the community site for and by developmental biologists
Posted by Eva Amsen on September 30th, 2010
(This interview originally appeared in Development on September 28, 2010) The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) held their annual conference in San Francisco this June. At the time, the President of the society was Irving Weissman, who is currently on the board of directors of the ISSCR as past President. He is Professor[…]
Posted by Seema Grewal on September 28th, 2010
A fateful look at early mouse lineage specification The first cell lineages specified in the mouse embryo are the trophectoderm (TE), which generates the embryonic portion of the placenta, and the inner cell mass (ICM). The ICM subsequently forms the pluripotent epiblast (EPI, which produces the embryo) and the primitive endoderm (PrE, which generates other[…]
Posted by Eva Amsen on September 27th, 2010
A recent paper in PNAS describes the development of MiniPromoters: human DNA promoters of less than 4 kb, designed to drive gene expression in specific areas of the brain. The initiative is called the Pleiades Promoter Project, and so far they have confirmed brain-region specific activity in knockin mice for 27 of their MiniPromoters. The[…]
Posted by Eva Amsen on September 23rd, 2010
Thomson Reuters has predicted who they think will walk away with the Nobel Prizes in medicine, chemistry, physics, and economics. Their predictions for the prize for Physiology or Medicine include six names in four areas: – Douglas Coleman and Jeffrey Friedman, for the discovery of leptin – Ernest McCulloch and James Till, for the discovery[…]
Posted by Eva Amsen on September 21st, 2010
Today, the Lasker Foundation announced the winners of their 65th annual Lasker Awards, celebrating biomedical research. The winners all contributed to scientific research with strong implications for medical advancements: Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award Awarded to: Douglas Coleman & Jeffrey Friedman for the discovery of leptin, the “obesity gene” Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award[…]
Posted by the Node on September 21st, 2010
From 4PM UK time on Wednesday September 22nd, the Node’s server is going down for some maintenance. Work will continue for several hours, and will cover most of the working day in North and South America. Apologies for the inconvenience. I’ll schedule some things to appear on the Node’s Twitter account to read while the[…]
Posted by Kim Cooper on September 17th, 2010
I’m going to collect dates from my travel journal and batch post the most interesting bits. See this post for my introduction and an explanation for all of this. Enjoy! May 12, 2007 Beijing, China The flight was outrageously long, but uneventful once I boarded. I didn’t find out until I got to Logan airport[…]
Posted by Sarah Sharpe on September 16th, 2010
Hello Node Community: I would like to inform you about the Development Travelling Fellowships. Are you a Graduate student or Post-doc wishing to make a collaborative visit to another lab? You can apply to Development to fund your travelling expenses. Development offers up to £2,500, you do of course have to be working in the[…]
Posted by shreeharsha on September 14th, 2010
I am a graduate student from Indian Institute for Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, India. I wish to share some of my work and life experiences in Japan from a recent visit. Our lab works on development and evolution of insect wings. I am interested in understanding the development of lepidopteran wings using Bombyx[…]
Posted by Eva Amsen on September 13th, 2010
Here’s an uplifting story about how a farmer and a developmental biologist met online and started a collaboration. Earlier this month, I attended the annual Science Online conference in London. This year’s speakers included Sir Martin Rees of the Royal Society, former Member of UK Parliament Evan Harris, and a good selection of people who[…]
