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DNA profiling is playing a growing role in solving crimes, identifying victims of natural and unnatural disasters and even tracking diplomats. Some forensic experts are looking to advances in genome technologies to gain further ground against criminals.
Tan et al. use a multiplex screening method to systematically evaluate ∼500,000 drug pairs assembled from a collection of 1,000 FDA-approved or clinically tested compounds, and identify drugs that synergize to inhibit HIV replication.
To facilitate the conversion of maize into biofuels, Shen et al. equip the plant with a thermoregulated intein-modified xylanase that does not compromise yield and allows cell-wall degradation at high temperatures.
Lou et al. find that sequences between promoters and regulated genes in synthetic circuits cause unpredictable gene expression, and they identify and characterize insulator parts that cleave untranslated regions present in circuits to overcome this problem.
Martell et al. engineer APEX, a protein tag for electron microscopy that does not require light activation, enabling the imaging of subcellular protein localization in large or thick sections.
Performance gains and falling costs have fueled diverse applications of high-throughput DNA sequencing. This focus issue of Nature Biotechnology summarizes the current status of these technologies as applied to life sciences and medical research. Produced with support from Ion Torrent - by Life Technologies.