Labmeeting.com
Labmeeting.com is a new, web-based tool to help researchers organize and search their collection of PDFs, find out about new papers, and share protocols powerpoint presentations, and data with their lab. The software was created by doctoral students at Stanford University and aims to help people do research faster.
www.labmeeting.com

University of Illinois researchers report this week that chronic exposure to estradiol, the main estrogen in the body, diminishes some cognitive functions. Rats exposed to a steady dose of estradiol were impaired on tasks involving working memory and response inhibition, the researchers found. Their report appears this week in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience. The researchers made the discovery when studying the effects of estradiol on activities mediated by the prefrontal cortex, a brain region that is vital to working memory and to the ability to plan, respond to changing conditions and moderate or control one’s behavior. In the new study, rats were trained to press one of two levers to obtain a food reward. Those that alternated between the levers (which were withdrawn from the rat enclosure for a few seconds between trials) received a reward. Those that hit the same lever twice in a row got no reward. Rats exposed to estradiol performed worse than their counterparts on this task, earning significantly fewer rewards. A second set of tests measured the rats’ ability to wait before responding to a stimulus. The rats had to wait 15 seconds before pushing a lever to get a reward. Those exposed to estradiol performed worse on this task than those that were not exposed.

Read the rest of the article.

I recently explored this issue in an article that was published in the August 2008 edition of Tech Journal South.

Georgia, North Carolina and Florida were selected as representative Southeastern states. The problems they face-and solutions they create-are likely to reflect on other neighboring states.

Area scientists and administrators, including those who work in the Southeast or are actively involved in recruiting and retaining talent, weighed in on the issue.

Read the full article here.

Southeast BIO is a regional nonprofit organization that fosters the growth of the life sciences industry in the Southeastern United States. Tech Journal South is the business publication for the Southeast’s new economy.

The article is written by Martin A. Schwartz, a professor at the University of Virginia and is published in the April 2008 edition of Journal of Cell Science.

Schwartz writes:

I recently saw an old friend for the first time in many years. We had been Ph.D. students at the same time, both studying science, although in different areas. She later dropped out of graduate school, went to Harvard Law School and is now a senior lawyer for a major environmental organization. At some point, the conversation turned to why she had left graduate school. To my utter astonishment, she said it was because it made her feel stupid. After a couple of years of feeling stupid every day, she was ready to do something else.

Schwartz soon realized that he agreed with his colleague: science made him feel stupid too!

He goes on to explain how Ph.D. programs factor into this culture of stupidity and suggests ways to teach science graduate students how to be “productively stupid”.

Read other takes on the article from fellow ScienceBlogger Bora, FemaleScienceProfessor or Counterminds.

The ceramics are made from a mixtures of magnetite and petalite and are reported to heat faster than commercially available microwave cookware.

“Rice cooks in about half or less time,” the researchers say. Other applications may include pizza delivery, since the food would stay warmer for longer.

A rice cooker and plates made from this material are already being sold by ASAHI Ceramics Research Co. in Japan.

The report will be published in the August 26 issue of the journal Chemistry of Materials.

Image credit: Sridhar Komarneni

I look forward to putting the emotional and psychological roller coaster called “grad school” behind me and moving on into the professional world, which I hope will be more routinely stable.

Anyone looking to hire a medical writer? Email me.

Here are some interesting posts from bloggers in my Blogroll:

1. Counter Minds tackles the question “why do people have different blood types?”

2. Bio Job Blog writes about being involved in the creation of a new science-oriented social networking site called “The BioCrowd”.

3. The Gist writes about scientists’ efforts to study the melting of Greenland’s massive ice cap.

4. Bio-Typing discusses about the portrayal of leprosy in the film “The Motorcycle Diaries”

(Image: Sarah Das/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Researchers of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Monterotondo, Italy, have developed a mouse model of SIDS to study to role of serotonin signaling in the disease and hope to apply their findings to treating the same condition in humans.

Postmortem studies have shown alterations in serotonin neurons in the brainstem of SIDS infants. The researchers set out to determine how serotonin homeostasis may contribute to infant death in a mammalian model. The findings, which are published in this week’s issue of Science, reveal that altered serotonin homeostasis alone is sufficient to cause sudden death in mice ₍₂₎.

While the exact cause of SIDS remains elusive (experts believe that multiple factors, including predisposing conditions and environmental stressors, contribute to SIDS ₍₃₎), the EMBL researchers believe that their mouse model may help identify risk factors, new diagnostic tools and prophylactic avenues for the prevention of SIDS

Read more here.

_{References:
(1) PubMed ID:17446144
(2) PubMed ID:18599790
(3) Mayo Clinic}

As you know, my research studies are in the field of cancer biochemistry and for the past few years I have been working on the BAP1 protein-a deubiquitinating enzyme.

The paper is entitled “BAP1 is a tumor suppressor that requires deubiquitinating activity and nuclear localization”. This paper is particularly special to me because it is my first peer-reviewed scientific publication (also, I am the first author). When it becomes available online I will write a blog post on it-it will be my first stab at “blogging on peer-reviewed research”.