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Category Archives: Fai’s sharing

Fai’s scientific sharing with lab members

2012-05-16 New articles we read this week

Neuroimaging/ Connectomics Wedeen VJ, Rosene DL, Wang R, Dai G, Mortazavi F, Hagmann P, Kaas JH, Tseng WY. The geometric structure of the brain fiber pathways. Science. 2012 Mar 30;335(6076):1628-34. PubMed PMID: 22461612. Neuroscience Rogulja D, Young MW. Control of sleep by cyclin A and its regulator. Science. 2012 Mar 30;335(6076):1617-21. PubMed PMID: 22461610. Koch […]

University of Florida eliminates Computer Science Department

There are  budget cuts and layoff everywhere. We have already heard before that Florida State dissolved academic departments to fight the financial crisis. And now the University of Florida is going to eliminate Computer Science Department, a really disturbing move. From Steven Salzberg’s blog: The University of Florida announced this past week that it was […]

A collection of videos for discussion of ethical and social issues in developmental biology – Stem cells: II. Desperate patients and people who want to take advantage of their situation

In my last post, I provided several links to general introductions of stem cells. In this post, I will share several documentaries that show how bad people are taking advantage of desperate patients who have heard stem cells therapy may give them a last hope. II. Desperate patients and people who take advantage of their […]

Building cheap machines with LEGO for research

I am so envious of these people who can build a useful machine by LEGO which can save money. The building part itself must be a lot of fun! From boingboing.net:  LEGO robots in the laboratory

3-D printing for regenerative medicine

There is an interesting news article “Printing Muscle” from Technology Review about using 3-D printers to print muscle cells so that they may assume a 3-D shape that resembles muscle fiber. The idea sounds interesting, because one can potentially print tissues or even organs that have complicated cellular composition in 3-D for regenerative medicine.  

A collection of videos for discussion of ethical and social issues in developmental biology – Stem cells: I. Introduction to the topic

Over the years, I have been leading a discussion about the ethical and social issues of stem cells research in my class and have used a few useful videos on various aspects. You may find them useful too. I. Introduction to the topic “A Stem Cell Story” – a great introduction of human embryonic stem […]

My trip to the Hong Kong Eye Hospital

I was invited and supported by the Purdue Research Foundation (PRF) International Travel Grant to give a Plenary Lecture at the Symposium on Biology of Ophthalmology 2011 which took place in the Hong Kong Eye Hospital from 11-13th December 2011. The event was organized by the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the Chinese […]

Promising results from the first humal trial of treating incurable eye diseases with embryonic stem cells

From Washington Post: For the first time, an experimental treatment made from human embryonic stem cells has shown evidence of helping someone, partially restoring sight to two people suffering from slowly progressing forms of blindness. In short, the authors of this study that is just published in Lancet differentiated human embryonic stem cells (hESC) into […]

2012-01-14 new articles we read this week

Retinal Development Kwan KM, Otsuna H, Kidokoro H, Carney KR, Saijoh Y, Chien CB. A complex choreography of cell movements shapes the vertebrate eye. Development. 2012 Jan;139(2):359-72. PubMed PMID: 22186726. Morgan JL, Soto F, Wong RO, Kerschensteiner D. Development of cell type-specific connectivity patterns of converging excitatory axons in the retina. Neuron. 2011 Sep 22;71(6):1014-21. […]

An interesting story about Eric Lander

From New York Times: CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — His Ph.D. is in pure mathematics, in a subfield so esoteric and specialized that even if someone gets a great result, it can be appreciated by only a few dozen people in the entire world. But he left that world behind and, with no formal training, entered another: […]