Posts

February 21, 2013

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5:34 PM | ASCO GU update on tivozanib in advanced clear cell renal cancer

AVEO presented the phase 3 clinical trial data for tivozanib in renal cancer at the American Society of Clinical Oncology…

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1:28 PM | Semi-retired cells repair our damaged hearts

Repairing or replacing damaged cells keeps our organs in tip top working condition. For a long time, we thought that only the incredibly rare stem cells in adult organs were able to create brand new cells to replace injured ones … Continue reading →

Senyo SE, Steinhauser ML, Pizzimenti CL, Yang VK, Cai L, Wang M, Wu TD, Guerquin-Kern JL, Lechene CP & Lee RT & (2013). Mammalian heart renewal by pre-existing cardiomyocytes., Nature, 493 (7432) 433-6. PMID: 23222518

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February 20, 2013

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4:19 PM | Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences: Hopefully Not Just A Nobel Prize in Medicine 2.0

The recent announcement of the “Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences” and its inaugural 11 recipients is causing quite a bit of buzz in the research community. The Silicon Valley celebrities Art Levinson, Sergey Brin, Anne Wojcicki, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, and Yuri Milner have established the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences Foundation, which intends to award five annual prizes in the amount of $3 million each to honor “extraordinary achievements of the outstanding minds in […]

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10:15 AM | State politics and the stem cell policy environment in the United States

- The regenerative medicine community greeted last month’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the legality of the Obama Administration’s stem cell policy with relief. The court found that federal funding of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research is consistent with existing statutes, such as the Dickey-Wicker Amendment. The principal implication of this...Read more

Levine A.D. (2012). State stem cell policy and the geographic preferences of scientists in a contentious emerging field, Science and Public Policy, 39 (4) 530-541. DOI: 10.1093/scipol/scs038

Rothmayr Allison C. & Varone F. (2009). Direct Legislation in North America and Europe: Promoting or Restricting Biotechnology?, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, 11 (4) 425-449. DOI: 10.1080/13876980903222864

Karch A. (2012). Vertical Diffusion and the Policy-Making Process: The Politics of Embryonic Stem Cell Research, Political Research Quarterly, 65 (1) 48-61. DOI: 10.1177/1065912910385252

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February 19, 2013

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7:49 PM | Stemming the Flow: Using Stem Cells To Treat Urinary Bladder Dysfunction

Neurogenic bladder is a disorder which occurs in spinal cord diseases such as spina bifida and is characterized by an inability of the nervous system to properly control the urinary bladder and the muscle tissue contained in the bladder wall. This can lead to spasms and a build-up of pressure in the bladder, often resulting in urinary incontinence. Children with spina bifida and neurogenic bladder often feel urges to urinate after drinking comparatively small amounts of liquid and they can... […]

Franck, D., Gil, E., Adam, R., Kaplan, D., Chung, Y., Estrada, C. & Mauney, J. (2013). Evaluation of Silk Biomaterials in Combination with Extracellular Matrix Coatings for Bladder Tissue Engineering with Primary and Pluripotent Cells, PLoS ONE, 8 (2) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0056237

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February 18, 2013

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10:17 PM | How to Build a Neuron: The ultimate shortcut

We've gone through all the main steps for Building a Neuron, and compiled them here. But there is one last shortcut that I absolutely have to tell you about. It's pretty much the ULTIMATE shortcut.Full of Computational Models (source)If you really want a computational model of a neuron, but just don't want to do the work to build one, even using the shortcuts I've already provided... you can use someone else's.Model DB is a repository where scientists can upload […]

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3:54 PM | Tumor Lysis Syndrome – what is it and why is it important in cancer research?

After the hullabaloo on Friday regarding AbbVie’s suspension of the ABT-199 trials following not one, but two, unexpected deaths from…

February 17, 2013

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4:57 AM | Internet Curator Maria Popova Responds To Unfair Accusations With Civility

Maria Popova’s Brain Pickings blog is one of my favorite websites. Anyone who loves science, humanities, music and art can figure out why, by simply spending a few minutes browsing her site. One can find inspiring book recommendations, beautiful images and wonderful anecdotes about life-changing creative moments – all in one website. Maria Popova is one of the internet’s best curators of creative thought and I have bought a number of books after reading her descriptions and so far, I... […]

February 15, 2013

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11:52 PM | NPR: Morning Edition

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11:05 PM | Making a difference in Advanced Prostate Cancer – an interview with Bertrand Tombal

Since 2010, we have seen several technological advances in therapies for metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), leading Professor Bertrand…

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5:35 AM | Crowd4Discovery autophagy experiment 1

No summary available for this post.

