The August 2009 issue of PLoS Genetics features a cover image illustrating the article by Genetics faculty members Ravi Palanivelu and David Mount.

Felicia Goodrum was the only professor in Arizona honored with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. Goodrum, who works in the departments of immunobiology and molecular and cellular biology and is a member of the Genetics GIDP faculty, BIO5 Institute and Arizona Cancer Center, studies the human cytomegalovirus, or HGMV.

What are Genetics and Genomics?

Genetics is the study of genes, the remarkable pieces of DNA that are the basis of heredity in all living organisms. It is the study of how genes are inherited, how they control the phenotype of cells and organisms, and how they evolve. It is also the application of our knowledge about genes in agriculture, conservation, and medicine. The study of genetics involves organisms all over the tree of life from bacteria to humans, and viruses too.  Genomics is genetics on a grand scale enabled by new techniques such as rapid DNA sequencing and microarrays, which enable us to study many genes or all the genes of an organism at the same time.