Research suggests new direction for tissue engineering and cancer therapeutics

Nikolai Slavov, a new assistant professor in the Department of Bioengineering, wasn't looking to upend conventional wisdom when he set out to measure protein levels in ribosomes, the particles in cells that synthesize all the other proteins that keep living things—from animals to bacteria—functioning. He just wanted to understand what was driving some of the yeast cells in his lab to grow faster than others.