If "surgical manipulation of body parts . . . resurrection of life . . . the ethical consequences of engaging powers we've yet to morally know how to use" reads like a lead-in for a Halloween movie marathon then the public can expect much more next week when biologist David Stocum presents on the seasonally-timed topic of "The Legacy of Frankenstein: Regenerative Biology and Medicine."

Research published by a team of Indiana University bioinformaticists has shown quantitatively the influence of small sequence changes and environmental conditions on the disordered regions of a protein.

Indiana University's School of Informatics, founded in 2000 as the first school of its kind in the United States, has officially awarded its first PhD in informatics. The doctoral degree to James Costello was formally recorded by the university on August 31.

A Biocomplexity Institute team led by Indiana University Bloomington biophysicist James Glazier with collaborators András Czirók, Randy Heiland, Charles Little, Herbert Sauro and Santiago Schnell is set to receive $2.7 million from the National Institutes of Health to expand studies of early animal development, addressing age-old problems in developmental biology.

SpheroSense Technologies Inc. has entered into a licensing agreement with the Indiana University Research & Technology Corp. to develop market-ready biosensor technologies. SpheroSense has chosen a headquarters for its research and development activities on Bloomington's south side.

A new company, SpheroSense Technologies Inc., founded by scientists at IU Bloomington, aims to become the leader in continuous-monitoring devices for research, medical and safety applications based on a new type of miniature optical device. Unlike most existing technologies, this biosensor can detect small molecules, drugs, proteins, viruses, DNA and RNA, and it can be manufactured inexpensively enough to be disposable after delivering results in minutes. The combination of flexibility, compact size, high-speed detection and low price will make the new biosensor ideal for clinical, laboratory and industrial applications, including in a physician's office.

A space on Indiana University Bloomington's campus once occupied by nothing but students rushing to class soon will be home to 750 scientists and support staff busily mixing reagents, inoculating cell cultures, and typing up replies to fly mutant requests.

Indiana University will receive a $4.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation to help improve TeraGrid -- a network of advanced computing, storage, visualization systems and instruments connected by high speed conduits. The grid allows scientists across the nation to share data, collaborate and accomplish difficult computing tasks.

Rat brain cells grown in a dish activate each other in cascades that resemble avalanches, and these "brain avalanches" appear to be involved in memory. New computer models suggest that these brain avalanches may be optimal for information storage. If so, certain neurochemical treatments might someday improve life for people with memory problems.

Indiana University President Adam W. Herbert announced that the Lilly Endowment Inc. is giving IU Bloomington $53 million to broaden and intensify its life sciences research, retain its distinguished scientists, attract new world class scientists and contribute to the state's economic development by transferring technology to new and existing life science businesses. The grant is the largest IUB has ever received.

The Indiana Biocomplexity Consortium will host a workshop on "Complex Behavior in Unicellular Organisms" on the Indiana University Bloomington campus from Wednesday through Sunday (May 12-16). This is the sixth in a series of workshops organized to address important topics in the field of biocomplexity -- a cross-disciplinary area fusing physics, chemistry, computer science, mathematics and the life sciences.