July 2008

A Planck Walk © Edgar Zippel, Berlin / www.edgarzippel.de A shift in focus - and a couple of robots - have helped researchers at a Max Planck Institute pinpoint the genetics underlying entire systems. By Stephen Pincock Related Articles 1-3 For some time, systems biology as a concept garnered less than the full support of the biological community, Lehrach notes. "There are a few people who really understand and push it, but some who are opposed," he

Social amoeba in motion In this month's feature article, Gad Shaulsky writes about his fascination with looking at whether cells can be altruistic using his chosen model organism, the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum. Click on the videos below to watch individual "Dicty" cells congregate into a slug, and further differentiate into a stalk and spore. Video courtesy of Rex Chisholm at Northwestern University, showing a slug as it forms the lollipop-shape

The Making of Max Planck By Elie DolginIn 1945, the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, Germany's premier science research institution, was in tatters. It was even at risk of being axed after the Second World War, but leading German scientists convinced the allies to rebuild and rebrand the renowned research organization. So an 86- year-old Max Planck once again assumed the presidency, after the Nazi regime forced him from the post in 1937. As part of the society's makeover, Planck, the

Infographic: Dictyostelium Developmental Cycle By Gad ShaulskyDrag the red box to zoom into the development cycle of Dictyostelium discoideum. Roll over the numbers in the large pane to read more about how Dicty goes from unicellularity to a differentiated multicellular mass. Related Articles The Cheating Amoeba Video: Social activity of D. discoideum A Fluctuating RealityMicrobial Co-op in Evolution Genetic control of social behavior

Video: ZebrafishThis video shows the beating of a zebrafish heart that has been treated with a compound, discovered in the lab of Randall Peterson, which makes the atrium beat twice for every beat of the ventricle. Related Articles Drug fishing Hooked by the Bait WNTer wonderland

Mark Merchant takes blood sample from an alligator. Credit: Troy Merchant" />Mark Merchant takes blood sample from an alligator. Credit: Troy Merchant Alligator wounds are a remarkable thing. Within only 12-24 hours, gators' torn tissue begins a healing process that takes five days to start in humans. And even though gators swim in microbe-infested waters, their wounds almost never become infected. This healing abili

Lynn Cooley figured she'd study sea creatures, then decided to revolutionize genetics instead.

GFP-labeled T cells and background autofluorescence is almost impossible to distinguish (left). Friedman pulls out the T cells by double labeling them with an orange vital dye (right). Credit: Rachel Friedman and Matthew Krummel, UC San Francisco" />GFP-labeled T cells and background autofluorescence is almost impossible to distinguish (left). Friedman pulls out the T cells by double labeling them with an orange

In vivo imaging of the coexpression of endothelial adhesion molecules E-selectin and P-selectin in the mouse skin. Red, E-selectin; green, P-selectin. Credit: Charles P. Lin, Harvard Medical School" />In vivo imaging of the coexpression of endothelial adhesion molecules E-selectin and P-selectin in the mouse skin. Red, E-selectin; green, P-selectin. Credit: Charles P. Lin, Harvard Medical School User:

NIR QDs injected into the tail vein of a mouse can detect tumor metastatic lesions in the lung (red) using the Kodak In Vivo FX Imaging system. The optical image was obtained 48 hrs after the tail vein injection of the QDs. Credit: Lily Yang, Emory University" />NIR QDs injected into the tail vein of a mouse can detect tumor metastatic lesions in the lung (red) using the Kodak In Vivo FX Imaging system.

The endogenous fluorophore PpIX labels cells in a rat brain tumor (left), but the fluorescence is absent after surgery to resect the tumor (right). Credit: Brian Wilson, University of Toronto" />The endogenous fluorophore PpIX labels cells in a rat brain tumor (left), but the fluorescence is absent after surgery to resect the tumor (right). Credit: Brian Wilson, University of Toronto

Choose your target carefully.Even before you optimize your imaging protocol, says Jeff Peterson, vice president for biology at ViSen Medical, make sure you choose the right target for a particular biological question. For example, to image a breast tumor in vivo, appropriate targets might include matrix metalloproteases at the tumor's leading edge, the proliferative-phase nuclear protein Ki-67, the estrogen-linked cathepsin D, or a variety of other molecular markers. Each

The Cheating Amoeba Scanning electron micrograph of spore towers of the slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum. David Scharf / Photo Researchers, Inc What genes contribute to social interactions such as cheating or altruism? And what could cheating genes tell us about sociality, multicellularity, and cancer? A social soil amoeba could hold the answers. By Gad Shaulsky Related Articles Infographic: Dictyostelium Developmental Cycle Video: Social activ

Rare History, Common Disease A unique population in Quebec is helping reveal the genetics behind common diseases such as heart disease and asthma. But as it loses its isolation, is time running out? By David Secko Related Articles 1 The novel loci include regions that contain novel candidate Crohn disease genes such as JAKMIP1, which is involved in interleukin-23 signaling, and LOC285484, which is similar to a secreted cytokine potentially involved in

changeTitle('Life Sciences in Ireland: Celtic Legends'); Celtic Legends By Sean Duke How Ireland grew from life science irrelevance to global research hub in 50 years. The neolithic stone circle at Drombeg, County Cork © Joe Gough By some accounts, 1998 was a year when everything changed in Irish bioscience. With the country's economy soari

Billions of identical cells come together to shape the body of molecular and developmental geneticist Gad Shaulsky. That fascinates him. The question of how different cells compete and cooperate to form whole organisms drives Shaulsky's research at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, where he is an associate professor. "How come proliferation and survival, which are the most fundamental requirements of life on earth, are being restrained in multicellular organisms - and societies

Why science can save the future - not just the people - of these impoverished nations.

