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2017-06-21 new articles we read this week

Development

  1. Kobayashi T, Zhang H, Tang WWC, Irie N, Withey S, Klisch D, Sybirna A, Dietmann S, Contreras DA, Webb R, Allegrucci C, Alberio R, Surani MA. Principles of early human development and germ cell program from conserved model systems. Nature. 2017 Jun 7. doi: 10.1038/nature22812. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 28607482.
  2. Peter IS, Davidson EH. Assessing regulatory information in developmental gene regulatory networks. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Jun 6;114(23):5862-5869. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1610616114. PubMed PMID: 28584110.

Regeneration

  1. Laha B, Stafford BK, Huberman AD. Regenerating optic pathways from the eye to the brain. Science. 2017 Jun 9;356(6342):1031-1034. doi: 10.1126/science.aal5060. Review. PubMed PMID: 28596336.

Genomics

  1. Jiao Y, Peluso P, Shi J, Liang T, Stitzer MC, Wang B, Campbell MS, Stein JC, Wei X, Chin CS, Guill K, Regulski M, Kumari S, Olson A, Gent J, Schneider KL, Wolfgruber TK, May MR, Springer NM, Antoniou E, McCombie WR, Presting GG, McMullen M, Ross-Ibarra J, Dawe RK, Hastie A, Rank DR, Ware D. Improved maize reference genome with single-molecule technologies. Nature. 2017 Jun 12. doi: 10.1038/nature22971. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 28605751.

Stem cells

  1. Kilpinen H, Goncalves A, Leha A, Afzal V, Alasoo K, Ashford S, Bala S, Bensaddek D, Casale FP, Culley OJ, Danecek P, Faulconbridge A, Harrison PW, Kathuria A, McCarthy D, McCarthy SA, Meleckyte R, Memari Y, Moens N, Soares F, Mann A, Streeter I, Agu CA, Alderton A, Nelson R, Harper S, Patel M, White A, Patel SR, Clarke L, Halai R, Kirton CM, Kolb-Kokocinski A, Beales P, Birney E, Danovi D, Lamond AI, Ouwehand WH, Vallier L, Watt FM, Durbin R, Stegle O, Gaffney DJ. Common genetic variation drives molecular heterogeneity in human iPSCs. Nature. 2017 May 10. doi: 10.1038/nature22403. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 28489815.

Genome Editing

  1. Dong, Guo M, Wang S, Zhu Y, Wang S, Xiong Z, Yang J, Xu Z, Huang Z. Structural basis of CRISPR-SpyCas9 inhibition by an anti-CRISPR protein. Nature. 2017 Apr 27. doi: 10.1038/nature22377. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 28448066.

Molecular Biology

  1. Pennisi E. Circular DNA throws biologists for a loop. Science. 2017 Jun 9;356(6342):996. doi: 10.1126/science.356.6342.996. PubMed PMID: 28596318.
  2. Roundtree IA, Evans ME, Pan T, He C. Dynamic RNA Modifications in Gene Expression Regulation. Cell. 2017 Jun 15;169(7):1187-1200. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2017.05.045. Review. PubMed PMID: 28622506.

Funding

  1. Kaiser J. Data Check: Critics challenge NIH finding that bigger labs aren’t necessarily better. Science. 2017 Jun 9;356(6342):997. doi: 10.1126/science.356.6342.997. PubMed PMID: 28596319.

Genetics

  1. Boyle EA, Li YI, Pritchard JK. An Expanded View of Complex Traits: From Polygenic to Omnigenic. Cell. 2017 Jun 15;169(7):1177-1186. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2017.05.038. Review. PubMed PMID: 28622505.
  2. Trigos AS, Pearson RB, Papenfuss AT, Goode DL. Altered interactions between unicellular and multicellular genes drive hallmarks of transformation in a diverse range of solid tumors. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Jun 13;114(24):6406-6411. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1617743114. Epub 2017 May 8. PubMed PMID: 28484005.
  3. Bussey KJ, Cisneros LH, Lineweaver CH, Davies PCW. Ancestral gene regulatory networks drive cancer. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Jun 13;114(24):6160-6162. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1706990114. Epub 2017 Jun 5. PubMed PMID: 28584134.

