Miami University

Student research work to appear on Discovery Science Channel

06/01/2010

Graduate students' research in Miami University's Electron Microscopy Center will be featured in the Discovery Science Channel's debut of "Creating Synthetic Life" to air at 8 p.m. Thursday, June 3, channel 132 in Oxford on Time Warner Cable.

The program focuses on the recent successful efforts at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Md., to create a bacterial cell with synthetic DNA. The bacteria used are called mycoplasmas, which are studied by Mitchell Balish, assistant professor of microbiology at Miami, and his graduate students who were called upon to provide some images of mycoplasmas to the network because of their expertise in this area.

“My group and I study mycoplasmas in terms of their shape and movement and how these features contribute to the ability of these bacteria to make people and animals sick,” he said.

More information about “Creating Synthetic Life” can be found online at science.discovery.com.