Two December papers in the journal Science describe a new method developed by members of the Xie group, called MALBAC for Multiple Annealing and Looping-based Amplification Cycles, to reproduce an entire DNA molecule from a single cell and to verify and monitor the appearance of mutations in a cell as it divides. "Genome-Wide Detection of Single-Nucleotide and Copy-Number Variations of a Single Human Cell" and "Probing Meiotic Recombination and Aneuploidy of Single Sperm Cells by Whole-Genome Sequencing" both appear in the 21 December 2012 issue of Science. Further reports on the breakthrough can be found in the Harvard Gazette and C&E News.