I’m a genomicist, get me into here. Today is DNA Day, commemorating the day in 1953 when Watson, Crick, Wilkins, Franklin et al. published their Nature papers on the structure of DNA, as well as the day in 2003 that the completion of the Human Genome Project was declared.

*The CRISPR/Cas9 system has opened new horizons in what can be done with genome editing. Here we present an author Q&A with Alun Yonglun Luo discussing his new paper in GigaScience moving this technology towards epigenome editing and testing its efficacy and accuracy.

GigaScience are regular attendees of the International Biocuration Conference, and you may have read our write-ups ups going back to 2012 edition. This year Biocuration is back behind the bamboo curtain, with the 11th conference held in the Crowne Plaza Hotel Shanghai from April 8th-11th and hosted by Fudan University. Symbolised by the spectacular Bund waterfront, Shanghai is the very symbol of modern China, and there was a

Notwithstanding the barrage of criticisms and warnings from every corner of the scholarly community, various initiatives, mainly in the Netherlands, Finland, Germany, France and the UK, continue their efforts for a smooth transition from subscriptions to open access without any further disruptions.

We are excited to announce the first release of a new Julia package that let’s you run our Data Retriever software with a native Julia interface. For those of you not familiar with Julia it is a new programming language that is similar to R and Python, has a central focus on data analysis, and is designed from the ground up to be fast. It is an emerging scientific programming and data analysis language.

**A genome scale model of Pseudomonas aeruginosa published recently in GigaScience will help scientists to fight multi-drug-resistant superbugs. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the world’s most dangerous pathogens, causing life-threatening infections. It is increasingly resistant to all antibiotics.

Researchers have sequenced the venomous Solenodon, the last survivor of a branch of mammals that appeared at the time of the dinosaurs.

*Interactive, downloadable and 3D printable scans of newly discovered hermit crabs are now available in GigaDB  using MicroCT technology data. In this latest GigaBlog we let you inspect this data too, as well as provide a Q&A with the first author Jannes Landschoff on its potential utility.

ConGen (Recent Advances in Conservation Genetics), an international course taught by leading experts in the field, is a fantastic opportunity to learn how the latest genomic and genetic methods contribute to conservation science. Protecting endangered species also means we have to know as much as possible about them.

Giardia, a protozoan parasite which people typically pick up through drinking infected water or contaminated food, can cause diarrhoea and stomach pains. New research published today in GigaScience , with supporting data in GigaDB, provides insights into the mechanisms that cause the symptoms of giardiasis. Currently more than 200,000 people are ill with giardiasis and there are 500,000 new cases a year.