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The Lasker Awards 2012

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award goes to

Michael Sheetz, James Spudich and Ronald Vale

For discoveries concerning the cell’s protein-folding machinery, exemplified by cage-like structures that convert newly made proteins into their biologically active forms.

Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award goes to

Roy Calne and Thomas E. Starzl

For the development of liver transplantation, which has restored normal life to thousands of patients with end-stage liver disease.

I highly recommend reading their essays published in Nature Medicine.

Michael Sheetz, James Spudich, Ronald Vale, Roy Calne, Thomas E. Starzl

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2012 Ig Nobel prize!

Sunday, September 23, 2012

From the Ig Nobel prize website:

PSYCHOLOGY PRIZE: Anita Eerland and Rolf Zwaan [THE NETHERLANDS] and Tulio Guadalupe [PERU, RUSSIA, and THE NETHERLANDS] for their study “Leaning to the Left Makes the Eiffel Tower Seem Smaller”

REFERENCE: “Leaning to the Left Makes the Eiffel Tower Seem Smaller: Posture-Modulated Estimation,” Anita Eerland, Tulio M. Guadalupe and Rolf A. Zwaan, Psychological Science, vol. 22 no. 12, December 2011, pp. 1511-14.

ATTENDING THE CEREMONY: Tulio Guadalupe. [NOTE: Two days after the ceremony, Anita Eerland and Rolf Zwaan will marry each other, in the Netherlands.]

 

PEACE PRIZE: The SKN Company [RUSSIA], for converting old Russian ammunition into new diamonds.

ATTENDING THE CEREMONY: Igor Petrov

 

ACOUSTICS PRIZE: Kazutaka Kurihara and Koji Tsukada [JAPAN] for creating the SpeechJammer — a machine that disrupts a person’s speech, by making them hear their own spoken words at a very slight delay.

REFERENCE: “SpeechJammer: A System Utilizing Artificial Speech Disturbance with Delayed Auditory Feedback“, Kazutaka Kurihara, Koji Tsukada, arxiv.org/abs/1202.6106. February 28, 2012.

ATTENDING THE CEREMONY: Kazutaka Kurihara and Koji Tsukada

 

NEUROSCIENCE PRIZE: Craig Bennett, Abigail Baird, Michael Miller, and George Wolford [USA], for demonstrating that brain researchers, by using complicated instruments and simple statistics, can see meaningful brain activity anywhere — even in a dead salmon.

REFERENCE: “Neural correlates of interspecies perspective taking in the post-mortem Atlantic Salmon: An argument for multiple comparisons correction,” Craig M. Bennett, Abigail A. Baird, Michael B. Miller, and George L. Wolford, 2009.
REFERENCE: “Neural Correlates of Interspecies Perspective Taking in the Post-Mortem Atlantic Salmon: An Argument For Multiple Comparisons Correction,” Craig M. Bennett, Abigail A. Baird, Michael B. Miller, and George L. Wolford, Journal of Serendipitous and Unexpected Results, vol. 1, no. 1, 2010, pp. 1-5.

ATTENDING THE CEREMONY: Craig Bennett, Abigail Baird, Michael Miller, and George Wolford

 

CHEMISTRY PRIZE: Johan Pettersson [SWEDEN and RWANDA]. for solving the puzzle of why, in certain houses in the town of Anderslöv, Sweden, people’s hair turned green.

ATTENDING THE THE CEREMONY: Johan Pettersson

 

LITERATURE PRIZE: The US Government General Accountability Office, for issuing a report about reports about reports that recommends the preparation of a report about the report about reports about reports.

REFERENCE: “Actions Needed to Evaluate the Impact of Efforts to Estimate Costs of Reports and Studies,” US Government General Accountability Office report GAO-12-480R, May 10, 2012.

 

PHYSICS PRIZE: Joseph Keller [USA], and Raymond Goldstein [USA and UK], Patrick Warren, and Robin Ball [UK], for calculating the balance of forces that shape and move the hair in a human ponytail.

