CRISPR claimed scientific fame for its ability to quickly and accurately edit genes. But, at the core, CRISPR systems are immune systems that help bacteria protect themselves from viruses by targeting and destroying viral DNA and RNA. A new study published in Science reveals a previously unrecognized player in one such system—a membrane protein that enhances anti-viral defense—simultaneously broadening our understanding of and raising more questions related to the complexities of CRISPR.

CRISPR systems consist of two major components—a guide RNA that targets a specific viral DNA or RNA sequence and a Cas enzyme that cuts the targeted DNA or RNA, preventing a virus from replicating and spreading. A team at the University of Rochester Center for RNA Biology finds that a specific Cas protein (Cas13b) not only cuts viral RNA, but also communicates with another protein (Csx28) to augment its anti-viral defense.

“This finding upends the idea that CRISPR systems mount their defense only by degrading RNA and DNA in cells and really broadens our view of how CRISPR systems may be working,” says corresponding author Mitchell O’Connell, an assistant professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the Medical Center and a member of the Center for RNA Biology.

Get a detailed look at the findings.

New research shows that rhythmic brain activity is key to temporarily maintaining important information in memory. Researchers at the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience have found that brain rhythms—or patterns of neuronal activity—organize the bursts of activity in the brain that maintain short-term connections.

“The rhythmic coordination of brain activity over time is important because it allows overlapping populations of neurons to store different pieces of information at the same time,” says Ian Fiebelkorn, an assistant professor of neuroscience and the senior author of the study, which appears in Current Biology. Such processes might help explain how we can stay focused while multitasking.

Discover the next steps for Fiebelkorn and his fellow researchers.

Pinocchio throws a hammer at the talking cricket in Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio: The Tale of a Puppet. (Illustration by Alice Carsey via Project Gutenberg)

Kenneth Gross’s latest book routinely acknowledges the insights and contributions of his Rochester students. That’s because Dangerous Children: On Seven Novels and a Story (University of Chicago Press, 2022) was inspired by his teaching of an undergraduate class “in a more fundamental way than anything else I’ve ever written,” he says.

The book takes the title of the 200-level course that Gross, the Alan F. Hilfiker Distinguished Professor in English, has taught three times, most recently in spring 2022. Students read and analyze texts in which the authors imagine childhood, especially stories centering on the figure of a dangerous, strange, or uncanny child. “What is dangerous in them is no one thing, and keeps on changing,” he writes in the prologue. It often lies simply in how adults see them as dangerous.

What intrigued—and sometimes shocked—Gross’s students was how these literary children could upend their own long-held assumptions. “They expected the children to be innocent, cute, or adorable. Or they were familiar with gothic or sci-fi children who are evil, demonic, or monstrous. But it was that playful or uncanny middle space between the innocent and the demonic that really fascinated them,” he says. Particularly when that playful middle space clashed with the students’ own childhood memories of or experiences with the texts.

Find out more about these surprising characters.

Monday, May 8, 10 a.m.–3:30 p.m.
Goergen Hall 101

Sponsored by the University Committee on Interdisciplinary Studies and the University of Rochester Aging Institute, this all-day event will feature a variety of talks on aging research from Medical Center and River Campus faculty. The day will culminate with a keynote delivered by Daniel Belsky from Columbia University on the quantification of biological aging. Learn more.

Monday, May 15, noon–1:30 p.m.
School of Medicine and Dentistry, Louise Slaughter Conference Room 1-9555

Graduate students and postdocs are invited to learn about NIH fellowships during this free event as part of myHub, a centralized home of professional development resources. Register here.

Tuesday, May 16, 8 a.m.–4 p.m.
Rochester Institute of Technology, The MAGIC Center

This one-day symposium is dedicated to the digital future of healthcare. The schedule of events features keynote addresses, expert panels, oral and poster presentations, along with a student idea contest. Topics will include immersive technology such as augmented and virtual reality, the use of artificial intelligence, machine learning, human-computer interactions, computer modeling, robotics, and gaming. Learn how these technologies are being deployed for disease prediction and prevention, treatment and rehabilitation, medical imaging, pain management, healthcare education and access, telehealth, wearables, wellness, and many other areas across the healthcare continuum. Register by May 8.

Tuesday, May 16, 4 p.m.­–5 p.m.
UR Medicine Memory Care Program, Conference Rooms 552/553

Interested in learning more about Alzheimer’s disease and current research opportunities? Join Anton Porsteinsson, director of the University of Rochester Alzheimer’s Disease Care, Research, and Education Program (AD-CARE), for an informative in-person presentation about Alzheimer’s disease, research developments, and prevention research opportunities. Registration is required as space is limited. Masks are required. To RSVP, please call the AD-CARE program at (585) 602-5200 or email ADCARE@URMC.Rochester.edu.

Saturday, May 20, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
Wegmans Hall 1400

Artificial intelligence has emerged as a transformative technology, one that touches nearly every aspect of daily life. The University’s strong foundation in AI is due in part to researchers like Henry A. Kautz, who retired last year after more than 15 years with the Department of Computer Science. To celebrate Kautz’s career while also exploring the future of AI technology, the department and the Goergen Institute for Data Science are jointly hosting a set of accessible, enjoyable talks on artificial intelligence, highlighting the higher-level aspects of machine cognition. The agenda reflects Kautz’s many years of groundbreaking research on practical algorithms for solving worst-case intractable problems in logical and probabilistic reasoning; automated planning; models for inferring human behavior from sensor data; pervasive health care applications of AI; and social media analytics. The talks are open to the public, with free registration up to a capacity limit either in person or on Zoom. See the schedule and register.