News: Molecular Biosciences

Read the latest news from the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin

UT News

Cytomegalovirus Breakthrough Could Lead to New Treatments

A new antibody design blocks cytomegalovirus from hiding from the immune system and could lead to safer, more effective treatments for vulnerable patients.

A woman in a lab coat and goggles connects a plastic tube to a piece of laboratory equipment laden with wires.

Features

Biochemistry Major Tu-Quyen Dao is Integrating AI Into Healthcare

Tu-Quyen Dao, a senior biochemistry student, is studying how AI can be applied to improve healthcare.

Image of Tu-Quyen

Research

AI Tips Off Scientists to New Drug Target to Fight Monkeypox Virus

The breakthrough could be used in a new vaccine or antibody therapy to fight mpox, the disease caused by the monkeypox virus.

Structure of a surface protein on the monkeypox virus

Research

New Gene-Editing Tech Holds Promise for Treating Complex Genetic Diseases

Advanced biotechnology repurposes two bacterial immune systems to correct large stretches of DNA.

A microscope image shows human cells. There are two blue spheres in the center, surrounded by a green structure, with orange dots scattered around the green structure.

UT News

5 Questions for Dima Kozakov

Could AI be the key to curing cancer? Meet the leader of a new research team putting that question to the test.

A man smiles, in front of a chalk board with formulas written on it.

Accolades

Virus Slayer Awarded ‘Genius Grant’ by MacArthur Foundation

The award recognizes Jason McLellan’s work to investigate how viruses infect our cells and to develop new treatments for infectious disease.

Portrait of Jason McLellan in a suit, standing in front of three-dimensional displays of proteins

UT News

4 Tons of Spinach, 3 Professors and 1 Life-Changing Discovery

It was 84 years ago this week that UT researchers isolated and named folic acid.

Against a backdrop of spinach leaves are old-time news clips with headlines "U.T. Scientists Find New Vitamins in Spinach: Why Popeye Has Big Msucles" and "New 'Life Staff' Found in Spinach" and "Three U.T. Scientists Discover New Vitamin"

UT Biodiversity Center

Announcing the 2025 Stengl-Wyer Scholars, Fellows and Grant Awardees

Stengl-Wyer Endowment-supported researchers and research at UT Austin will explore life in a variety of forms and environments.

A montage of six young people, many in outdoor settings is surrounded by graphics of lines and squares.

The Oden Institute

Transforming the Use of AI in Drug Design

With support from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, molecular bioscientist Dima Kozakov joins UT.

A man in a plaid shirt smiles in front of a chalkboard with equations, as graphic elements of limestone and bursts frame the shot.

Research

New AI Tool Accelerates mRNA-Based Treatments for Viruses, Cancers, Genetic Disorders

UT Austin and Sanofi partner to build tool that predicts translation efficiency of mRNA sequences.

An illustration of a string of RNA and a wall of letters representing the nucleotides in an RNA sequence