REFERENCE: “Shape of a Ponytail and the Statistical Physics of Hair Fiber Bundles.” Raymond E. Goldstein, Patrick B. Warren, and Robin C. Ball, Physical Review Letters, vol. 198, no. 7, 2012.
REFERENCE: “Ponytail Motion,” Joseph B. Keller, SIAM [Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics] Journal of Applied Mathematics, vol. 70, no. 7, 2010, pp. 2667–72.

ATTENDING THE CEREMONY: Joseph Keller, Raymond Goldstein, Patrick Warren, Robin Ball

 

FLUID DYNAMICS PRIZE: Rouslan Krechetnikov [USA, RUSSIA, CANADA] and Hans Mayer [USA] for studying the dynamics of liquid-sloshing, to learn what happens when a person walks while carrying a cup of coffee.

REFERENCE: “Walking With Coffee: Why Does It Spill?” Hans C. Mayer and Rouslan Krechetnikov, Physical Review E, vol. 85, 2012.

ATTENDING THE CEREMONY: Rouslan Krechetnikov

 

ANATOMY PRIZE: Frans de Waal [The Netherlands and USA] and Jennifer Pokorny [USA] for discovering that chimpanzees can identify other chimpanzees individually from seeing photographs of their rear ends.

REFERENCE: “Faces and Behinds: Chimpanzee Sex Perception” Frans B.M. de Waal and Jennifer J. Pokorny, Advanced Science Letters, vol. 1, 99–103, 2008.

ATTENDING THE CEREMONY: Frans de Waal and Jennifer Pokorny

 

MEDICINE PRIZE: Emmanuel Ben-Soussan and Michel Antonietti [FRANCE] for advising doctors who perform colonoscopies how to minimize the chance that their patients will explode.

REFERENCE: “Colonic Gas Explosion During Therapeutic Colonoscopy with Electrocautery,” Spiros D Ladas, George Karamanolis, Emmanuel Ben-Soussan, World Journal of Gastroenterology, vol. 13, no. 40, October 2007, pp. 5295–8.
REFERENCE: “Argon Plasma Coagulation in the Treatment of Hemorrhagic Radiation Proctitis is Efficient But Requires a Perfect Colonic Cleansing to Be Safe,” E. Ben-Soussan, M. Antonietti, G. Savoye, S. Herve, P. Ducrotté, and E. Lerebours, European Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, vol. 16, no. 12, December 2004, pp 1315-8.

ATTENDING THE THE CEREMONY: Emmanuel Ben-Soussan

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2012-09-10 New articles we read this week

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Retinal Development

  1. Salbreux G, Barthel LK, Raymond PA, Lubensky DK. Coupling mechanical deformations and planar cell polarity to create regular patterns in the zebrafish retina. PLoS Comput Biol. 2012 Aug;8(8):e1002618. Epub 2012 Aug 23. PubMed PMID: 22936893; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3426565.
  2. Chen M, Wang K, Lin B. Development and degeneration of cone bipolar cells are  independent of cone photoreceptors in a mouse model of retinitis pigmentosa. PLoS One. 2012;7(8):e44036. Epub 2012 Aug 31. PubMed PMID: 22952865.
  3. He J, Zhang G, Almeida AD, Cayouette M, Simons BD, Harris WA. How variable clones build an invariant retina. Neuron. 2012 Sep 6;75(5):786-98. PubMed PMID: 22958820.
    • Commentary: Chen Z, Li X, Desplan C. Deterministic or stochastic choices in retinal neuron specification. Neuron. 2012 Sep 6;75(5):739-42. PubMed PMID: 22958814.