February 14, 2013

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5:01 PM | High stakes: Unpublished research brings big profits and huge losses – to insider traders

- Nature kicked off 2013 with an unsettling article about how privileged information from research studies is being used to garner gigantic returns for investors, large and small. It’s not surprising, considering that one of the most egregious cases of so called academic information being used for insider trading of stock in public companies, Elan...Read more

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4:18 PM | Resisting Valentine’s Day

To celebrate Valentine's Day (as a geeky scientist), I decided to search the "Web of Science" database for published articles with the phrase "Valentine's Day" in the title. The article that had the most citations was "Market-resistance and Valentine's Day events" published in the Journal of Business Research in 2009, by the authors Angeline Close and George Zinkhan. I had never heard of the journal before, but the title sounded very interesting so I decided to read it. The authors... Read more

Close, A. & Zinkhan, G. (2009). Market-resistance and Valentine's Day events, Journal of Business Research, 62 (2) 200-207. DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2008.01.027

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3:38 PM | It's not you, it's my birth control

So, Valentine's Day, what better time to question the foundations of your relationship?It's my brain that loves you (source)Well, part of your relationship may be based on your Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) compatibility. The MHC is a cluster of genes that define which antigens get expressed on white blood cells. It is thought to control the ability of the body to recognize pathogens as 'other.' It is also thought that the more varied the genes in your MHC are, the more […]

Roberts SC, Gosling LM, Carter V & Petrie M (2008). MHC-correlated odour preferences in humans and the use of oral contraceptives., Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society, 275 (1652) 2715-22. PMID: 18700206

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February 13, 2013

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2:50 PM | How do antidepressants actually work?

The Abraham in the genealogy of antidepressants is a synthetic compound called imipramine. As shown below, imipramine belongs to an...

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1:37 PM | New Directions In Scientific Peer Review

Most scientists have a need-hate relationship with scientific peer review. We know that we need some form of peer review, because it is an important quality control measure that is supposed to help prevent the publication of scientifically invalid results. However, we also tend to hate scientific peer review in its current form, because we have had many frustrating experiences with it. We recently submitted a manuscript to a journal, where it was stuck for more than one year, undergoing... Read […]

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1:28 PM | Antibiotics hit your gut microbes hard

These days, most doctor’s are acutely aware of the problems of overprescribing antibiotics. Historically given as more of a placatory gesture – ‘I have to prescribe something, else this patient will think I’m an incompetent buffoon’ – their overuse almost … Continue reading →

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10:52 AM | La Reina Doña Sofía visitó el CNB

Con motivo del vigésimo aniversario del Centro Nacional de Biotecnología del CSIC (CNB), la semana pasada, la Reina Doña Sofía visitó sus laboratorios en compañía de la directora del CNB, Carmen Castresana, y de su antecesor en el cargo, José María Valpuesta. Durante la reunión, Naranjo expuso los pormenores de su proyecto de investigación sobre el alzheimer que se financia, en parte, gracias a la Fundación Reina Sofía. Mariano Esteban tuvo ocasión asimismo de exponer a la Reina […]

February 12, 2013

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11:49 PM | Good Can Come From Bad: Genetic Testing For The BRCA Breast Cancer Genes

Our ability to test for the presence of genetic mutations has become extremely cost-efficient and private companies, such as 23andMe now offer genetic testing for consumers who want to find out about their predisposition for genetic diseases. The results of such tests are sent directly to the consumers, without the involvement of genetic counselors or other healthcare providers. This has lead to a growing concern about how people will respond to finding out that they are carriers of mutations […]

Francke, U., Dijamco, C., Kiefer, A., Eriksson, N., Moiseff, B., Tung, J. & Mountain, J. (2013). Dealing with the unexpected: consumer responses to direct-access BRCA mutation testing, PeerJ, 1 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.8

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7:35 PM | Biomaterial gels: Some surprising uses for water

Only in the fictional land of Oz does water cause witches to melt. In the real world, water is essential to life and a valuable resource. Scientifically known as H2O, it is used to irrigate crops and even to enlarge/swell biomaterial gels (more on that later). As a biomaterials scientist, I’m particularly interested in the...Read more

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4:15 PM | Making a difference in pancreatic cancer – an interview with Dr Hedy Lee Kindler

Pancreatic cancer is one of those conditions I never hope to get. Why? Well, for starters, it’s one of the…

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8:47 AM | David J. Wineland: trapping ions for clocks and computers

Simon Thwaite recently completed a D.Phil. in Atomic & Laser Physics at the University of Oxford, and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. The first part of his post series commenting on the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics can be found here. In this post he gives an overview of the field of trapped ions, describes two of its most important applications, and describes what goes on behind the scenes when a trapped ion interacts with a laser […]

February 10, 2013

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9:35 PM | Why scientists should play games

I have just finished reading Jane McGonigal's book Reality is Broken: Why games make us better and how they can change the world. It is a fascinating book which presents a strong case for games (including video games) doing good in the world.Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigalI have to admit, part of me wanted to read this book to make me feel better about my own video game habit. It certainly helped solidify the vague ideas I had about what good they might be doing me.Specifically, the book […]