Evolution

  1. Cindrova-Davies T, Jauniaux E, Elliot MG, Gong S, Burton GJ, Charnock-Jones DS. RNA-seq reveals conservation of function among the yolk sacs of human, mouse, and chicken. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Jun 13;114(24):E4753-E4761. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1702560114. Epub 2017 May 30. PubMed PMID: 28559354.

 

Leung Lab visited the Department of Ophthalmology at the Osaka University School of Medicine

In May 2017, the Leung lab visited several collaborating groups in Asia and shared with them our research vision on using zebrafish to find new drugs for retinal degeneration. In this blog post, we will share some pictures of our visit to the Department of Ophthalmology at the Osaka University School of Medicine. We met our long-term collaborator Dr. Motokazu Tsujikawa. He is a co-mentor of Logan Ganzen, a graduate student in our laboratory. Logan is a recipient of the predoctoral award from the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute. During our Osaka trip, he presented a talk entitled “Visual Motor Response of a Transgenic Retinitis Pigmentosa Zebrafish Model” to Dr. Tsujikawa.

 

Logan in front of a new Center for Medical Innovation and Translational Research.

Fai and Dr. Motokazu in his zebrafish facility in the Center of Medical Innovation and Translational Research.

The Center is beautifully designed with lots of open space.

Logan presented his latest findings to Dr. Motokazu, who served as a co-mentor in Logan’s CTSI predoctoral fellowship.

We also visited the daily operation of the ophthalmology clinic and Osaka University Hospital, and participated in the grand rounds of the local ophthalmologists. We experienced firsthand the passion of translational research from our Japanese colleagues.

Entrance hall of the medical building

A panoramic view at the top floor of the hospital.

We joined the grand rounds of the local ophthalmologists. Dr. Kohji Nishida welcomed the group and gave an opening speech.  Even though we did not speak Japanese, we witnessed their passion to improve clinical service through research.

Needless to say, we were also well-fed by Dr. Tsujikawa with the finest Japanese food, and took some time to visit Kyoto, a magnificent ancient city.

Dr. Motokazu fed us with delicious Japanese food!

A torii path at the Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto.

Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto

2017-06-12 new articles we read this week

Stem cells

  1. Mandai M, Watanabe A, Kurimoto Y, Hirami Y, Morinaga C, Daimon T, Fujihara M, Akimaru H, Sakai N, Shibata Y, Terada M, Nomiya Y, Tanishima S, Nakamura M, Kamao H, Sugita S, Onishi A, Ito T, Fujita K, Kawamata S, Go MJ, Shinohara C, Hata KI, Sawada M, Yamamoto M, Ohta S, Ohara Y, Yoshida K, Kuwahara J, Kitano Y, Amano N, Umekage M, Kitaoka F, Tanaka A, Okada C, Takasu N, Ogawa S, Yamanaka S, Takahashi M. Autologous Induced Stem-Cell-Derived Retinal Cells for Macular Degeneration. N Engl J Med. 2017 Mar 16;376(11):1038-1046. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1608368. PubMed PMID: 28296613.
  2. Merkle FT, Ghosh S, Kamitaki N, Mitchell J, Avior Y, Mello C, Kashin S, Mekhoubad S, Ilic D, Charlton M, Saphier G, Handsaker RE, Genovese G, Bar S, Benvenisty N, McCarroll SA, Eggan K. Human pluripotent stem cells recurrently acquire and expand dominant negative P53 mutations. Nature. 2017 May 11;545(7653):229-233. doi: 10.1038/nature22312. Epub 2017 Apr 26. PubMed PMID: 28445466; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5427175.