Eye disease

  1. Murakami Y, Matsumoto H, Roh M, Suzuki J, Hisatomi T, Ikeda Y, Miller JW, Vavvas DG. Receptor interacting protein kinase mediates necrotic cone but not rod cell death in a mouse model of inherited degeneration. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Sep 4;109(36):14598-603. Epub 2012 Aug 20. PubMed PMID: 22908283.
  2. Kohl S, Coppieters F, Meire F, Schaich S, Roosing S, Brennenstuhl C, Bolz S, van Genderen MM, Riemslag FC; the European Retinal Disease Consortium, Lukowski R, den Hollander AI, Cremers FP, De Baere E, Hoyng CB, Wissinger B. A Nonsense Mutation in PDE6H Causes Autosomal-Recessive Incomplete Achromatopsia. Am J Hum Genet. 2012 Sep 7;91(3):527-532. Epub 2012 Aug 16. PubMed PMID: 22901948.
  3. Manzini MC, Tambunan DE, Hill RS, Yu TW, Maynard TM, Heinzen EL, Shianna KV, Stevens CR, Partlow JN, Barry BJ, Rodriguez J, Gupta VA, Al-Qudah AK, Eyaid WM, Friedman JM, Salih MA, Clark R, Moroni I, Mora M, Beggs AH, Gabriel SB, Walsh CA. Exome Sequencing and Functional Validation in Zebrafish Identify GTDC2 Mutations as a Cause of Walker-Warburg Syndrome. Am J Hum Genet. 2012 Sep 7;91(3):541-7. PubMed PMID: 22958903.

Genetics

  1. Schmitt MW, Kennedy SR, Salk JJ, Fox EJ, Hiatt JB, Loeb LA. Detection of ultra-rare mutations by next-generation sequencing. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Sep 4;109(36):14508-13. Epub 2012 Aug 1. PubMed PMID: 22853953.
  2. Papers related to ENCODE
      1. Schaub MA, Boyle AP, Kundaje A, Batzoglou S, Snyder M. Linking disease associations with regulatory information in the human genome. Genome Res. 2012 Sep;22(9):1748-59. PubMed PMID: 22955986.
      2. Stamatoyannopoulos JA. What does our genome encode? Genome Res. 2012 Sep;22(9):1602-11. PubMed PMID: 22955972.
      3. Frazer KA. Decoding the human genome. Genome Res. 2012 Sep;22(9):1599-601. PubMed PMID: 22955971.
    1. Nature (with links to Genome Research papers)
      1. Skipper M, Dhand R, Campbell P. Presenting ENCODE. Nature. 2012 Sep6;489(7414):45. doi: 10.1038/489045a. PubMed PMID: 22955612.
      2. Ecker JR, Bickmore WA, Barroso I, Pritchard JK, Gilad Y, Segal E. Genomics: ENCODE explained. Nature. 2012 Sep 6;489(7414):52-5. doi: 10.1038/489052a. PubMed PMID: 22955614.
      3. ENCODE Project Consortium, Bernstein BE, Birney E, Dunham I, Green ED, Gunter C, Snyder M. An integrated encyclopedia of DNA elements in the human genome.Nature. 2012 Sep 6;489(7414):57-74. doi: 10.1038/nature11247. PubMed PMID: 22955616.
      4. Thurman RE, et al., The accessible chromatin landscape of the human genome. Nature. 2012 Sep 6;489(7414):75-82. doi: 10.1038/nature11232. PubMed PMID: 22955617.
      5. Neph S, et al., An expansive human regulatory lexicon encoded in transcription factor footprints. Nature. 2012 Sep 6;489(7414):83-90. doi: 10.1038/nature11212. PubMed PMID:22955618.
      6. Gerstein MB, et al., Architecture of the human regulatory network derived from ENCODE data. Nature. 2012 Sep 6;489(7414):91-100. doi: 10.1038/nature11245. PubMed PMID: 22955619.
      7. Djebali S, et al., Landscape of transcription in human cells. Nature. 2012 Sep 6;489(7414):101-8. doi: 10.1038/nature11233. PubMed PMID: 22955620.

Oxidative Stress

  1. Mukaigasa K, Nguyen LT, Li L, Nakajima H, Yamamoto M, Kobayashi M. Genetic Evidence of an Evolutionarily Conserved Role for Nrf2 in the Protection against Oxidative Stress. Mol Cell Biol. 2012 Sep 4. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 22949501.

Stem cells

  1. Sancho-Martinez I, Baek SH, Izpisua Belmonte JC. Lineage conversion methodologies meet the reprogramming toolbox. Nat Cell Biol. 2012 Sep 3;14(9):892-9. doi: 10.1038/ncb2567. PubMed PMID: 22945254.
  2. Loh KM, Lim B. Epigenetics: Actors in the cell reprogramming drama. Nature. 2012 Aug 30;488(7413):599-600. doi: 10.1038/488599a. PubMed PMID: 22932382.

