Alex Palazzo is a postdoctoral fellow working in the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School.
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September 30, 2006
Category: Science & Society
A lesson of what not-to-do from the Yeda vs. ImClone Patent trial. Yeda provided detailed records of their development of Erbitux, ImClone provided no records, but relied on Joseph Schlessinger's account of a twenty year old conversation.
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 9:49 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 29, 2006
Category: Map that Campus
What is this week's mystery campus?
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 10:11 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 28, 2006
Category: Pure Biology
Here is an illustration from a recent PLoS Biology paper: Two complexes: 1- miRNA. Imperfect base pairing between the small RNA and the target. This complex sorts the RNA to p-bodies (processing bodies) where other proteins join in. The mRNA...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 3:22 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science & Society
Wow - a creationist was appointed to high level position in the Conservative government back home. On the other side of the line Richard Dawkins has set up a foundation to promote acceptance of atheists (Richard, you better open a...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 10:28 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 27, 2006
Category: Science & Society
Someone yesterday asked whether there were online odds for the upcoming Nobels? Well Thomson Scientific (producers of ISI and other citation indices) have their own predictions and a poll too (although they only give 3 choices???) Medicine & Physiology predictions...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 11:53 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Pure Biology
Newest from PLoS Biology: Raj A, Peskin CS, Tranchina D, Vargas DY, Tyagi S Stochastic mRNA Synthesis in Mammalian Cells. PLoS Biol (2006) 4(10): e309 The authors genomically incorporated a gene with 32 tandem copies of a 43-base-pair probe-binding sequence...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:20 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 26, 2006
Category: Ask a ScienceBlogger
Who will win this year? Some guesses for the Medicine & Physiology (or perhaps Chemistry) below the fold. Warning - the guesses presented here are highly biased towards cellular physiology....
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 11:37 AM • 28 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Lab Life
It's the end of the world. You are barricaded in your lab. You have unlimited access to water. What lab supplies can you eat? What order should you consume them in?
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:55 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 25, 2006
Category: Science & Society
Just came back from New York. As usual we met up with the old crew and had a blast. On Saturday we stopped by Korea Town (32nd Street) for some kimchi. Sitting down, we saw this: Kimchi from GMO bacteria!...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 9:45 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 23, 2006
Category: art, food, music, citylife and other mental stimuli
Why? You can find treasures there. I once owned this book, then lent it to a friend who is now studying place cells in Bristol, UK. (Bruno you can keep the book.)...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 11:05 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 22, 2006
Category: Map that Campus
Well I'm back in NYC, visiting old friends and my thesis advisor. Since I'm writing about my intellectual roots, here is this week's "mystery campus": hint: The unexamined life is not worth living. This one should go quickly! Place your...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 7:59 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 21, 2006
Category: art, food, music, citylife and other mental stimuli
OK it's been a while since I've really gone off and wrote about ... art, food, music, city life and other mental stimuli ... (I've been persuaded to even start a category) But here we go ......
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 2:34 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 20, 2006
Category: Pure Biology
There is a nice post by Coffee Mug at Gene Expression on non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs). This post was provoked by a paper in Annual Review of Neuroscience. In light of my post on the recent Eric Lander and David Spector's...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 5:29 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science & Society
In yesterday's NY Times, James Gorman laments that lingo from molecular biology and cell biology hasn't yet permeated society. As Gorman states: Molecular biology is the science of this century. We should be able to build some great clichés on...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:17 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 19, 2006
Category: Lab Life
For those who don't know, John Yates is one of the most important mass spec (or "proteomics") guys out there (i.e. applying mass spectrometry to identify what protein you are analyzing). He developed tandem mass spec and is at the...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 2:03 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Pure Biology
Biology is filled with feedback loops and other natural buffers to promote homeostasis. In the latest Nature, there is a ... cute ... paper about how the RNA export factor Tap (aka NXF1) mediates the nuclear export of an alternatively...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:54 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 18, 2006
Category: Lab Life
PostGenomic, HubMed and more goodies!
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 10:38 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Lab Life
An invitation for postdocs and PIs in the biomedical sciences to blow some steam!
