News and insights

Subscribe to our newsletter
Aviv Regev
Aviv RegevPhoto by Maria Nemchuk

Appointed as a Ó³»­´«Ã½ core faculty member in January 2006, Aviv Regev is a computational biologist currently at the Bauer Center of Genomics Research at Harvard University. Aviv also holds the position of assistant professor of biology at MIT. She plans to take up her duties full time at Ó³»­´«Ã½ and MIT later this year.

Genes, like people, often flock to the center of life's hustle and bustle. But this kind of "suburban flight" — in particular, leaving the mitochondria to be city slickers in the cell's nucleus — has left genes unevenly distributed and created questions about the logistics of the arrangement.

For some chromosomes, a brief lapse in creativity can encourage a lifetime of imitation. A team of scientists has announced the full DNA sequence and analysis of human chromosome 15, exposing its frequent reuse of second-hand parts. Published in the March 30 issue of Nature, these findings shed light on the structural basis of chromosome evolution and could guide researchers in resolving the gaps that remain in the sequence of the human genome.