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January 06, 2013

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January 05, 2013

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8:38 PM | The demographics of science crowdfunders

Close to 400 donors supported Crowd4Discovery (C4D), our $25,000 basic research project to map the distribution of amphetamines in the mouse brain. Who are these supporters? Why did they support...

January 04, 2013

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3:44 PM | Cellular Recap of 2012 #2: favorites

As promised, here are my favorite posts from each month.January: The Human Neuron" not so special after all?Butti C, Santos M, Uppal N, & Hof PR (2011). Von Economo neurons: Clinical and evolutionary perspectives. Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior PMID: 22130090February: If you give a mouse a placebo...Wise RA, Wang B, & You ZB (2008). Cocaine serves as a peripheral interoceptive conditioned stimulus for central glutamate and dopamine release. […]

Benolken RM & Jacobson SL (1970). Response properties of a sensory hair excised from Venus's flytrap., The Journal of general physiology, 56 (1) 64-82. PMID: 5514161

Volkov AG, Adesina T & Jovanov E (2007). Closing of venus flytrap by electrical stimulation of motor cells., Plant signaling & behavior, 2 (3) 139-45. PMID: 19516982

Forterre Y, Skotheim JM, Dumais J & Mahadevan L (2005). How the Venus flytrap snaps., Nature, 433 (7024) 421-5. PMID: 15674293

Kindt M, Soeter M & Vervliet B (2009). Beyond extinction: erasing human fear responses and preventing the return of fear., Nature neuroscience, 12 (3) 256-8. PMID: 19219038

Kim IJ, Zhang Y, Yamagata M, Meister M & Sanes JR (2008). Molecular identification of a retinal cell type that responds to upward motion., Nature, 452 (7186) 478-82. PMID: 18368118

Kay JN, De la Huerta I, Kim IJ, Zhang Y, Yamagata M, Chu MW, Meister M & Sanes JR (2011). Retinal ganglion cells with distinct directional preferences differ in molecular identity, structure, and central projections., The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 31 (21) 7753-62. PMID: 21613488

Kraskov A, Dancause N, Quallo MM, Shepherd S & Lemon RN (2009). Corticospinal neurons in macaque ventral premotor cortex with mirror properties: a potential mechanism for action suppression?, Neuron, 64 (6) 922-30. PMID: 20064397

Casile A, Caggiano V & Ferrari PF (2011). The mirror neuron system: a fresh view., The Neuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry, 17 (5) 524-38. PMID: 21467305

Blackiston DJ, Silva Casey E & Weiss MR (2008). Retention of memory through metamorphosis: can a moth remember what it learned as a caterpillar?, PloS one, 3 (3) PMID: 18320055

Marx M, Günter RH, Hucko W, Radnikow G & Feldmeyer D (2012). Improved biocytin labeling and neuronal 3D reconstruction., Nature protocols, 7 (2) 394-407. PMID: 22301777

Finger TE & Kinnamon SC (2011). Taste isn't just for taste buds anymore., F1000 biology reports, 3 20. PMID: 21941599

Triana-Del Rio R, Montero-Domínguez F, Cibrian-Llanderal T, Tecamachaltzi-Silvaran MB, Garcia LI, Manzo J, Hernandez ME & Coria-Avila GA (2011). Same-sex cohabitation under the effects of quinpirole induces a conditioned socio-sexual partner preference in males, but not in female rats., Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior, 99 (4) 604-13. PMID: 21704064

Labour MN, Banc A, Tourrette A, Cunin F, Verdier JM, Devoisselle JM, Marcilhac A & Belamie E (2012). Thick collagen-based 3D matrices including growth factors to induce neurite outgrowth., Acta biomaterialia, 8 (9) 3302-12. PMID: 22617741

Fu M, Yu X, Lu J & Zuo Y (2012). Repetitive motor learning induces coordinated formation of clustered dendritic spines in vivo., Nature, 483 (7387) 92-5. PMID: 22343892

Butti C, Santos M, Uppal N & Hof PR (2011). Von Economo neurons: Clinical and evolutionary perspectives., Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior, PMID: 22130090

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January 03, 2013

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1:22 AM | A cellular 2012

It's been an exciting first year of blogging here at The Cellular Scale.Glowing NeuronLet's take a look back at the Cellular year, shall we?I am going to do this two ways: Today I'll post the first sentence of the first post of each month from this blog as is a blogging tradition. Next post, I'll list my personal favorite posts from each month.January: "Hello and welcome to The Cellular Scale."February: "Food smells better when you're hungry, right?"March: "Another adventure out side the […]

January 02, 2013

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11:55 PM | The Academia-Pharma Complex

I provocatively call the nexus of government research and regulatory agencies, university biology departments and medical schools, and drug companies the Academia–Pharma Complex. This vast public-private partnership financed by US...

