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Blogs

More Human Embryos Cloned and Destroyed
On the heels of the announcement that researchers were able to clone two adult men and destroy those cloned embryos for stem cells, another group funded by the New York Stem Cell Foundation has published research where they cloned a woman with type 1 diabetes. NBCNews reports:Scientists have used cloning technology to make stem cells from a woman with Type 1 diabetes that are genetically matched to her and to her disease.They hope to someday use such cells as tailor-made transplants to treat or potentially even cure the disease, which affects millions and which now has few treatment options other than careful diet and regu...
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - April 30, 2014 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Environment Source Type: blogs

Postdoc: Univ of Minnesota Fungal Genomics
Postdoctoral Position – Fungal Genomics and Metabolomics University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN Position description: A postdoctoral position focused on comparative genomics, metabolomics, and regulatory mechanisms of secondary metabolites in fungi is available in the Bushley lab. This project will focus on population genomics of fungi (Fusarium, Tolypocladium spp.) to investigate regulation and evolution of secondary metabolite genes, clusters, and metabolites. The project will adopt an interdisciplinary approach that integrates next-generation genome sequencing and assembly, comparative genomics, and RNA-Seq experim...
Source: Fungal Genomes and Comparative Genomics - April 30, 2014 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Authors: Jason Stajich Tags: postdoc bioinformatics evolution secondary metabolite Source Type: blogs

Down Syndrome Discovery Has Implications for Human Genetic Engineering
The 21st human chromosome is the smallest of all our chromosomes. It contains only a few hundred genes and is only 1% of our total DNA. As most people know, an extra chromosome 21 causes Down Syndrome. What most people did not know until research published this week, is that tiny chromosome has an effect across the whole human genome.Instead of simply being an extra copy of each of the genes on chromosome 21, trisomy 21 has an effect on the expression of genes on other chromosomes. The Scientist has the story of the fascinating research that lead to this discovery:The deleterious effects of trisomy 21the extra chromosome...
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - April 23, 2014 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Genetic Engineering Source Type: blogs

Two Men Cloned for Stem Cells
For years Massachusetts company Advanced Cell Technology ACT) has been trying to clone human embryos. They have been working with somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), the same technique that cloned Dolly the sheep, in vain attempts to get cloned human embryo to grow long enough to produce embryonic stem cells. ACT has even tried using cow, rabbit and mouse eggs instead of human eggs to produce cloned human embryos.Well, ACT has finally done it. Working with the research of Oregon scientists who last year announced that they had successfully cloned embryos using cells from infants and fetuses, ACT reports that they were su...
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - April 18, 2014 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Cloning Source Type: blogs

Meeting wrapup from ECFG12 in Seville
I recently returned from a successful ECFG12 in Seville, Spain held at the end of March. Some of us flew into Madrid first and took the high speed train to Seville (about 2 1/2 hours) which was a great way to relax and get out of planes after a transatlantic flight. We boarded the train in Madrid and stepped off in Seville. The countryside at 200km/hr The satellite meetings held before the conference include organism-specific conferences including Neurospora, Fusarium, Dothiedeomycetes, and Colleotrichum and AsperFest The conference content was excellent – I am reminded whenever I go to a fungal genetics mee...
Source: Fungal Genomes and Comparative Genomics - April 11, 2014 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Authors: Jason Stajich Tags: Fungal Genetics conference ecfg european fungal genetics tapas Source Type: blogs

Fungal Ecology Evolution Metagenomics Postdoc (University of Illinois)
A postdoctoral position is available in the department of Plant Biology, in the School of Integrative Biology, at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. PIs Astrid Ferrer (aquatic mycologist), Katy Heath (plant and microbe evolution), and Jim Dalling (plant and fungal community ecology) are looking for a highly motivated postdoc to work on a NSF-funded Dimensions of Biodiversity project aimed at understanding the ecological and genetic controls on fungal community assembly and decomposition function in tropical wood-decomposing aquatic fungi. Both the Heath and Dalling labs are lively, highly-collaborative environ...
Source: Fungal Genomes and Comparative Genomics - April 10, 2014 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Authors: Jason Stajich Tags: postdoc aquatic fungi mycology wood decay Source Type: blogs

Yale EEB Postdoc in Microbial Evolutionary Ecology
Yale Postdoctoral Position in Microbial Evolutionary Ecology. A two- to three-year postdoctoral position is available immediately in the laboratory of Paul Turner in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University. We are seeking a highly motivated and creative individual to participate in ongoing experimental projects relating to eco-evolutionary theory. These projects concern (i) role of environmental heterogeneity on adaptability of bacteriophages, (ii) role of niche construction in the evolutionary ecology of virus- cancer cell interactions, and (iii) effects of host density on virulence evoluti...
Source: Fungal Genomes and Comparative Genomics - April 9, 2014 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Authors: Jason Stajich Tags: postdoc EEB microbial ecology microbial evolution mycovirus yale Source Type: blogs

