GMOs: not just for dinner

By Raphael Eisenhofer

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are a controversial topic. Broadly speaking, they can be defined as “any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques”. In this case, “genetic material” refers to an organism’s DNA, which is the heritable blueprint of life. DNA has four “letters”: A, C, G, and T. Different combinations of these create “words” (called genes) which can be read by our cell’s machinery to build proteins. Proteins are the workhorse molecules of life, performing a diverse set of important tasks in the body, such as producing energy and providing structure to your cells.

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Micro-magicians make the cheese

By Raphael Eisenhofer

Microbes get a bad rap. Like many things in life, we focus on their negative aspects—ignoring the positives. While some microbes can make us sick, most of them do not, and many actually help us! One tasty example of humans and microbes working together is the production of cheese.

Fig. 1: A tiny subset of the varieties of cheese! Credit: dairy.org