Experts in the News

Governor Brian P. Kemp, in conjunction with the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD), today announced that Georgia sustained its momentum through economic development projects in key industries during the first half of Fiscal Year 2023 (July 1 through December 31, 2022). The 218 locations or expansions supported by GDEcD’s Global Commerce division are expected to create approximately 17,500 new jobs and more than $13 billion in investment for the state. Both the number of locations and total investment amount increased over the same period last year. Included in the roundup is Science Square. Georgia Tech hosted an August groundbreaking for the purpose-built district near campus on North Avenue, designed as a hub for biosciences/life sciences research and development.

A new paper in Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, published by Oxford University Press, indicates that antibiotic resistance may result from poor hygiene practices in hospitals or other medical facilities. Researchers addressed whether hygiene weakens the effect of antibiotic pressure on resistance evolution. The authors first developed a mathematical model of resistance to predict how good or poor hygiene might affect how rapidly resistant bacteria increase in abundance due to antibiotic treatment. Kristofer Wollein Waldetoft, a postdoctoral researcher with the Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection (CMDI) in the School of Biological Sciences, and Sam Brown, professor in the School and former CMDI director, collaborated on the research.

A research team featuring Georgia Tech scientists has designed an instrument to aid in the analysis of Martian ice cores. The Melter-Sublimator for Ice Science, or MSIS, methodically melts and sublimates ice samples. With humans likely to visit the Red Planet in the coming decades, exploring ice-rich areas like its South Pole, now seems an excellent time to test out the MSIS. The device consists of two separate components, the Melter on top and the Sublimator beneath it. When combined, they allow the controlled initial processing of an ice core or smaller ice fragments, turning a sample ice into either vapor or meltwater, after which specialized tools could be used to perform a detailed analysis, perhaps searching for concentrations of isotopes or the signatures of microorganisms. Chris Carr, assistant professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, is one of the MSIS researchers. 

A research team featuring Georgia Tech scientists has designed an instrument to aid in the analysis of Martian ice cores. The Melter-Sublimator for Ice Science, or MSIS, methodically melts and sublimates ice samples. With humans likely to visit the Red Planet in the coming decades, exploring ice-rich areas like its South Pole, now seems an excellent time to test out the MSIS. The device consists of two separate components, the Melter on top and the Sublimator beneath it. When combined, they allow the controlled initial processing of an ice core or smaller ice fragments, turning a sample ice into either vapor or meltwater, after which specialized tools could be used to perform a detailed analysis, perhaps searching for concentrations of isotopes or the signatures of microorganisms. Chris Carr, assistant professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, is one of the MSIS researchers. 

Carolyn Bertozzi, professor of chemistry at Stanford University, and K. Barry Sharpless, a professor at Scripps Research, were two of the three winners of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their role in developing bioorthogonal reactions, which enable scientists to explore cells and track biological processes without interfering with the normal chemistry of the cell. That has led to development of a safe way to deliver high doses of chemotherapy without impacting nearby tissues. M.G Finn, professor and chair of the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and James A. Carlos Family Chair for Pediatric Technology, developed so-called click chemistry with Sharpless in 2001. It involves chemical reactions in which specific pairs of molecules react selectively with one another and ignore their environment.

While the term doesn’t officially exist yet, a group of American researchers have discovered two groups of microorganisms that are neither animals, nor plants, nor fungi – but neither are they simple bacteria. While they are not the first virus-eating organisms to have been identified, they are apparently able to survive and thrive exclusively by feeding on viral material. The researchers have been studying viruses from a different perspective: not as pathogenic biological entities, but rather, as basic nutrients in the life cycle. One of those researchers is Joshua Weitz, Professor and Tom and Marie Patton Chair in the School of Biological Sciences, Co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences, and Blaise Pascal International Chair of Excellence at the Ecole Normale Superieure.

Carolyn Bertozzi, professor of chemistry at Stanford University, and K. Barry Sharpless, a professor at Scripps Research, were two of the three winners of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their role in developing bioorthogonal reactions, which enable scientists to explore cells and track biological processes without interfering with the normal chemistry of the cell. That has led to development of a safe way to deliver high doses of chemotherapy without impacting nearby tissues. M.G Finn, professor and chair of the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and James A. Carlos Family Chair for Pediatric Technology, developed so-called click chemistry with Sharpless in 2001. It involves chemical reactions in which specific pairs of molecules react selectively with one another and ignore their environment.

After several drawings with no winner, the Mega Millions jackpot has soared to $1.1 billion. If someone wins Tuesday night’s drawing, it will be the third-largest jackpot in Mega Millions history, falling behind a $1.5 billion ticket sold in South Carolina in 2018 and a $1.3 billion ticket sold in Illinois last summer. If it seems like these enormous jackpots are happening more often, it’s because they are. And that’s not by chance. “They changed the rules so that the pool of numbers you’re selecting from is bigger, so it’s harder to actually get the winning numbers,” said Lew Lefton, who just retired after 23 years at Georgia Tech, where he was a senior academic professional in the School of Mathematics, as well as Assistant Dean for Information Technology and Associate Vice President for Research Computing with the College of Sciences. 

After several drawings with no winner, the Mega Millions jackpot has soared to $1.1 billion. If someone wins Tuesday night’s drawing, it will be the third-largest jackpot in Mega Millions history, falling behind a $1.5 billion ticket sold in South Carolina in 2018 and a $1.3 billion ticket sold in Illinois last summer. If it seems like these enormous jackpots are happening more often, it’s because they are. And that’s not by chance. “They changed the rules so that the pool of numbers you’re selecting from is bigger, so it’s harder to actually get the winning numbers,” said Lew Lefton, who just retired after 23 years at Georgia Tech, where he was a senior academic professional in the School of Mathematics, as well as Assistant Dean for Information Technology and Associate Vice President for Research Computing with the College of Sciences. 

Cats always land on their feet, but what makes them so agile? Their unique sense of balance has more in common with humans than it may appear. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are studying cat locomotion to better understand how the spinal cord works to help humans with partial spinal cord damage walk and maintain balance. Georgia Tech partnered with researchers at the University of Sherbrooke in Canada and Drexel University in Philadelphia to better understand how signals from sensory neurons coordinate movements of a cat's legs. Leading the Georgia Tech research team is Boris Prilutsky, professor in the School of Biological Sciences. (This research was also covered in The Medical Republic.)

Understanding protein interactions is key to innumerable fields — including, notably, drug design. Now, researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a machine learning tool to predict interactions between multiple proteins, paving the way for easier identification of drug targets for antibiotics and therapeutics. The open-source, publicly available tool is called AF2Complex — short for AlphaFold 2 Complex, since the tool is built on top of London-based artificial intelligence lab DeepMind’s AlphaFold 2 protein structure prediction program. Jeffrey Skolnick, Regents' Professor and Mary and Maisie Gibson Chair in the School of Biological Sciences, and Mu Gao, senior research scientist, are co-authors of the study. 

The InspiHer program created by Dr. Jennifer Williams has a mission that runs deep in Newton County. In fact, it was an inspired Williams who piloted the program seven years ago for purpose of exposing females — specifically minority females — to coding and computer science at a young age. That small, founding club has evolved into a county wide movement to inspire young females students throughout all Newton County schools to consider careers in coding and computer technology. Partnerships included Georgia Tech’s CEISMC program (Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing) sending five women to lead a session of the Earsketch program, a branch of InspiHer where girls get to code music and create original songs. Lizanne DeStefano is CEISMC's executive director and a professor in the School of Psychology.