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 9:09 AM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 16, 2006
Category: Education
From today's NYTimes:...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:03 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 15, 2006
Category: Lab Life
Someone posted this "ad" in our lunchroom. Do I have to say anything?...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 4:03 PM • 16 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Map that Campus
OK here is this week's mystery campus: Hint: Looking for the nugget in gold. If you know the place or the event, leave a comment....
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 9:40 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Pure Biology
Looks like this season's lecture series has started. Yesterday evening I saw a talk by Eric Lander, head of the Broad Institute. Now normally I do not blog about my results and I do not blog about what I hear...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:30 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 14, 2006
Category: Lab Life
Why am I making all this fuss over the latest stats on acceptance rate of general RO1 grants distributed by the National Institute of Health (NIH) ? This is the money that keeps the biomedical/life sciences alive in the US....
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 7:33 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Misc
One 18 year old girl is dead. Eight others are in serious condition. It could have been worse, but I think that the Montreal Police learned from the 1989 Ecole Polytechnique massacre that you should try to confront and disable...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 7:02 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 13, 2006
Category: Misc
I just heard about this. A guy started shooting at random people in the cafeteria, and then shot himself. (I was a student there in the early 90s.) I don't get it, the murder rate in Montreal is low, but...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 3:33 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Lab Life
... (or where did all the funding go???)
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 11:22 AM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Pure Biology
With a simple 3 point mutation you can direct a protein that is destined for the ER into mitochondria.
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:45 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 12, 2006
Category: Science & Society
A web based survey developed by Marc Hauser and coworkers.
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:38 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Misc
A good friend Claudia, posted a picture on her photoblog (aroundaboutme) that reminded me of something ......
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 7:57 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 11, 2006
Category: Misc
It does not seem like 5 years have gone by....
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 9:43 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science & Society
This would be an appropriate summary of Matthew Scully's review of E.O. Wilson's latest book, The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth for the NY Times book review. So here we have Professor Wilson, writing to his intended...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 7:36 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 8, 2006
Category: Map that Campus
That time again. What's this week's mystery campus?
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 10:09 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science & Society
The greatest myth within religious communities is that religion is the basis of all morality. Unfortunately for them, science is catching up. Just as Chomsky argued that humans have a language instinct, Marc Hauser from the main campus (Harvard) is...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 7:39 AM • 17 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
September 7, 2006
Category: Lab Life
Here is the September Issue: Besides the "What Makes you Sexy" feature, there is - THE REDUCTION OF SEDUCTION - EAT YOUR WAY TO BETTER DNA - IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH (Making marriage work at the job can be...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 9:32 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science & Society
Let's face it, in this cult the highest joy comes with each step toward understanding Nature. How religious can you get?
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 10:40 AM • 16 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 6, 2006
Category: Science & Society
and I don't mean Katherine Harris. You probably read about the new Scripps Institute that is to be built in south Florida in the may edition of Science Mag. Now it looks like many other biomedical institutes are going to...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:43 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 5, 2006
Category: Education
Here is a link to an awesome animation (via Pure Pedantry). You have your membranes, actin and microtubule cytoskeleton, kinesin based vesicular transport, mRNA nuclear export, protein synthesis and coinsertional translocation into the ER, and membrane traffic from the Golgi...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 11:12 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Pure Biology
I discovered this wonderful website: Peoples Archives. In it you'll find interviews with some of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century. I just finished listening to Sydney Brenner and Francis Crick and am now listening to Renato Dulbecco.
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:29 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 4, 2006
Category: Lab Life
Again from the archives in honor of Labor day.
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 1:21 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Lab Life
From the archives, in honor of Labor Day.
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 1:19 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 2, 2006
Category: Pure Biology
Just a quick lab advertisement, my bay mate Yoko and my boss Tom have a review article in Cell about how morphological differences between various regions of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) are representative of functional differences. You can divide the...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:27 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 1, 2006
Category: Map that Campus
Ready for this week's mystery campus? What could it be? A space ship? Some things heard from it's interiors: "It's not protein, it's some other filtrate that transforms them." "Let's just fire a bunch of electrons at the cell and...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 10:59 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Pure Biology
Inositol-6-phosphate (aka Inositol hexaphosphate, phytic acid, phytate) is a strange compound. Now it turns out that IP6 is a co-factor required for mRNA nuclear export.
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:30 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
