"Wow, this is so simple, it’s ridiculous.” When Adam Bogdanove discovered a key to DNA and protein interaction he was struck by its simplicity and its implications for opening up a “cascade of advances” from disease resistance in plants to human gene therapy. Bogdanove, associate professor in plant pathology, was working with graduate student Matthew Moscou on the molecular basis of bacterial diseases of rice when they discovered how a group of proteins from plant pathogenic bacteria interact with DNA in the plant cell.