Medicine

  1. Asch DA, Volpp KG. What business are we in? The emergence of health as the business of health care. N Engl J Med. 2012 Sep 6;367(10):888-9. Epub 2012 Aug 30. PubMed PMID: 22931228.
  2. Fani Marvasti F, Stafford RS. From sick care to health care–reengineering prevention into the U.S. system. N Engl J Med. 2012 Sep 6;367(10):889-91. PubMed PMID: 22931257.
  3. Barnes KA, Kroening-Roche JC, Comfort BW. The developing vision of primary care. N Engl J Med. 2012 Sep 6;367(10):891-3. PubMed PMID: 22931258.
  4. Baker M. Doctors back circumcision. Nature. 2012 Aug 30;488(7413):568. doi: 10.1038/488568a. PubMed PMID: 22932355.
  5. Nature Outlook HPV
    1. Crow JM. HPV: The global burden. Nature. 2012 Aug 30;488(7413):S2-3. doi: 10.1038/488S2a. PubMed PMID: 22932437.

Nutrition

  1. Maxmen A. Calorie restriction falters in the long run. Nature. 2012 Aug 30;488(7413):569. doi: 10.1038/488569a. PubMed PMID: 22932356.

Ethics, Social and Legal Issues

  1. Greenland P, Fontanarosa PB. Ending honorary authorship. Science. 2012 Aug 31;337(6098):1019. PubMed PMID: 22936744.

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2012-09-03 new articles we read this week

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Stem cells

  1. Nakano T, Ando S, Takata N, Kawada M, Muguruma K, Sekiguchi K, Saito K, Yonemura S, Eiraku M, Sasai Y. Self-formation of optic cups and storable stratified neural retina from human ESCs. Cell Stem Cell. 2012 Jun 14;10(6):771-85. PubMed PMID: 22704518.
  2. Cyranoski D. Tissue engineering: The brainmaker. Nature. 2012 Aug 23;488(7412):444-6. doi: 10.1038/488444a. PubMed PMID: 22914148.
    • An interesting article about Dr. Sasai who leads the team to make the eye cup from human ESCs as described above and from mouse ESCs, among many other interesting discoveries!

Imaging

  1. Small A. Faster and more versatile tools for super-resolution fluorescence microscopy. Nat Methods. 2012 Jun 28;9(7):655-6. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.2079. PubMed PMID: 22743767.
  2. Weber M, Huisken J. Omnidirectional microscopy. Nat Methods. 2012 Jun 28;9(7):656-7. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.2022. PubMed PMID: 22743768.
  3. Schindelin J, Arganda-Carreras I, Frise E, Kaynig V, Longair M, Pietzsch T, Preibisch S, Rueden C, Saalfeld S, Schmid B, Tinevez JY, White DJ, Hartenstein V, Eliceiri K, Tomancak P, Cardona A. Fiji: an open-source platform for biological-image analysis. Nat Methods. 2012 Jun 28;9(7):676-82. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.2019. PubMed PMID: 22743772.
  4. Kankaanpää P, Paavolainen L, Tiitta S, Karjalainen M, Päivärinne J, Nieminen J, Marjomäki V, Heino J, White DJ. BioImageXD: an open, general-purpose and high-throughput image-processing platform. Nat Methods. 2012 Jun 28;9(7):683-9.doi: 10.1038/nmeth.2047. PubMed PMID: 22743773.
  5. de Chaumont F, Dallongeville S, Chenouard N, Hervé N, Pop S, Provoost T, Meas-Yedid V, Pankajakshan P, Lecomte T, Le Montagner Y, Lagache T, Dufour A, Olivo-Marin JC. Icy: an open bioimage informatics platform for extended reproducible research. Nat Methods. 2012 Jun 28;9(7):690-6. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.2075. PubMed PMID: 22743774.
  6. Eliceiri KW, Berthold MR, Goldberg IG, Ibáñez L, Manjunath BS, Martone ME, Murphy RF, Peng H, Plant AL, Roysam B, Stuurmann N, Swedlow JR, Tomancak P, Carpenter AE. Biological imaging software tools. Nat Methods. 2012 Jun 28;9(7):697-710. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.2084. PubMed PMID: 22743775.
  7. Ronneberger O, Liu K, Rath M, Rueß D, Mueller T, Skibbe H, Drayer B, Schmidt T, Filippi A, Nitschke R, Brox T, Burkhardt H, Driever W. ViBE-Z: a framework for 3D virtual colocalization analysis in zebrafish larval brains. Nat Methods. 2012  Jun 17;9(7):735-42. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.2076. PubMed PMID: 22706672.
  8. Lubeck E, Cai L. Single-cell systems biology by super-resolution imaging and combinatorial labeling. Nat Methods. 2012 Jun 3;9(7):743-8. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.2069. PubMed PMID: 22660740; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3418883.
  9. Tomer R, Khairy K, Amat F, Keller PJ. Quantitative high-speed imaging of entire developing embryos with simultaneous multiview light-sheet microscopy. Nat Methods. 2012 Jun 3;9(7):755-63. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.2062. PubMed PMID: 22660741.
  10. The quest for quantitative microscopy. Nat Methods. 2012 Jul;9(7):627. PubMed PMID: 22930824.
  11. Schneider CA, Rasband WS, Eliceiri KW. NIH Image to ImageJ: 25 years of image analysis. Nat Methods. 2012 Jul;9(7):671-5. PubMed PMID: 22930834.