January 01, 2013

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6:05 AM | Inspired By Snake Venom

When I remember the 80s, I think of Nena’s 99 Luftballons, Duran Duran’s Wild Boys and ….snake venom. Back in those days, I used to be a typical high school science nerd. My science nerdiness interfered with my ability to socialize with non-nerds and it was characterized with an unnecessary desire to read science books and articles that I did not really understand, just so that I could show off with some fancy science terminology. I did not have much... Read more

December 31, 2012

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11:55 AM | My Favorite Papers of 2012

These are the papers that I thought were the most interesting in my world this year. It was a big year for hormonal messengers involved in obesity and diabetes. These include Fgf21 (Kim et. al) and VEGF (Hagberg et. al). From a biochemistry perspective there was a lot of great work on the role of SREBP1 (Moon et. al) and its regulation both from a dietary (Haas et al.) perspective and from a mechanistic perspective (Owen et al.). Finally both Kim et al. and Kusminski et al. […]

Haas, J., Miao, J., Chanda, D., Wang, Y., Zhao, E., Haas, M., Hirschey, M., Vaitheesvaran, B., Farese, R., Kurland, I. & Graham, M. (2012). Hepatic Insulin Signaling Is Required for Obesity-Dependent Expression of SREBP-1c mRNA but Not for Feeding-Dependent Expression, Cell Metabolism, 15 (6) 873-884. DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2012.05.002

Hagberg, C., Mehlem, A., Falkevall, A., Muhl, L., Fam, B., Ortsäter, H., Scotney, P., Nyqvist, D., Samén, E., Lu, L. & Stone-Elander, S. (2012). Targeting VEGF-B as a novel treatment for insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, Nature, 490 (7420) 426-430. DOI: 10.1038/nature11464

Kusminski, C., Holland, W., Sun, K., Park, J., Spurgin, S., Lin, Y., Askew, G., Simcox, J., McClain, D., Li, C. & Scherer, P. (2012). MitoNEET-driven alterations in adipocyte mitochondrial activity reveal a crucial adaptive process that preserves insulin sensitivity in obesity, Nature Medicine, 18 (10) 1539-1549. DOI: 10.1038/nm.2899

Moon, Y., Liang, G., Xie, X., Frank-Kamenetsky, M., Fitzgerald, K., Koteliansky, V., Brown, M., Goldstein, J. & Horton, J. (2012). The Scap/SREBP Pathway Is Essential for Developing Diabetic Fatty Liver and Carbohydrate-Induced Hypertriglyceridemia in Animals, Cell Metabolism, 15 (2) 240-246. DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2011.12.017

Kim, K., Jeong, Y., Oh, H., Kim, S., Cho, J., Kim, Y., Kim, S., Kim, D., Hur, K., Kim, H. & Ko, T. (2012). Autophagy deficiency leads to protection from obesity and insulin resistance by inducing Fgf21 as a mitokine, Nature Medicine, DOI: 10.1038/nm.3014

Owen, J., Zhang, Y., Bae, S., Farooqi, M., Liang, G., Hammer, R., Goldstein, J. & Brown, M. (2012). From the Cover: Insulin stimulation of SREBP-1c processing in transgenic rat hepatocytes requires p70 S6-kinase, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109 (40) 16184-16189. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1213343109

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December 30, 2012

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9:35 PM | How is PtdIns(5)P Made?

For most phosphatidylinositides, the routes of synthesis and degradation have been largely elucidated. However, due to difficulty in detecting PtdIns(5)P, only recently have investigators been able to assess the synthesis and degradation of this phospholipid. The major stumbling block has been the separation of PtdIns(5)P from PtdIns(4)P, which migrate quite closely on HPLC/TLC based separations. The two major advances in the field have been improved separation of […]

Jones, D., Foulger, R., Keune, W., Bultsma, Y. & Divecha, N. (2012). PtdIns5P is an oxidative stress-induced second messenger that regulates PKB activation, The FASEB Journal, DOI: 10.1096/fj.12-218842

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December 28, 2012

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3:02 AM | Is Kindness Key to Happiness and Acceptance for Children?

