Yeast's Newest Trick: Detecting Deadly Pathogens

Yeast, the ubiquitous little fungus that can seemingly do it all, is doing more. If you aren't familiar with yeast's accolades, here's a refresher: It gives beer its buzz, it can produce textiles, safer opioids, tasty food and is the workhorse model organism in scientific labs around the world. Now, researchers have put yeast to work detecting deadly, pervasive fungal pathogens. A team of researchers lead by Columbia University's Virginia Cornish designed an elegantly simple biosensor--