Science Today for a Healthier Tomorrow

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University of California San Diego Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics Alexis Komor's lab is busy. Her group specializes in base editing, a type of gene editing that changes DNA one base pair at a time. Komor developed base editing as a postdoctoral scholar at Harvard and it is already being used in clinical settings to cure patients. Her lab is comprised of undergraduate students, graduate students and postdoctoral research scholars. Together, they're working to better understand and further develop base-editing techniques. Whether they're creating better ways to diagnose heart disease or heading to local high schools to encourage students to pursue science careers, none of it would be possible without funding from federal agencies like the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

Here several lab members share what they're working on and how funding science today means a healthier tomorrow for everyone.