The study "Kindness Counts: Prompting Prosocial Behavior in Preadolescents Boosts Peer Acceptance and Well-Being" published by Layous and colleagues in the journal PLOS One on December 26, 2012 was cited by multiple websites as proof of how important it is to teach children to be kind. NPR commented on the study in the blog post "Random Acts Of Kindness Can Make Kids More Popular", and the study was also discussed in ScienceDaily in "Kindness Key to Happiness and Acceptance for... Read more

December 27, 2012

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10:52 PM | Holiday Hiatus

If you have been wondering where new blog posts are, I am taking a holiday hiatus. I'll see you in January when biweekly posting will be resumed, and the cellular scale will celebrate its first birthday! In the meantime, thank you for reading The Cellular Scale this year.

December 26, 2012

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5:12 AM | Armchair Psychiatry and Violence

Following tragic mass shootings such as the one that unfolded in Newtown, Connecticut, it is natural to try to “make sense” of the events. The process of “making sense” and understanding the underlying causes is part of the healing process. It also gives hope to society that if we were able to address the causes of the tragedy, we could prevent future tragedies. It is not unexpected that mental illness is often invoked as a possible reason for mass shootings.... Read more

December 20, 2012

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5:16 PM | Video game shooting vs Real shooting

Video game shooting is different from real shooting.Battle Rifle, my Halo weapon of choice (source)Sure playing video games (and therefore shooting in video games) releases dopamine, and sure if you inject dopamine into people while they shoot real guns they will like shooting guns better. BUT the key implication here, that shooting guns in video games makes you like shooting real guns demands evidence.As a female Halo player myself, I think these Lady Spartans are awesome! (source)Personally, […]

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3:43 PM | Finding the positive in the hype about stem cells

“Stem Cells Make Aging Mice Young Again” – ABC News “’Factor X’ — Have we finally found the fountain of youth?” – Fox News “Stem cells, the secret to eternal youth?” – Euronews.com Headlines like these are all too common and underscore how the news media’s coverage of regenerative medicine tends to focus on the...Read more

December 18, 2012

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11:07 PM | How to Build a Neuron: step 4

And now, the next step in neuron building! You can see all the previous steps and shortcuts here. Step 4 is adding intrinsic channels to your neuron.Potassium Channel (source)Pretty much all neurons need sodium and potassium channels so they can fire action potentials, but other channels such as calcium channels are also commonly seen in computational models. To add these channels you have to extract the parameters from known data. This means extracting Boltzmann curves and time constant […]

Kispersky TJ, Caplan JS & Marder E (2012). Increase in sodium conductance decreases firing rate and gain in model neurons., The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 32 (32) 10995-1004. PMID: 22875933

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3:03 PM | Cell therapy industry 2027: The increasing (but not necessarily stifling) scope of regulation

Some words have the ability to induce instant and unexplained anxiety. In developing industries, such as cell therapy, one such example is regulation – of any sort. Crudely, our negative perception of regulation can be attributed to two factors: an aversion to both ‘red tape’ and uncertainty. In reality, regulation (when appropriately devised and implemented)...Read more

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2:18 AM | A three dimensional fractal in 3D

The video below is a fractal. It is also three dimensional. It has also been rendered from two different locations very close to each other. Therefore, you can also see it in three dimensions. If you're not used to using YouTube's 3d capabilities then don't worry, this guy has a tutorial video explaining how to see the full three-dimensionality of the video without the need for glasses. It's just like magic eye in reverse, basically (though I'm not sure how good it is for your eye […]

December 14, 2012

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1:36 AM | LMAYQ: seriously deep questions

And now, let me answer your Seriously Deep Questions. All questions answered can be found in the LMAYQ index. And as always these are real true search terms that the all-knowing Internet directed to The Cellular Scale. Let's begin.Thoughts on grass (source) 1. "Do thoughts look like trees?" Great question. Lots of things look like trees, certainly neurons do. But thoughts themselves? It is my personal opinion that thoughts do not actually look like anything. I've dissected many a […]

December 12, 2012

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2:33 PM | How to “micro” manage your injured heart

When we accidentally burn ourselves while cooking or nick our fingers on a piece of paper, most of us experience a fleeting moment of irritation but never worry that the wound won’t heal. Our everyday lives have taught us that skin is a tissue with great regenerative capability. Unfortunately, the merits of self-healing seem to...Read more

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8:45 AM | “It Is An Opportunity For Great Joy”

I was about 12 years old when I found out that my grandfather was born on 12/12/12. If he were alive, he would be exactly 100 years old today. I found out about his birthday, when he came to stay with us in Munich for an eye surgery. He was a diabetic and had been experiencing deterioration in his vision. At that time, it was very difficult to find an eye surgeon in Pakistan who would be able to perform... Read more

