Kate Yandell is a Philadelphia-based freelance writer with a love for genomics and neuroscience. She writes for Spectrum‘s Toolbox section.
Kate Yandell
                        Contributing Writer                        
                        Spectrum                    
From this contributor
With new part, CRISPR can cut RNA in living cells
A new version of the gene-editing tool CRISPR can target and cut RNA, offering a way to tinker with the expression of autism genes.
With new part, CRISPR can cut RNA in living cells
Sequencing approach bares large variety of brain cell types
Analyzing gene expression in a vision center of the mouse brain has revealed 49 different classes of cells.
 
            
            Sequencing approach bares large variety of brain cell types
Precise program traces firing patterns in neural networks
By tracking calcium’s movement, a new algorithm simultaneously delineates individual neurons’ shapes as well as their firing patterns.
 
            
            Precise program traces firing patterns in neural networks
Simple steps let star-shaped brain cells thrive in culture
A new method allows researchers to culture cells known as astrocytes from human brains.
 
            
            Simple steps let star-shaped brain cells thrive in culture
Method marks variants among repeated DNA segments
A new tool trawls sequencing data to reveal single-letter DNA swaps within large duplications.
 
            
            Method marks variants among repeated DNA segments
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Nonhuman primate research to lose federal funding at major European facility
The Dutch Senate has ordered the Biomedical Primate Research Centre in the Netherlands to shift its funding away from primate experiments by 2030.
 
            
            Nonhuman primate research to lose federal funding at major European facility
The Dutch Senate has ordered the Biomedical Primate Research Centre in the Netherlands to shift its funding away from primate experiments by 2030.
Image integrity issues create new headache for subarachnoid hemorrhage research
First-time sleuths found potentially problematic images in hundreds of papers about early brain injury after subarachnoid hemorrhage.
 
            
            Image integrity issues create new headache for subarachnoid hemorrhage research
First-time sleuths found potentially problematic images in hundreds of papers about early brain injury after subarachnoid hemorrhage.
Ramping up cortical activity in early life sparks autism-like behaviors in mice
The findings add fuel to the long-running debate over how an imbalance in excitatory and inhibitory signaling contributes to the autism.
 
            
            Ramping up cortical activity in early life sparks autism-like behaviors in mice
The findings add fuel to the long-running debate over how an imbalance in excitatory and inhibitory signaling contributes to the autism.