Systems Biology

  1. Karr JR, Sanghvi JC, Macklin DN, Gutschow MV, Jacobs JM, Bolival B Jr, Assad-Garcia N, Glass JI, Covert MW. A whole-cell computational model predicts phenotype from genotype. Cell. 2012 Jul 20;150(2):389-401. PubMed PMID: 22817898; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3413483.
    • Commentary: Freddolino PL, Tavazoie S. The dawn of virtual cell biology. Cell. 2012 Jul 20;150(2):248-50. PubMed PMID: 22817888.

Genomics/Genetics

  1. Kong A, Frigge ML, Masson G, Besenbacher S, Sulem P, Magnusson G, Gudjonsson SA, Sigurdsson A, Jonasdottir A, Jonasdottir A, Wong WS, Sigurdsson G, Walters GB, Steinberg S, Helgason H, Thorleifsson G, Gudbjartsson DF, Helgason A, Magnusson OT, Thorsteinsdottir U, Stefansson K. Rate of de novo mutations and the importance of father’s age to disease risk. Nature. 2012 Aug 23;488(7412):471-5. doi: 10.1038/nature11396. PubMed PMID: 22914163.
    • A new study that shows the older the father is, the more the mutations that he will pass to the next generation!
    • News: Callaway E. Fathers bequeath more mutations as they age. Nature. 2012 Aug 23;488(7412):439. doi: 10.1038/488439a. PubMed PMID: 22914142.
    • Commentary: Kondrashov A. Genetics: The rate of human mutation. Nature. 2012 Aug 23;488(7412):467-8. doi: 10.1038/488467a. PubMed PMID: 22914161.
  2. Schuster-Böckler B, Lehner B. Chromatin organization is a major influence on regional mutation rates in human cancer cells. Nature. 2012 Aug 23;488(7412):504-7. PubMed PMID: 22820252.

Development

  1. Lefebvre JL, Kostadinov D, Chen WV, Maniatis T, Sanes JR. Protocadherins mediate dendritic self-avoidance in the mammalian nervous system. Nature. 2012 Aug 23;488(7412):517-21. PubMed PMID: 22842903; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3427422.
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Robotic researcher

Sunday, July 8, 2012

It is interesting that I come across this article about a robot that can conduct research and the article about the lack of jobs for scientists at the same time. A group of Japanese scientists have built a robot for conducting research experiments that may be too dangerous for human. From the cnet.com by Tim Hornyak: “Two-armed robot takes on risky lab work”

Unlike most assembly robots, its arms have seven joints, allowing it to use human tools and to perform humanlike motions easily. It automates lab work and can do tasks such as culturing more quickly and accurately than human lab techs.

From Cnet.com; Video screenshot by Tim Hornyak/CNET

As I am running a lab myself and always hope to get more data, the second I saw the setup with the pipettes, PCR and dry baths, I could not stop thinking “wouldn’t it be nice to have one of these robots to work in the lab for 24 hours…. “.