December 11, 2012

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5:02 PM | Biological Membranes as Bilayer Couples. A Molecular Mechanism of Drug-Erythrocyte Interactions

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December 10, 2012

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10:41 PM | Cinema verité - biology style

Animations of scientific principles are becoming more and more popular as a way of condensing complex data into an easily accessible format, particularly in the field of biology. Nonetheless, a recent article in Nature has raised a number of interesting points about how the visualisation of biological processes should not be taken lightly. Biology is unnervingly complex and there is still much that we don't understand - how are we to know how much of an animation is based on actual […]

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2:51 PM | XX CNB Scientific Workshop

The 20th CNB Scientific Workshop will take place on 18-19 December 2012. Over these two days, 24 CNB researchers will explain their discoveries, providing an excellent opportunity for updating information on current research in life sciences.

December 09, 2012

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8:36 PM | Cortical spine growth and learning how to eat pasta

There are two aspects to neuron shape. One is the pattern of dendritic or axonal branching, and the other is the pattern of spines. Spines are the little protrusions that come off of the dendrite often receiving synaptic inputs.spines on a pyramidal neuron (source)Because these spines are associated with excitatory synapses, and because synapse development is thought to be the cellular basis of learning, it makes sense that spines would grow when we learn.But how would they grow exactly? Using […]

Fu M, Yu X, Lu J & Zuo Y (2012). Repetitive motor learning induces coordinated formation of clustered dendritic spines in vivo., Nature, 483 (7387) 92-5. PMID: 22343892

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December 06, 2012

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4:11 AM | Anatomy of a crowdfund: after the dust settled

Last Monday, November 26th, I and my team successfully concluded our 52-day grassroots campaign to raise $25,000 for a Small Science project in the area of drug and addiction research....

December 05, 2012

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9:29 PM | Can The Heart Regenerate Itself After A Heart Attack?

Some cardiovascular researchers believe that the heart contains cardiac stem cells or progenitor cells which can become mature cardiomyocytes (beating heart cells) following an injury and regenerate the damaged heart. The paper “Mammalian heart renewal by pre-existing cardiomyocytes” published in the journal Nature by Senyo and colleagues (online publication on December 5, 2012), on the other hand, suggests that the endogenous regenerative potential of the adult heart is very […]

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9:19 AM | There's something about ivy

‘Tis the season to be jolly: A time when geese are getting fat and red-nosed reindeers are given their first big break. At Christmas, your halls may be decked with holly but it’s ivy that grows over everything else. But have you ever wondered how ivy is able to climb up walls? English ivy (species name Hedera Helix) makes its own glue-like substance out of natural nanoparticles. The roots of each plant produce millions of tiny, sticky spheres - each 100,000 times smaller than a holly […]

Burris, J., Lenaghan, S., Zhang, M. & Stewart, C. (2012). Nanoparticle biofabrication using English ivy (Hedera helix), Journal of Nanobiotechnology, 10 (1) 41. DOI: 10.1186/1477-3155-10-41

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December 04, 2012

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11:34 PM | Give someone 'the flu' for Christmas

Seriously.The Flu (source)I mean look at how cute that is. It's the perfect gift for the scientist or child of a scientist in your life.And if you rather not give a stuffed flu microbe to your friends, how about 'beer yeast', or even the 'common cold'?The Common Cold (source)You can buy these and other plush giant microbes over at thinkgeek. But giant microbes are not for everyone. Fortunately here is a Cellular guide to holiday gift giving:For your more sophisticated science friends, […]

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12:11 PM | The human machine: circuits and wires

The previous post in this series can be found: here. In the first post of this 'human machine' series, I explained how 'energy' (that abstract entity) is processed and used by our bodies in order to converted the chemical energy in our food into the work energy required to keep us ticking over nicely. I discussed in this how we are all actually powered by electrical circuits that buzz along in the internal membranes of our cell's power stations, the mitochondria. Better yet, not only are […]

December 01, 2012

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9:23 PM | Facebook donor subgraphs

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November 30, 2012

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1:21 PM | Cell therapy industry 2027: Increased transparency – a major opportunity or transient fad?

The global health care sector is innovative, impactful and, despite addressing fundamental problems in human health, can be inescapably faddish. Despite the industry’s pride in an empirical approach that yields robust and practicable data, the covers of Nature, Science and Cell can be as ephemeral as those of Vogue and Tatler. The latest in vogue...Read more

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