Ferguson, C. (2011). Reality is broken, and the video game research field along with it., PsycCRITIQUES, 56 (48) DOI: 10.1037/a0026131

Farhangi, S. (2012). Reality is broken to be rebuilt: how a gamer’s mindset can show science educators new ways of contribution to science and world?, Cultural Studies of Science Education, 7 (4) 1037-1044. DOI: 10.1007/s11422-012-9426-y

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February 08, 2013

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2:50 PM | Managing energy during hibernation: Stem cell metabolome profiling

Previous posts from Angela and Michelle will have alerted readers to the importance of where a stem cell resides in the body. The stem cell niche is a complicated environment and one of the most challenging things for blood stem cell biologists to decipher is how “dormant” stem cells manage their energy in such an...Read more

Takubo K., Nagamatsu G., Kobayashi C., Nakamura-Ishizu A., Kobayashi H., Ikeda E., Goda N., Rahimi Y., Johnson R. & Soga T. & (2013). Regulation of Glycolysis by Pdk Functions as a Metabolic Checkpoint for Cell Cycle Quiescence in Hematopoietic Stem Cells, Cell Stem Cell, 12 (1) 49-61. DOI: 10.1016/j.stem.2012.10.011

Yu W.M., Liu X., Shen J., Jovanovic O., Pohl E., Gerson S., Finkel T., Broxmeyer H. & Qu C.K. (2013). Metabolic Regulation by the Mitochondrial Phosphatase PTPMT1 Is Required for Hematopoietic Stem Cell Differentiation, Cell Stem Cell, 12 (1) 62-74. DOI: 10.1016/j.stem.2012.11.022

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4:22 AM | Some Highlights of the Live Chat: “Are We Doing Science the Right Way?”

On February 7, 2013, ScienceNOW organized a Live Chat with the microbiologists Ferric Fang and Arturo Casadevall that was moderated by the Science staff writer Jennifer Couzin-Frankel and discussed a very broad range of topics related to how we currently conduct science. For those who could not participate in the Live Chat, I will summarize some key comments made by Fang and Casadevall, Couzin-Frankel or other commenters. I have grouped the comments into key themes and also added some... […]

February 07, 2013

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7:10 AM | European Union funds the CNB to engineer an artificial immune system

One of the three Spanish scientists to receive an Advanced Grant in life sciences from the European Union is the CNB researcher Víctor de Lorenzo. For the next 5 years, de Lorenzo will receive funding to generate an artificial immune system. The objective of this project is to overcome the limitations of antibody production by “using an all-in-one artificial counterpart based exclusively on prokaryotic parts, devices and modules". Engineering this bacterial system will not only […]

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12:09 AM | JoVE: god of thunder, journal of techniques

If you don't know about the Journal of Visualized Experiments, now is the time to learn.god of thunder, journal of techniques (source)Methods sections of papers should contain enough detail that a scientist reading it could replicate the results of the paper. But this is rarely the case. Research in computational neuroscience has an advantage because the actual code used to run the simulations can be deposited and downloaded. But for experimental work, the nuances of exactly how to do each […]

Palanca, A. & Sagasti, A. (2013). Optogenetic Activation of Zebrafish Somatosensory Neurons using ChEF-tdTomato, Journal of Visualized Experiments, (71) DOI: 10.3791/50184

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February 06, 2013

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4:46 PM | Cationic amphiphilic drugs cause a marked expansion of apparent lysosomal volume

No summary available for this post.

February 05, 2013

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5:23 PM | Gaining ground on losing pounds: How a little more fat might help combat the obesity crisis

. I am, admittedly, the least ambitious type of gym-goer. I don’t train for marathons. I don’t try to body-build – the bar is set pretty low (and, incidentally, also the resistance!). All I want to accomplish is to get rid of some of my “extra skin” and replace it with muscle. Because let’s face...Read more

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4:00 PM | The “ISW mystery” deepens considerably (II)

[... continued from yesterday] A really neat figure from arXiv:1301.5849 showing the locations and sizes of the various catalogues of voids being examined. A larger redshift means the void is further away from us and one Megaparsec (Mpc) corresponds to three million light years. The purple "Granett et al." box is the original catalogue used by the Hawaiian group back in 2008. Isn't this just "a posteriori" statistics? There is another possible explanation for the mystery. The […]

Yan-Chuan Cai, Mark C. Neyrinck, Istvan Szapudi, Shaun Cole & Carlos S. Frenk (2013). A Detection of the Cold Imprint of Voids on the Microwave Background Radiation, arXiv, arXiv: 1301.6136v1

S. Ilic, M. Langer & M. Douspis (2013). On the detection of the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect with stacked voids, arXiv, arXiv: 1301.5849v1

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February 21, 2013

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