Carnegie Mellon University
2012

December 3, 2012

By Michael Setzer
The Tartan

Chemistry professors Danith Ly and Bruce Armitage, chemistry post-doctoral researcher Srinivas Rapireddy, and chemistry graduate student Raman Bahal teamed up with multiple researchers at the University of Pittsburgh to look into the prospect of using peptide nucleic acids as an alternative to current treatments that target the growth of a tumor at the molecular level.

Read the full article in The Tartan

October 12, 2012

Premier Synthetic Biology Competition To Hold Regional Jamboree in Pittsburgh

By: Jocelyn Duffy, jhduffy@andrew.cmu.edu, 412-268-9982

PITTSBURGH—Can biological building blocks be turned into a biosensor that can measure cellular activities? “Absolutely!” says a team of undergraduate students from Carnegie Mellon University. The students have created just such a biosensor using a kit of interchangeable biological parts and a fundamental knowledge of synthetic biology.

The project also had an outreach component in which the students were encouraged to create a tool to help teach high school students about synthetic biology. Salazar created a circuit board that mimicked the biosensor developed by the team. The electronic circuit was adopted by DNAZone, the outreach program of CMU’s Center for Nucleic Acids Science and Technology, to teach high school students about synthetic biology.

Read the full press release on Carnegie Mellon University's website

April 16, 2012

New Method for Creating Synthetic Peptides Could Lead to Development of Novel Therapeutics

By: Jocelyn Duffy, jhduffy@andrew.cmu.edu, 412-268-9982

PITTSBURGH—Carnegie Mellon University chemists have created a synthetic form of a cyclic peptide known for its remarkable ability to combat a wide variety of pathogens, including HIV and SARS. Synthetic peptides like the one developed at Carnegie Mellon could provide an exciting new class of pharmaceuticals aimed at combatting hard-to-treat diseases. Furthermore, the manufacturing technique developed by Associate Professor of Chemistry Danith Ly could further the study of cyclic peptides by making the molecules easier and less expensive to produce.

Read the full press release on Carnegie Mellon University's website