Genome-editing

  1. Yu W, Mookherjee S, Chaitankar V, Hiriyanna S, Kim JW, Brooks M, Ataeijannati Y, Sun X, Dong L, Li T, Swaroop A, Wu Z. Nrl knockdown by AAV-delivered CRISPR/Cas9 prevents retinal degeneration in mice. Nat Commun. 2017 Mar 14;8:14716. doi: 10.1038/ncomms14716. PubMed PMID: 28291770.
  2. Schaefer KA, Wu WH, Colgan DF, Tsang SH, Bassuk AG, Mahajan VB. Unexpected mutations after CRISPR-Cas9 editing in vivo. Nat Methods. 2017 May 30;14(6):547-548. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.4293. PubMed PMID: 28557981.

Scientific Career

  1. Barnett A. Comment: Research needs more competence, less ‘excellence’. Nature. 2017 Mar 22;543(7646):S29. doi: 10.1038/543S29a. PubMed PMID: 28328912.

Development

  1. Lefrançais E, Ortiz-Muñoz G, Caudrillier A, Mallavia B, Liu F, Sayah DM, Thornton EE, Headley MB, David T, Coughlin SR, Krummel MF, Leavitt AD, Passegué E, Looney MR. The lung is a site of platelet biogenesis and a reservoir for haematopoietic progenitors. Nature. 2017 Apr 6;544(7648):105-109. doi: 10.1038/nature21706. Epub 2017 Mar 22. PubMed PMID: 28329764.

Genomics

  1. Stevens TJ, Lando D, Basu S, Atkinson LP, Cao Y, Lee SF, Leeb M, Wohlfahrt KJ, Boucher W, O’Shaughnessy-Kirwan A, Cramard J, Faure AJ, Ralser M, Blanco E, Morey L, Sansó M, Palayret MG, Lehner B, Di Croce L, Wutz A, Hendrich B, Klenerman D, Laue ED. 3D structures of individual mammalian genomes studied by single-cell Hi-C. Nature. 2017 Apr 6;544(7648):59-64. doi: 10.1038/nature21429. Epub 2017 Mar 13. PubMed PMID: 28289288; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5385134.

Eye diseases, glaucoma

  1. Williams PA, Harder JM, Foxworth NE, Cochran KE, Philip VM, Porciatti V, Smithies O, John SW. Vitamin B(3) modulates mitochondrial vulnerability and prevents glaucoma in aged mice. Science. 2017 Feb 17;355(6326):756-760. doi: 10.1126/science.aal0092. PubMed PMID: 28209901; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5408298.
    • Crowston J, Trounce I. Relief for retinal neurons under pressure. Science. 2017 Feb 17;355(6326):688-689. doi: 10.1126/science.aam7935. PubMed PMID: 28209856.

Retina

  1. Wang J, O’Sullivan ML, Mukherjee D, Puñal VM, Farsiu S, Kay JN. Anatomy and spatial organization of Müller glia in mouse retina. J Comp Neurol. 2017 Jun 1;525(8):1759-1777. doi: 10.1002/cne.24153. Epub 2017 Mar 7. PubMed PMID: 27997986.
  2. Xiang L, Chen XJ, Wu KC, Zhang CJ, Zhou GH, Lv JN, Sun LF, Cheng FF, Cai XB, Jin ZB. miR-183/96 plays a pivotal regulatory role in mouse photoreceptor maturation and maintenance. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 May 30. pii: 201618757. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1618757114. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 28559309.
  3. Fan J, Jia L, Li Y, Ebrahim S, May-Simera H, Wood A, Morell RJ, Liu P, Lei J,  Kachar B, Belluscio L, Qian H, Li T, Li W, Wistow G, Dong L. Maturation arrest in early postnatal sensory receptors by deletion of the miR-183/96/182 cluster in mouse. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 May 23;114(21):E4271-E4280. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1619442114. Epub 2017 May 8. PubMed PMID: 28484004; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5448201.

