Georgia Tech creates Center for Bio-Imaging Mass Spectrometry 
GT Research News - September 25   Understanding biology at the systems level is difficult, especially when studying complex specimens like tissue slices or communities of organisms in a biofilm. Scientists must be able to identify, quantify and locate the molecules present.  Georgia Tech's new Center for Bio-Imaging Mass Spectrometry (BIMS) allows researchers to visualize the spatial arrangement and relative abundance of specific molecules - from simple metabolites to peptides and proteins - in biological samples. (full story... | center website)

Diversity of plant-eating fish may be key to coral reef recovery
GT Research News - Oct. 9  Georgia Tech  researchers  say they observed significant recovery of an endangered coral reef when they managed the reef's diversity of fish.  Biology professor Mark Hay and grad student Deron Burkepile  constructed 32 cages on a coral reef at Key Largo, Fla. Then into each 140-cubic-foot cage, Hay and Burkepile placed different numbers of two types of herbivorous fish.  During the next 10 months they measured changes in coral cover and seaweed growth. The scientists explained seaweeds compete with coral reefs, and are eaten by a variety of fish. In the absence of fish, reefs decline as corals are replaced by seaweeds. (full story... | Mark Hay )

Tech Promise gives Georgians access to a debt-free degree
GT News Room  - Oct 21  This year, 199 students from 52 counties across Georgia - from Appling to Wilkes -  are attending Georgia Tech thanks to the G.Wayne Clough Georgia Tech Promise Scholarship Program.  ( full story...  | Tech Promise  website)

Researchers develop self-training gene prediction program for fungi
GT News Room  - Oct 13 Researchers have developed a computer program that trains itself to predict genes in the DNA sequences of fungi. Details of the new program, called GeneMark.hmm-ES (BP), are available online in the journal Genome Research and will be included in the journal’s December print edition. The software will also be freely available for academic researchers. (full story...  | Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Genomics)