May 2011 - the Node

Awards presented at this year’s BSCB-BSDB Spring meeting in Canterbury

Posted by Natascha Bushati on May 31st, 2011

Each year, three medals to honour extraordinary research achievements in cell and developmental biology are awarded at the joint conference of the British Societies for Cell Biology (BSCB) and Developmental Biology (BSDB). Here on the Node, Eva has recently posted an interview with Carlos Carmona-Fontaine, to whom this year’s Beddington medal was awarded, for his[…]

An interview with Elisabeth Knust: President of the German Society for Developmental Biology

Posted by Eva Amsen on May 27th, 2011

(This interview originally appeared in Development) Every two years, the German Society for Developmental Biology (GfE – Gesellschaft für Entwicklungsbiologie) holds a scientific meeting for their members. This year, from 23 to 26 March, their meeting was held in Dresden, jointly with the Japanese Society of Developmental Biologists (JSDB). At this meeting, we sat down[…]

HHMI Documentary Initiative

Posted by Eva Amsen on May 25th, 2011

Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is launching a documentary film initiative to bring high quality science to TV. Benefiting from HHMI’s direct access to scientific resources and researchers, the $60 million project aims to give the public an accurate overview of the scientific process, while highlighting compelling stories. Recently, HHMI announced that the film initiative[…]

My journey to scientific editing

Posted by kara_cerveny on May 24th, 2011

Although I’m no longer working at the bench, I still think of myself as a scientist. During grad school and much of my post-doc, I assumed that I would follow the “grad student to post-doc to professor track” so that I could continue to be paid to learn for the rest of my life. I’ve[…]

In Development this week (Vol. 138, Issue 12)

Posted by Seema Grewal on May 24th, 2011

Here are the highlights from the current issue of Development: How transcriptional silencing goes into reverse The Polycomb group (PcG) machinery silences terminal differentiation genes in stem cell lineages. Reversal of this epigenetic transcriptional silencing is implicated in the selective activation of these genes during differentiation, but little is known about the mechanism of this[…]

Development of electroreceptors: a “sixth sense”

Posted by Melinda on May 23rd, 2011

Hi there! My name is Melinda, and I’m a postdoctoral researcher at Cambridge University in the UK in the lab of Dr. Clare Baker (http://www.pdn.cam.ac.uk/staff/baker/). I’ve just wrapped up my research trip to work on paddlefish embryos in the southeastern state of Georgia in the United States, generously funding by the Development Travelling Fellowship award![…]

Meeting Report: Young Embryologist Meeting, 2011

Posted by SophieP on May 23rd, 2011

Sophie Pryor Institute of Child Health University College London The third Young Embryologist Meeting, which brings together PhD students, Post-Doctoral and Young PI researchers, was held on Friday 6th May at King’s College, London. The meeting was initially established in 2008 by PhD students and Dr Yoshiyuki Yamamoto from the UCL Research Department of Cell[…]

My transition to patent law

Posted by Michael Belliveau on May 22nd, 2011

I am now a Patent Attorney at Clark & Elbing, a Boston boutique patent law firm specializing in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. I have been at Clark & Elbing since 1998, and am now a partner. Prior to becoming a Patent Attorney, I was a graduate student in Connie Cepko’s laboratory at Harvard Medical School. For[…]

A deep breath to kick off the BSCB-BSDB Spring Meeting 2011

Posted by Natascha Bushati on May 20th, 2011

BSCB-BSDB Spring meeting April 27 – 30, 2011 Canterbury University Since I very much enjoyed last year’s joint conference of the British Societies for Developmental Biology (BSDB) and Cell Biology (BSCB) in Warwick, I was optimistic about attending the 2011 meeting in Canterbury. The organisers unknowingly scheduled it for the days around the royal wedding[…]

A career as editor

Posted by Vivian Siegel on May 19th, 2011

I was a PhD student with Peter Walter, studying protein translocation across the endoplasmic reticulum. I did very well as a student, publishing six research papers during that time. After that, I was a postdoc with Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard and then with Yuh-Nung Jan, studying oogenesis and pattern formation in Drosophila. Throughout my training, people handed[…]