Shoshana Daly

Microscopic focus, global stakes: Unraveling TB one cell at a time

In a lab in the heart of Boston, professor Bree Aldridge leads a team of researchers trying to understand a threat that is both microscopic in size and global in consequence. The subject of Aldridge’s research is the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis. In 2023, TB made 10.8 million people sick and killed around 1.25 million people.

Science

Spotlight on the Scheck Lab

By Shoshana Daly | February 20

One of the first things that students learn when they enter a biology class is the central dogma: DNA → RNA → Proteins. Proteins are the workers of our cells. From signaling cascades to intracellular transport, from energy metabolism to DNA repair, proteins are behind it all. In most intro level biology courses, we learn simply: amino acids dictate a protein's structure and thus determine its function as a result. However, there is another piece to this story: namely, what happens to proteins after they are formed. Post-Translational modifications are chemical changes that can change a protein's function, inactivate it or activate it.

Microscopic focus, global stakes: Unraveling TB one cell at a time

Spotlight on the Scheck Lab

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