How To Take a Moonshot Literally?
Recently, I’ve been coming across plenty of news articles and posts about the moonshot for health. It might be a coincidence but I just visited a team that is competing in the Google Lunar X Prize challenge. The Puli Space Team is based in Hungary but their moonshot is to get a probe on the moon which takes 500 meters and transmits HD video and images back to Earth. With access to information, resources and expertise, as well as with crowdfunding now everything is literally possible. The mission of Puli Space Technologies is to develop the new techniques required to routinely send spacecraft to the Moon, to explore n...
Source: ScienceRoll - March 24, 2014 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Authors: Bertalan Meskó (MD, PhD) Tags: Innovation Technology Video Source Type: blogs

Interview on The Health Crossroad!
I had a chance to do a podcast with Doug Elwood, MD, MBA which is now published on The Health Crossroad. The title is “The Future of Health Explained“. The podcast “The Health Crossroad: Where the Stories Behind Health Converge” will enable listeners to obtain the stories, views, and insights of prominent and renowned leaders drawn from various sectors of the vast arena known as HEALTH. (Source: ScienceRoll)
Source: ScienceRoll - March 23, 2014 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Authors: Bertalan Meskó (MD, PhD) Tags: Interview Source Type: blogs

The Medical Futurist: Weekly Introduction
As a medical futurist, I work on bringing disruptive technologies to medicine & healthcare; assisting medical professionals and students in using these in an efficient and secure way; and educating e-patients about how to become equal partners with their caregivers. I publish a daily newsletter about the future of medicine, and share related news almost every hour on Twitter. Scienceroll.com is updated on a regular basis about the future of healthcare with an emphasis on social media. Here is my white paper, The Guide to the Future of Medicine. I’m the author of Social Media in Clinical Practice handbook;...
Source: ScienceRoll - March 23, 2014 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Authors: Bertalan Meskó (MD, PhD) Tags: Medicine Source Type: blogs

Happy is the Word on World Down Syndrome Day!
"Happy" is the word of the day because today is World Down Syndrome Day. Jérôme Lejeune, a French geneticist, was the man who discovered the cause of Down Syndrome. Before his discovery, Down Syndrome brought shame, as Mark Bradford at the Jérôme Lejeune Foundation explains:Thank you, Professor Lejeune, for what you did for my father and my mother. Because of you, I am proud of myself. This brief and unplanned eulogy was given at Jérôme Lejeunes funeral in 1994 by his patient, Bruno, whose karyotype was one of the first to reveal, in 1958, that an extra copy of the 21st chromosome caused Down sy...
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - March 21, 2014 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Genetics Source Type: blogs

3D Printed Aorta Cells: Steps Forward
As 3D printing becomes mainstream worldwide, it is great to see steps forward in biotechnology as well. Recently, Turkish researchers were able to print out anatomically accurate aorta cells in 3D. Everyday we are a step closer and a step further away from the 3D bioprinting of a functional organ made from human tissue. At Sabancı University in Turkey, a research team has pushed us further towards that goal by 3D bioprinting anatomically accurate macro-vascular tissue that could, one day, be used to treat heart disease in cardiac patients and provide the basis for the vasculature of 3D printed organs. (Source: ScienceRoll)
Source: ScienceRoll - March 21, 2014 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Authors: Bertalan Meskó (MD, PhD) Tags: 3D Printing Innovation Medicine Source Type: blogs

Superhero Vision With Graphene Contact Lenses?
Graphene, a 2-dimensional crystalline allotrope of carbon, is capable of detecting the entire infrared spectrum with visible and ultraviolet light therefore it could be used to enhance human vision although there have been technical limitations such as the fact that it can absorb only 2.3 percent of the light that hits it. This problem seems to be solved now by researchers at the University of Michigan. To achieve this amplification, the researchers started by sandwiching an insulator between two sheets of graphene. The bottom sheet has an electrical current running through it. When light hits the top sheet, electrons ar...
Source: ScienceRoll - March 20, 2014 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Authors: Bertalan Meskó (MD, PhD) Tags: Cyborg Future Innovation Medicine Visualization graphene vision Source Type: blogs

BioTalk, Episode 8: Genetic Modification -- Bad for Cows and Corn, but Okay for Humans
In light of my recent piece in the National Catholic Register "Genetically Modified Food: Bad; Genetically Modified Humans: Good", Chelsea asks, "Why are we going to great lengths to raise awareness about and regulate the use of GMO in our food supply, while largely ignoring the direct genetic modification of human beings??" A great question we discuss in the latest episode of BioTalk. <<span id="XinhaEditingPostion"></span>span id="XinhaEditingPostion"></span> (Source: Mary Meets Dolly)
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - March 20, 2014 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Genetic Engineering Source Type: blogs

Is Apple’s Healthbook Coming?
For days, large media channels have been talking about the rumors related to Apple’s Healthbook, the ultimate health application. We will see. Here is the excerpt: As detailed in the images throughout this article, which are complete recreations of screenshots, Healthbook’s user interface is largely inspired by the iPhone’s existing Passbook application. Versions of Healthbook in testing are capable of tracking several different health and fitness data points. (Source: ScienceRoll)
Source: ScienceRoll - March 19, 2014 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Authors: Bertalan Meskó (MD, PhD) Tags: Health Health 2.0 Mobile Source Type: blogs