Genetics

  1. Yang J, Jin ZB, Chen J, Huang XF, Li XM, Liang YB, Mao JY, Chen X, Zheng Z, Bakshi A, Zheng DD, Zheng MQ, Wray NR, Visscher PM, Lu F, Qu J. Genetic signatures of high-altitude adaptation in Tibetans. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Apr 18;114(16):4189-4194. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1617042114. Epub 2017 Apr 3. PubMed PMID: 28373541; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5402460.
  2. Jin ZB, Wu J, Huang XF, Feng CY, Cai XB, Mao JY, Xiang L, Wu KC, Xiao X, Kloss BA, Li Z, Liu Z, Huang S, Shen M, Cheng FF, Cheng XW, Zheng ZL, Chen X, Zhuang W, Zhang Q, Young TL, Xie T, Lu F, Qu J. Trio-based exome sequencing arrests de novo mutations in early-onset high myopia. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Apr 18;114(16):4219-4224. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1615970114. Epub 2017 Apr 3. PubMed PMID: 28373534; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5402409.

 

Leung lab research featured in an educational science video

Our research on zebrafish vision has been featured by Inés Laura Dawson from Draw Curiosity in her educational science video entitled “Is Animal Vision 20/20?”.

Leung Lab attended the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting

Logan Ganzen and Yuk Fai Leung attended the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) in Baltimore, MD from 2017-05-07 to 05-11. Logan presented a poster entitled “Visual Motor Response of a Transgenic Retinitis Pigmentosa Zebrafish Model”. They also attended several events to meet fellow researchers over the world. A few pictures of these events:

Dinner with zebrafish colleagues

Prof. Mark Tso from Wilmer Eye Institute sharing his life experience with his former students

Dinner with Dr. Mark Tso from the Wilmer Eye Institute.

Fai and Logan with Dr. Mark Tso from the Wilmer Eye Institute.

 

Dinner with Prof. Mark Tso and his former students.

Leung Lab participated in the 2017 Purdue Spring Fest

On 2017-04-08, Prahatha Venkatraman, Logan Ganzen, and Khaled Noui-Mehidi demonstrated zebrafish research in the 2017 Purdue Spring Fest.

Prahatha Venkatraman demonstrating zebrafish research to the public.

Logan Ganzen and Khaled Noui-Mehidi demonstrating zebrafish research to the public.

Leung Lab presented at the 132nd Annual Academy Meeting of the Indiana Academy of Science

On 2016-03-25, Khaled Noui-Mehidi presented his research at the 131st Annual Academy Meeting of the Indiana Academy of Science. Emre Coskun attended the meeting. They were supervised by graduate student Logan Ganzen.

Khaled Noui-Mehidi presenting his research at the IAS meeting.

 

2017-03-20 new articles we read this week

Neuroscience

  1. Dresler M, Shirer WR, Konrad BN, Müller NC, Wagner IC, Fernández G, Czisch M, Greicius MD. Mnemonic Training Reshapes Brain Networks to Support Superior Memory. Neuron. 2017 Mar 8;93(5):1227-1235.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2017.02.003. PubMed PMID: 28279356.
  2. Burton CE, Zhou Y, Bai Q, Burton EA. Spectral properties of the zebrafish visual motor response. Neurosci Lett. 2017 Mar 3. pii: S0304-3940(17)30204-5. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2017.03.002. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 28267562.

Genome editing

  1. Tang L, Zeng Y, Du H, Gong M, Peng J, Zhang B, Lei M, Zhao F, Wang W, Li X, Liu J. CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing in human zygotes using Cas9 protein. Mol Genet Genomics. 2017 Mar 1. doi: 10.1007/s00438-017-1299-z. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 28251317.
  2. Hohmann S. Editor’s comment on “CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing in human zygotes using Cas9 protein”. Mol Genet Genomics. 2017 Mar 1. doi: 10.1007/s00438-017-1300-x. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 28251316.

ELSI

  1. Williams WM, Ceci SJ. National hiring experiments reveal 2:1 faculty preference for women on STEM tenure track. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 Apr 28;112(17):5360-5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1418878112. PubMed PMID: 25870272; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4418903.