I lost my grants, too Re: "Losing your lab," 1 which chronicles Alan Schneyer's experience when he lost his NIH grants and had to close his laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital, much the same thing happened to me in the UK. I've never for a moment regretted taking on a mainly teaching job with a proper salary. Trying to be a postdoc and mixing for your own salar

GET MORE GENOMICS » If work with the Quebec Founder Population inspires you to do more genomic analyses of samples from human populations, head to Bethesda, Md., July 18 for a National Institutes of Health short course on the field. To learn more about the event, which will also be videocast, visit: http://calendar.nih.gov/app/MCalWelcome.aspx. GET TO GERMANY » If the profile of

The Amazon molly Credit: Courtesy of Kathrin Lampert" />The Amazon molly Credit: Courtesy of Kathrin Lampert In 1932, two University of Michigan fish ecologists, Carl and Laura Hubbs, reported in Science that they had the first experimental proof of a clonally reproducing vertebrate. What they found in the lakes and streams of northeastern Mexico and southern Texas was a smal

Three day old transgenic zebrafish in which a blue fluorescent protein is expressed under control of the cardiac myosin light chain 2 promoter. Credit: Courtesy of Peter Schlueter" />Three day old transgenic zebrafish in which a blue fluorescent protein is expressed under control of the cardiac myosin light chain 2 promoter. Credit: Courtesy of Peter Schlueter In one tank at the zebrafish fac

In 2004, strange things were happening when people living in the Southern United States received Erbitux, an anticancer drug. After Erbitux was approved, the first three patients that oncologist Bert O'Neil treated at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, had severe anaphylactic reactions. "One fell out of their chair," passing out as blood pressure plummeted. "It alarmed us."

A Bornean Pygmy elephant (Elephas maximus borneensis) in Sabah, North Borneo, Malaysia. Credit: © WWF-Canon / A. Christy WILLIAMS" />A Bornean Pygmy elephant (Elephas maximus borneensis) in Sabah, North Borneo, Malaysia. Credit: © WWF-Canon / A. Christy WILLIAMS In 2003, researchers published a paper in PLoS Biology that came to a conclusion often reached by biologists studying unique, island-bound s

An organization focused on neglected diseases links trainees North and South.

Focusing on details may get you published, but what do we lose in the process?

Uncovering the molecular identity of a strange cellular channel triggers a rush of discoveries in calcium regulation.

Credit: © Cell Press" /> Credit: © Cell Press The paper: X. Zhang et al., "Genome-wide high-resolution mapping and functional analysis of DNA methylation in Arabidopsis," Cell, 126:1189-201, 2006. (Cited in 94 papers) The finding: The researchers created a Web tool to view the DNA methylation and gene expression data. "It's extremely useful,"

Credit: © Biophoto Associates / Photo Researchers, Inc." /> Credit: © Biophoto Associates / Photo Researchers, Inc. The paper: D. Grimm et al., "Fatality in mice due to oversaturation of cellular microRNA/short hairpin RNA pathways," Nature, 441:537-41, 2006. (Cited in 147 papers) The finding: While studying the potential of RNA interference (RNAi) to treat he

Credit: © Biophoto Associates / Photo Researchers, Inc." /> Credit: © Biophoto Associates / Photo Researchers, Inc. The paper: M. Shogren-Knaak et al., "Histone H4-K16 acetylation controls chromatin structure and protein interactions." Science, 311:844-7, 2006. (Cited in 132 papers) The finding: Craig Peterson's group at the University of Massachusetts Medical

Editor's note: Citation Classics Commentaries were written by the authors of some of studies that were the most highly cited papers between 1961 and 1975. The essays were originally published between 1977 and 1993 in Current Contents, a publication of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), now Thomson Sc

Credit: © Nick Burchell" /> Credit: © Nick Burchell In November 1998, Martin Burke was on his first clinical rotation in the MD/PhD program at Harvard Medical School when he met a 22-year-old cystic fibrosis patient who was taking 17 different medications. Knowing that a single missing chloride channel causes the disease, it bothered Burke that the treatment comprised such a large cocktai

How to troubleshoot your in-vivo fluorescence imaging studies

C6 glioma cells label with self-illuminating quantum dots conjugated with cell penetrating peptides. Credit: Jianghong Rao, Stanford School of Medicine" />C6 glioma cells label with self-illuminating quantum dots conjugated with cell penetrating peptides. Credit: Jianghong Rao, Stanford School of Medicine User: Jianghong Rao, Assistant Professor in Radiology, Stanford University

At Merck, Eric Schadt takes an iconoclastic approach to drug discovery - and dressing.

So you're a principal investigator - now what?

In the 1950s, scientists began to suspect that single-ion channels existed, but it took them another quarter century to verify it.