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Research Career

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Having a good science education is essential for all of us, because that trains one’s critical thinking; while asking a lot more students to join the field is a whole different issue. A number of factors comes into play for one to decide whether he would want to pursue this career, including one’s personality, dedication, and perhaps most importantly, financial status and career aspiration. As a teacher for many students who has spent a few more years than them and has gone through some of these thinking exercises, I believe it is rather important to let students know about the reality of the career path in research rather than telling them a rosy story and blindly motivating them. To me that is just like an academic Ponzi scheme.

Here is a great article “U.S. pushes for more scientists, but the jobs aren’t there” about the situation (once again), by Brian Vastag from the Washington Post:

That reality runs counter to messages sent by President Obama and the National Science Foundation and other influential groups, who in recent years have called for U.S. universities to churn out more scientists.

What worries me the most during the counseling of younger students, is that many think they study well, can get good grades and hence going to graduate school is a natural choice. My typical response is that “you don’t want to go to graduate school”. Don’t get me wrong. I am very enthusiastic in training students and motivate them about the excitements of scientific discoveries and thinking. However, I often see students, friends and colleagues who have good heart and can study well but ended up getting frustrated about the situation when they are a bit older and have more family obligations. I often give students a few analogies to help their planning.  Here is of them, compare pursuing research as a career to pursuing performing arts (or artists or TV stars, you get the idea) as a career. Don’t just look at the successful ones for inspiration and commit yourself to the path. Also look at the ones that have to struggle for survival. If you like that kind of sacrifice for you and your family and uncertainties for the career satisfaction, may be pursuing research as a career is good for you. In other words, pursuing research as a career requires not only the smartest minds, but also the strongest dedication and good financial flexibility. Unless there is a fundamental change in the system, research is not the career type that would give the stability that many may have perceived.

 

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An interesting article about the resolution of retina display and the resolving power of retina

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Since our lab is studying retina, I am intrigued in reading this article about the limitation of retina display by Apple, how we see and the future of developing better displays.

From cultofmac by John Brownlee: Why Retina Isn’t Enough

Apple’s new MacBook Pro follows the fine tradition of the iPhone 4 and third-gen iPad in that it has a super high-resolution Retina display: a 2880 x 1800 panel with an amazing 220 pixels packed in per inch.

It’s an incredible display. In fact, it’s such an incredible display that it actually has about one million, seven hundred thousand pixels more than it needs to satisfy Apple’s definition of Retina, leading some to claim that those pixels are all going to waste.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Apple’s new MacBook Pros have absolutely great displays, but they need every single pixel they have, because the truth of the matter is that Apple’s got a long way to go before it catches its display tech up to the incredible power of human vision. And that’s a good thing, because it means we’ve got a lot to look forward to.

From http://www.cultofmac.com

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2012-06-17 new articles we read this week

Monday, June 18, 2012

Development

  1. Nancy P, Tagliani E, Tay CS, Asp P, Levy DE, Erlebacher A.  Chemokine gene silencing in decidual stromal cells limits T cell access to the maternal-fetal interface. Science. 2012 Jun 8;336(6086):1317-21. PubMed PMID: 22679098.

Behaviour

  1. Polverino G, Abaid N, Kopman V, Macrì S, Porfiri M. Zebrafish response to robotic fish: preference experiments on isolated individuals and small shoals. Bioinspir Biomim. 2012 Jun 8;7(3):036019. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 22677608.

Systems Biology

  1. Ku CJ, Wang Y, Weiner OD, Altschuler SJ, Wu LF. Network Crosstalk Dynamically Changes during Neutrophil Polarization. Cell. 2012 May 25;149(5):1073-83. PubMed PMID: 22632971.

Human Microbiome

  1. Human Microbiome Project Consortium. Structure, function and diversity of the healthy human microbiome. Nature. 2012 Jun 13;486(7402):207-14. doi:10.1038/nature11234. PubMed PMID: 22699609.
  2. Human Microbiome Project Consortium. A framework for human microbiome research. Nature. 2012 Jun 13;486(7402):215-21. doi: 10.1038/nature11209. PubMed PMID: 22699610.
    • Commentary: Relman DA. Microbiology: Learning about who we are. Nature. 2012 Jun 13;486(7402):194-5. doi: 10.1038/486194a. PubMed PMID: 22699602.