2017-03-15 new articles we read this week

Genome editing

  1. Why the CRISPR patent verdict isn’t the end of the story
  2. Burstein D, Harrington LB, Strutt SC, Probst AJ, Anantharaman K, Thomas BC, Doudna JA, Banfield JF. New CRISPR-Cas systems from uncultivated microbes. Nature. 2017 Feb 9;542(7640):237-241. doi: 10.1038/nature21059. PubMed PMID: 28005056; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5300952.

Imaging

  1. Pan C, Cai R, Quacquarelli FP, Ghasemigharagoz A, Lourbopoulos A, Matryba P, Plesnila N, Dichgans M, Hellal F, Ertürk A. Shrinkage-mediated imaging of entire organs and organisms using uDISCO. Nat Methods. 2016 Oct;13(10):859-67. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.3964. PubMed PMID: 27548807.

Neuroscience

  1. Krakauer JW, Ghazanfar AA, Gomez-Marin A, MacIver MA, Poeppel D. Neuroscience Needs Behavior: Correcting a Reductionist Bias. Neuron. 2017 Feb 8;93(3):480-490. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.12.041. Review. PubMed PMID: 28182904.
  2. Jonas E, Kording KP. Could a Neuroscientist Understand a Microprocessor? PLoS Comput Biol. 2017 Jan 12;13(1):e1005268. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005268. PubMed PMID: 28081141; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5230747.

Medicine

  1. Dowdy SF. Overcoming cellular barriers for RNA therapeutics. Nat Biotechnol. 2017 Feb 27. doi: 10.1038/nbt.3802. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 28244992.
  2. Khvorova A, Watts JK. The chemical evolution of oligonucleotide therapies of clinical utility. Nat Biotechnol. 2017 Feb 27. doi: 10.1038/nbt.3765. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 28244990.

Genomics

  1. Martelotto LG, Baslan T, Kendall J, Geyer FC, Burke KA, Spraggon L, Piscuoglio S, Chadalavada K, Nanjangud G, Ng CK, Moody P, D’Italia S, Rodgers L, Cox H, da Cruz Paula A, Stepansky A, Schizas M, Wen HY, King TA, Norton L, Weigelt B, Hicks JB, Reis-Filho JS. Whole-genome single-cell copy number profiling from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded samples. Nat Med. 2017 Feb 6. doi: 10.1038/nm.4279. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 28165479.

Genetics

  1. Bilow M, Crespo F, Pan Z, Eskin E, Eyheramendy S. Simultaneous Modeling of Disease Status and Clinical Phenotypes to Increase Power in GWAS. Genetics. 2017 Jan 27. pii: genetics.116.198473. doi: 10.1534/genetics.116.198473. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 28132020.


				

2017-02-20 new articles we read this week

Genome editing

  1. Park RJ, Wang T, Koundakjian D, Hultquist JF, Lamothe-Molina P, Monel B, Schumann K, Yu H, Krupzcak KM, Garcia-Beltran W, Piechocka-Trocha A, Krogan NJ, Marson A, Sabatini DM, Lander ES, Hacohen N, Walker BD. A genome-wide CRISPR screen identifies a restricted set of HIV host dependency factors. Nat Genet. 2017 Feb;49(2):193-203. doi: 10.1038/ng.3741. PubMed PMID: 27992415.
    • Commentary: Tsui CK, Gupta A, Bassik MC. Finding host targets for HIV therapy. Nat Genet. 2017 Jan 31;49(2):175-176. doi: 10.1038/ng.3777. PubMed PMID: 28138150.
  2. Bengtsson NE, Hall JK, Odom GL, Phelps MP, Andrus CR, Hawkins RD, Hauschka SD, Chamberlain JR, Chamberlain JS. Muscle-specific CRISPR/Cas9 dystrophin gene editing ameliorates pathophysiology in a mouse model for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Nat Commun. 2017 Feb 14;8:14454. doi: 10.1038/ncomms14454. PubMed PMID: 28195574.

Disease

  1. Leinenga G, Götz J. Scanning ultrasound removes amyloid-β and restores memory in an Alzheimer’s disease mouse model. Sci Transl Med. 2015 Mar 11;7(278):278ra33. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aaa2512. PubMed PMID: 25761889.