From humble beginnings, the University of Colorado Cancer Center has grown into a leading center for research, clinical care, education, and outreach.

Nediva Monroe thought she had her cancer battle won. Then it became a war, with a leading CU Cancer Center expert fighting by her side.

Deep in the heart of Tanzania’s Udzungwa Mountains, a trio of Rice University researchers, including ecophysiologist Andrea Rummel, graduate student Annie Finneran and junior Caroline Pollan, embarked on an ambitious summer field study to understand how human impacts are reshaping forest ecosystems. Armed with bat detectors, camera traps, soil sampling kits and a passion for ecological discovery, they worked alongside Tanzanian scientists to track the interplay between biodiversity, conservation and nutrient cycling in one of Africa’s most biologically rich yet vulnerable landscap

In the spring of 2020, a team of engineers at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) embarked on a groundbreaking project to design a microreactor test facility that could transform the world’s energy future.

Researchers and students are developing tools to help communities anticipate and respond to wildfires—before the flames arrive. From 5G-enabled smoke detection networks to AI-driven hazard monitoring on our own campus, their work is shaping a fire-ready future.

A mechanical artwork designed in 1775 to depict the eruption of Italy’s Mount Vesuvius has been brought to life for the first time — 250 years after it was conceived — thanks to modern technology and the ingenuity of two University of Melbourne engineering students.

From the world of research papers and cubicles, Kevin Roccapriore has made a leap into the entrepreneurial arena with Innovation Crossroads, a Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program node at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory that provides support for startups like Roccapriore’s AtomQ. 

Dylan Shropshire, assistant professor of biological sciences, studies Wolbachia, a bacterium that lives inside insect cells and can manipulate reproduction, suppress pathogens, and influence population dynamics—all while being passed maternally from one generation to the next. Originally interested in insect behavior, Shropshire was drawn to microbiomes during his graduate studies at Vanderbilt University, where he began working with Wolbachia. His lab now focuses on understanding how this microbe becomes common across species, populations, and individuals, with implications for public health efforts that use Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes to combat diseases like dengue and Zika. Despite success in some regions, these interventions are often slow or fail due to weak bacterial traits. Shropshire’s team uses fruit flies to study the genetic and cellular mechanisms that underlie Wolbachia’s behavior, including how it spreads, exits and enters host cells, and manipulates reproduction through a process called cytoplasmic incompatibility. Since Wolbachia cannot be cultured outside host cells, the lab develops innovative tools such as genetic insertions and molecular techniques to measure bacterial presence and function. Their work not only aims to answer fundamental questions about microbial ecology and evolution, but also to refine and accelerate the use of Wolbachia as a targeted, sustainable tool for controlling vector-borne diseases.