Archive for October, 2011
« Older Entries |Identifying the Microbial Culprit of The Black Plague
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
A microbial treasure box was just dug up and some insight was provided (via sequencing technologies) into The Black Plague
Tags: Bacteria, bioinformatics, Biology
Posted in Science in the Lay Press | No Comments »
Enzymatic networks
Monday, October 17, 2011
This group analyzes enzyme networks for robustness and dynamics.
Tags: bioinformatics, Biology, Current Literature, Network Science
Posted in Current Data Papers, Network Science | No Comments »
A network analysis approach to prediabetes
Friday, October 14, 2011
The molecular, cellular, and evironemental factors of diabetes makes for a complex problem that this group attacks using a network analysis approach.
Tags: bioinformatics, Biology, disease, Network Science
Posted in Current Data Papers, Network Science | No Comments »
lincRNAs impact pluipotency and cell differentiation
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Mouse cells have been used to demonstrate that long intergenic non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs) have key roles in the circuitry controlling ES cell state.
Tags: bioinformatics, non-coding RNA, RNA
Posted in Current Data Papers, Network Science | No Comments »
An RNA language hypothesis
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Tags: RNA
Posted in Current Data Papers | No Comments »
The essential genome of a bacterium: wants versus needs.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Lucy Shaprio and colleagues have identifed the minimal set of genes required for caulobacter to thrive on rich media. This work will help others bioengineer the organism to function in a variety of roles involving the production of small molecule metabolites and the generation of biosensor systems.
Tags: Bacteria, Current Literature, Evolution, Genetic Control, Microbiology, Network Science
Posted in Current Data Papers | No Comments »
Microbial Bioinfomatics tools
Friday, October 7, 2011
Cool tools for microbial bioinformatics from Berkeley Lab.
Tags: bioinformatics, Microbiology, Network Science, RNA
Posted in New Tools | No Comments »
Network Science – making even Slime Molds sexy
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Slime molds don’t sound very exciting but researchers are using them to optimize networks ranging from highway systems to disasters emergency response procedures. In this recent NYT Science Times piece, the research of several prominent labs is showcased.
In short, these organisms live as individual soil-dwelling cells and are content to survive on their basic food source: bacteria. But when food becomes scarce, these individuals send a chemical signal out to each other and a major change in physiology and strategy takes place. Some cells will sacrifice themselves for the great good of the group by filling themselves up with a carbohydrate that stiffens them (causing death). These cells serve as a scaffold support so that other cells can use this stalk as a structure to form spores, or cellular life rafts, that are capable of weathering the starvation conditions. Only when food becomes plentiful do the spores change back into individual cells to form a new colony.
The Bionetworks group in the Network Science Center is currently studying the modes of communication between cells as they respond not only to starvation conditions, but chemical contaminants of military interest as well.
Tags: Animal Model, Cell Biology, Environmental Science, Microbiology, Network Science
Posted in Science in the Lay Press | No Comments »
Nobel in Medicine
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Scientists pioneering the study of Immunity and Dendritic Cells were awarded the Nobel on Monday. One of the three awardees, Ralph Steinman, happened to pass away the Friday before the announcement, which caused a stir among the lay press because it’s usually not awarded posthumously.
Tags: Immune System
Posted in Science in the Lay Press | No Comments »
Great book to add to the “to read” pile
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Tags: Biology, Evolution, RNA
Posted in Science in the Lay Press | No Comments »