A recent article in Science discussed a claim made by Bill and Melinda Gates, where they proposed that malaria could be eradicated from the Earth over the next few decades. Vanquishing disease is seen as the ultimate goal in medical science, and many dream of the day that we will all be living longer and healthier lives. But the real question is, how do you beat something that will always outrun you? Read more »

Nature sends word that there’s a big showdown in Europe looming that could affect the long-term prospects for the cultivation of genetically modified crops on the continent. Specifically, environment commissioner Stavros Dimas said “that he plans to reject applications from Syngenta and Pioneer Hi-Bred International for approval to grow two transgenic strains of maize (corn), on the grounds that the crops could adversely affect the environment.”

Oddly enough, the vast majority of corn grown here in the States is genetically-modified, and today’s cultivated corn could not survive in the wild. We’ve domesticated the hell out of corn. And as the Nature article states, “researchers point out that it ignores the recommendation Dimas received from his own scientific advisers,” including a European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) scientific report on both proposed varieties of GMO corn concluded that neither would have “an adverse effect on human and animal health or the environment.” Dimas apparently cites 11 studies published since the EFSA report, which suggest that molecules from these specific GMOs would persist in water or sediments draining from a cultivated field, and may disturb downstream ecosystems. Read more »

Time magazine has published it’s top 10 scientific discoveries of 2007. Among this glittering array of multi-disciplinary achievements, advances in molecular and cell biology, namely the re-programming of skin cells into stem cells and the sequencing of J. Craig Venter’s genome,  occupy the top two spots.

Other bio-related break-thoughs in the top 10 include the building of a human heart valve from bone marrow stem cells and the discovery of over 700 new species off the coast of Antarctica

Random mutagenesis is an incredibly powerful tool for altering the properties of enzymes. Imagine, for example, you were studying a G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) and wanted to create a temperature-sensitive version of the receptor or one that was activated by a different ligand than the wild-type. How could you do this?

Firstly, you would clone the gene encoding the receptor, then randomly introduce mutations into the gene sequence to create a “library” containing thousands of versions of the gene. Each version (or “variant”) of the gene in the library would contain different mutations and so encode receptors with slightly altered amino acid sequences giving them slightly different enzymatic properties than the wild-type.

Next, you could transform the library into a strain where the receptor would be expressed and apply a high throughput screen to pick out variants in the library that have the properties you are looking for. Using a high throughput screen for GPCR activity (see here for examples) you could pick out the variants from the library that were temperature-sensitive or were activated by different ligands.

Sound easy? Well, of course it’s not that easy. Creating a random mutant library that contains enough variants to give you a good chance of obtaining the altered enzyme you desire is a challenge in itself. There are many ways to create random mutant libraries, each with it’s own pros and cons. Here are some of them: Read more »

Given the many urgent scientific and technological challenges facing America and the rest of the world, the increasing need for accurate scientific information in political decision making, and the vital role scientific innovation plays in spurring economic growth and competitiveness, we, the undersigned, call for a public debate in which the U.S. presidential candidates share their views on the issues of The Environment, Medicine and Health, and Science and Technology Policy.

With the recent call for a science debate for next year’s contenders for the US presidential race, it seems appropriate to mention some of the questions that are of interest to scientists in general. Bora has a general list, surrounding questions of funding, information, and authority in science:

Funding - what are the priorities, how much money is dedicated to research, who pays, who receives, who decides? Basic vs. applied science; science vs. technology. Read more »

To the general public, scientists seem all seem pretty much the same. However, as someone who has studied these fascinating beasts up close I have found that there are in fact several distinct species within this genus.

In order to promote public understanding, I propose a classification system that groups scientists together based on exhibited behaviour and alterior motives, rather than using purely DNA-based criteria. Please note that all of the following still fall under the Order Primates, but have been re-classified in the newly created Family Academiae. Read more »

Cognition is a term frequently used in several loosely related ways to refer to a faculty for the human-like processing of information. Signal transduction networks certainly fit that bill, as the mediate adaptive changes in gene expression to specific sensory inputs. Melinda Baker and Jeffry Stock, in the recent issue of Current Biology, elaborate on modalities of such cognition in bacteria: Networks and integrated circuits in bacterial cognition.

Of course, they’re not quite circuits in the electrical engineering sense either. Think chemical networking, where each biomolecule in a signaling network can interact with a variety of other molecules, with varying interaction kinetics, and where each interaction has the potential to impact additional outcomes. Coupled with the selection of functions in the micro-environmental milieu, cellular networks ended up organized in efficient ways to control motility, metabolism, growth, and eventually higher processes.

But just suppose for a moment that a cell, even a bacterium, didn’t merely process inputs from the micro-environment. Some people suggest that the information processing, regulatory feedback loops, and adaptive response to stimuli, constitute something else: Read more »

When I was writing up my PhD thesis I was paranoid about data backup. Years of hard work - pictures, data-files, notes, publication lists not to mention the thesis manuscript itself - all stored on one hard drive. Copying onto CDs or detachable hard drives was fine, but what if I lost those, or they became corrupt?, or what if my house burnt down? - all my work would be gone. Read more »

It’s Friday again, so nothing too heavy from me today, just a little light entertainment to ease you into the weekend. Here are three (somewhat) entertaining molecular biology-related movies from you tube. Read more »

10 interesting posts on cell and molecular biology, and the scientists involved, starting off with…

My paper in PLoS Biology is out today - The signal sequence coding region promotes nuclear export of mRNA - Alex gives us an author’s summary on his blog. Congrats on getting the paper published! Read more »