{"437541":{"#nid":"437541","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Will Ratcliff receives NASA grant","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIn August, Biology assistant professor Will Ratcliff and his collaborators received a three year, $562,000 NASA grant to investigate the origin and evolutionary consequences of multicellular life cycles.\u0026nbsp; All multicellular organisms exhibit a characteristic life cycle that alternates between stages of reproduction, growth and development. This life cycle is critical for the evolution of multicellular complexity, playing a central role in transporting fitness from cells to multicellular individuals. Despite their importance, the evolutionary origins of multicellular life cycles are poorly understood. A key factor limiting progress has been the fact that evolutionary transitions to multicellularity on Earth have been both ancient and rare. Using a combination of synthetic biology and experimental evolution, we have created novel multicellular organisms in fungal and algal model systems. This gives us a unique opportunity to investigate the origin of multicellular life cycles, and assess their role in the evolution of complex life.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIn August, Biology assistant professor Will Ratcliff and his collaborators received a three year, $562,000 NASA grant to investigate the origin and evolutionary consequences of multicellular life cycles.\u0026nbsp; All multicellular organisms exhibit a characteristic life cycle that alternates between stages of reproduction, growth and development.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Will Ratcliff and his collaborators received a three year, $562,000 NASA grant to investigate the origin and evolutionary consequences of multicellular life cycles."}],"uid":"27245","created_gmt":"2015-08-20 06:08:37","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:19:22","author":"Troy Hilley","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-08-20T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2015-08-20T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"341391":{"id":"341391","type":"image","title":"Will Ratcliff","body":null,"created":"1449245595","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:13:15","changed":"1475895060","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:51:00","alt":"Will Ratcliff","file":{"fid":"200746","name":"ratcliff.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ratcliff_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ratcliff_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1149117,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/ratcliff_0.jpg?itok=8HHR0kpZ"}}},"media_ids":["341391"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.biology.gatech.edu\/","title":"School of Biology"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.biology.gatech.edu\/people\/will-ratcliff","title":"Will Ratcliff"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.ratclifflab.biology.gatech.edu\/","title":"Ratcliff Lab"}],"groups":[{"id":"1275","name":"School of Biological Sciences"}],"categories":[{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"}],"keywords":[{"id":"468","name":"NAS"},{"id":"108591","name":"Will Ratcliff"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}