb.org DNA is sculpted by several types of epigenetic modifications with profound effects on gene expression, development, and stress responses. Much less is known about the more than 100 chemical modifications shaping plant RNA, a topic explored in the newly emerging field of epitranscriptomics (reviewed in Burgess et al., 2016). … Read more