Retinal degeneration

  1. Taylor S, Chen J, Luo J, Hitchcock P. Light-induced photoreceptor degeneration in the retina of the zebrafish. Methods Mol Biol. 2012;884:247-54. PubMed PMID: 22688711.

Neuroscience

  1. Cyranoski D. Neuroscience: The mind reader. Nature. 2012 Jun 13;486(7402):178-80. doi: 10.1038/486178a. PubMed PMID: 22699592.
  2. Van Horn JD, Irimia A, Torgerson CM, Chambers MC, Kikinis R, Toga AW. Mapping connectivity damage in the case of phineas gage. PLoS One. 2012;7(5):e37454. Epub 2012 May 16. PubMed PMID: 22616011; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3353935.

Retinal development

  1. Stacher Hörndli C, Chien CB. Sonic hedgehog is indirectly required for intraretinal axon pathfinding by regulating chemokine expression in the optic stalk. Development. 2012 Jun 13. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 22696293.

 



				

				

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Regenerative medicine for spinal cord injury

				
Sunday, June 3, 2012

				


An interesting study have reported a way that may potential help people who suffer from spinal cord injury.


From the New York Times, “In Rat Experiment, New Hope for Spine Injuries“:


Rats with a spinal cord injury that left their hind legs completely paralyzed learned to walk again on their own after an intensive training course that included electrical stimulation of the brain and the spine, scientists reported on Thursday.


Adopted from the New York Times; Source: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne


Reference


van den Brand R, Heutschi J, Barraud Q, DiGiovanna J, Bartholdi K, Huerlimann M, Friedli L, Vollenweider I, Moraud EM, Duis S, Dominici N, Micera S, Musienko P, Courtine G. Restoring voluntary control of locomotion after paralyzing spinal cord injury. Science. 2012 Jun 1;336(6085):1182-5. PubMed PMID: 22654062.




				

				

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2012-05-20 new articles we read this week

				
Sunday, May 20, 2012

				


Stem cells


    

  1. Chen J, Pei D. Reprogramming in suspension. Nat Methods. 2012 Apr 27;9(5):449-51. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.1989. PubMed PMID: 22543375.
    2. 



Genomics


    

  1. Clarke L, Zheng-Bradley X, Smith R, Kulesha E, Xiao C, Toneva I, Vaughan B, Preuss D, Leinonen R, Shumway M, Sherry S, Flicek P; The 1000 Genomes Project Consortium. The 1000 Genomes Project: data management and community access. Nat Methods. 2012 Apr 27;9(5):459-462. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.1974. PubMed PMID: 22543379; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3340611.
    2. 



Eye disease


    

  1. Pearson RA, Barber AC, Rizzi M, Hippert C, Xue T, West EL, Duran Y, Smith AJ, Chuang JZ, Azam SA, Luhmann UF, Benucci A, Sung CH, Bainbridge JW, Carandini M,Yau KW, Sowden JC, Ali RR. Restoration of vision after transplantation of photoreceptors. Nature. 2012 May 3;485(7396):99-103. PubMed PMID: 22522934.
    2. 



Genetic disease


    

  1. Whalley K. Neurodevelopmental disorders: Reversing the fragile X phenotype. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2012 May 3. doi: 10.1038/nrn3255. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 22551664.
    2. 



Systems biology


    

  1. Zhu J, Sova P, Xu Q, Dombek KM, Xu EY, Vu H, Tu Z, Brem RB, Bumgarner RE, Schadt EE. Stitching together Multiple Data Dimensions Reveals Interacting Metabolomic and Transcriptomic Networks That Modulate Cell Regulation. PLoS Biol. 2012 Apr;10(4):e1001301. Epub 2012 Apr 3. PubMed PMID: 22509135; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3317911.
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Medicine


    

  1. Freedman ND, Park Y, Abnet CC, Hollenbeck AR, Sinha R. Association of coffee drinking with total and cause-specific mortality. N Engl J Med. 2012 May 17;366(20):1891-904. PubMed PMID: 22591295.
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