Local? Imaging Workshops

Local to HMS? Check out upcoming workshops offered by the imaging center. Training on image analysis software and more.

Web Wednesday (well, Thurs)--Pathway Projector

Just learned about Pathway Projector, which describes itself as a zoomable interface for systems biology. Kono et al. (2009) Pathway Projector: Web-Based Zoomable Pathway Browser Using KEGG Atlas and Google Maps API. PLoSOne (free on-line access).

Breaking Report: JNK & Immunity Screen

What's on my desk today?

A report from Bond & Foley (2009) A Quantitative RNAi Screen for JNK Modifiers Identifies Pvr as a Novel Regulator of Drosophila Immune Signaling. PLoS Pathogen (Open Access).

From their abstract, "Our data illuminate a poorly understood arm of a critical and evolutionarily conserved innate immune response." Protocol Notes: Screened S2 cells; library in part from OpenBio; "in-cell western" approach compared phospho-JNK to Actin levels; 15 and 60 minute timepoints.

Quote of the Week: Halloween Horrors

The name 'coffin-fly' has been applied to Conicera tibiais of the family Phoridae, because this fly is able to maintain itself through many successive generations in coffined bodies that have been interred for a year or more. The fact has long been known, but even today no one really knows how the fly gets there. It seems unlikely, for a variety of reasons, that the eggs are laid on the body before burial, and so either the adult fly or the larva must find its way down through several feet of soil. This seems a difficult feat when we think of its being performed by each larva or each adult fly, but, as in many problems to do with animals, time and continuity make most things possible.

from The Natural History of Flies by Harold Oldroyd

Breaking Report: in vivo RNAi to look at cell survival in the fly wing

What am I reading today? A new report from Umemori et al. (2009) RNAi-Mediated Knockdown Showing Impaired Cell Survival in Drosophila Wing Imaginal Disc. Gene Regulation and Systems Biology 2009:3 1-10.

Breaking Report: Allele-Specific siRNAs

What's on my desk today? A report with relevance to RNAi reagent design and treatment of genetic diseases: Huang et al. (2009) Profiling of mismatch discrimination in RNAi enabled rational design of allele-specific siRNAs. NAR. doi:10.1093/nar/gkp835

Quote of the Week: Attachment

Your garden is an insect zoo, where you can go at any time of the year and see what the insects are doing. Some of them come and go, while others stay in the same place all their lives. ... [Most] are not very attractive, like the plant bugs and beetles. This does not mean that they are not interesting, and if you ... look at them every day, you may become quite attached to them.

From, The Insects in Your Garden by Harold Oldroyd