DNA

Dain Ruiz

Dain Ruiz is a rising sophomore majoring in biology and a Chancellor’s Science Scholar within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences. He studies expansion disorders caused by repetitions in DNA — like Huntington’s Disease, Friedreich’s Ataxia, and Myotonic Dystrophy — to develop therapeutics to treat them.

Sequencing the Sea

Marine scientists at UNC are taking a new approach to figuring out why and how microalgae blooms occur in the Neuse River Estuary.

Sharonda LeBlanc

Sharonda LeBlanc is a Carolina Postdoctoral Program for Faculty Diversity Scholar, conducting her postdoctoral research with Professor Dorothy Erie in the Chemistry Department at UNC-Chapel Hill. Her current research projects focus on DNA mismatch repair — a system for recognizing and repairing errors that can arise during DNA replication and recombination.

The Family Disease

Cystic fibrosis took five of her siblings at a young age. Now, Wanda O’Neal is part of a team of UNC researchers searching for reasons why. Their latest work provides insight that will help unravel why a sixth sibling with CF is living a productive life as he turns 50.

All the Cell’s a Stage

Brian Strahl and his band of biochemists unravel the complicated mysteries of the epigenetic code to find a culprit in cancer development.