Stacey Smith
I'm a graduate student studying the molecular and biochemical evolution of HIV within patients and within populations. I also study epigenetic control of ERVs.
sa smith
Posts by this author
July 6, 2012
I was feeling left out this week-- everybody talking about the Higgs Boson-- I cant contribute anything except links to Ethans fantastic posts (what the hell does 5-some-greek-symbol mean? whats a Higgs? wat?).
But THIS I understand!
The photographer who made that image, Seth Casteel, is AMAZING…
July 5, 2012
The questions I get asked most often are:
How many ERVs are there?
How many do we have in common with chimpanzees/gorillas/orangutans/etc?
Its hard to answer this. Depends on what your definition of 'ERV' is. Because sometimes scientists mean a complete/nearly complete ERV (LTR-gag, pol, env-…
July 3, 2012
If you are reading this blog, you already know all about how a huge portion of your genome is parasitic junk DNA (~40-45%), a fraction of which is retroviral junk (ERVs, ~9%). If youre new here... SURPRISE!
Sure, we have a gene here, a promoter there (maybe) that was domesticated for human genome…
June 29, 2012
Family Guy, S07E02 'I Dream of Jesus':
Peter: Brian, can I see that paper for a sec?
(Brian gives Peter the paper. Peter peruses the paper.)
Peter: Huh... that's odd... I thought that would big news.
Brian: You thought what would be big news?
Peter: Well there seems to be an absence of a certain…
June 26, 2012
File this under 'Religion has nothing to do with morality'--
Some religions have a problem with a vaccine that, when dosed appropriately early enough, virtually eliminates risk of cervical cancer, as virtually all cervical cancer is caused by HPV. Its even better if males get the vaccine as well,…
June 22, 2012
Just in time to promote FreeOK2, theres a really nice article on OKC.net about OKC Atheists!
To that end, McCall said the vast majority of people who join AOK are coming from a religious background of some kind, and whatever their former denomination, most are used to having a network of people to…
June 21, 2012
Last week:
And I dont have a problem with LeBron. From what I understand, he did some charity event for Durant, asked Durant to play some exhibition games during the lockout, and frankly, if OKCers are going to ‘hate’ a player, we ‘hate’ Metta World Peace.
This week:
"I thought you liked LeBron…
June 20, 2012
Luc Montagnier was once one of Gods of Science.
Dude was head of one of the groups of scientists who ultimately discovered HIV-1 was the cause of the AIDS pandemic.
Wonderful science that amazes me-- The things they could do when we didnt know anything, when they didnt have the technology that I…
June 19, 2012
Carl Zimmer is, hands down, one of the best science writers out there. Its no surprise, then, that he is almost as obsessed with viruses as I am. Viruses are our past and our future, and Zimmer *gets* it.
So while I am busy in the lab this week, I will happily point you to a piece he recently…
June 14, 2012
Welp, I cant blame this one on pop news.
The latest controversy over the HIV-1 patient functionally cured of HIV/AIDS shouldnt be that big of a deal. Scientists are asking the question "What does it mean to be 'cured' of HIV? What is our definition of 'cured'? How will we know 'cured' when we see…
June 13, 2012
Many roads lead to Rome-- there is no one 'right' way to solve an evolutionary hurdle. Viruses encounter the same evolutionary 'problems', but have evolved lots and lots and lots of different solutions to the exact same problems. Random chance of mutations + the bumbling blindness of natural…
June 12, 2012
In case you havent heard, the OKC Thunder is playing the Miami Heat for the NBA championship this week (until however long the series goes).
And the entire state of Oklahoma is FREAKING OUT.
EVERYTHING is blue/orange/navy. If it aint, were painting it.
This is the building my boxing gym is in.…
June 11, 2012
The Antarctica Files: Penguin Sex.
... I didnt notice it at the time, but I did after my bud uploaded this to YouTube: Please note that while several of the penguins in the vicinity just sat on their eggs, minding their own business-- there is a creeper penguin, like, right there, just staring...…
June 10, 2012
I was just derping around at Cycle Gear this afternoon, when alovasudden, SCIENCE!!!
Couple: *debating about what color helmet to buy - its summer, should they get the white/yellow one instead of black/blue*
Cycle Gear Dude: "The material that makes helmets work as helmets insulates you from the '…
June 9, 2012
Two weeks till FreeOK! You can grab tickets in advance HERE.
My talk will be: "How I learned to stop worrying and love viruses"
The visceral, negative emotions one pins to viruses are antiquated-- Viruses are a part of you. They have protected you since birth. They might just save your life…
June 8, 2012
I first wrote about honey bee colony collapse disorder (CCD) in 2009--
Since ~2006, honey bee colonies in the US have been dropping dead overnight. Literally. They call it ‘colony collapse disorder’. While large populations of organisms dying is disturbing, no matter the species, we need honey bees…
June 6, 2012
One of my favorite books of all time-- 'The Martian Chronicles'.
It doesnt matter how many times I read it... The same stories, the same lines cause me to sob uncontrollably, from awe of humanitys potential, from mourning humanitys lost potential, from thinking about the great things we have…
June 5, 2012
Ive written about noroviruses a few times on ERV. Theyre insidious little bugs that hide on door handles and food utensils (... and food...) and if you ingest them, you poop. A lot. Like I have said before, any time you hear about a ton of people getting sick on a cruise ship, you can bet it was…
June 1, 2012
I have no idea how I missed this insane bit of news last year:
The CIA organised a fake vaccination programme in the town where it believed Osama bin Laden was hiding in an elaborate attempt to obtain DNA from the fugitive al-Qaida leader's family, a Guardian investigation has found.
As part of…
May 31, 2012
I can think of at least two 'worst nightmares' for vaccine designers.
Your vaccine looked super in animal models and such... but it turns out to be directly harmful to people. And not 'some' people. All people.
Your vaccine actually does the opposite of what you want it to do-- instead of…
May 30, 2012
In 2006, long before ERV was a twinkle in my eye-- A really cool paper was published in PLOS Pathogens:
Identification of a novel Gammaretrovirus in prostate tumors of patients homozygous for R462Q RNASEL variant.
They found a 'new' retrovirus, XMRV ('new' to humans, old to mice). A new retrovirus…
May 25, 2012
If you had asked me 6 years ago about using gene therapy to fight HIV/AIDS, I would have given you a nice rant about how expensive it is, how non-viable it is in the places that need anti-HIV strategies the most, how dangerous it can be, and I would have been damn offended you even considered it. …
May 23, 2012
HAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I feel like Stewie Griffin. I DONT LIKE CHANGE!!!
Give us a minute, we will figure it out (hey, I figured how to get pages of comments so Our Epic Threads dont take over 9000 years to load! dont have to top it off at 5K!!!)
In the mean time, Skeptics of Oz have my talk…
May 21, 2012
Hi guise!
SciBlogs will be changing cosmetically a bit in the next day or two (gonna look more NatGeo and less Classic SciBlogs).
There is no point in commenting between 7 pm Eastern Time tonight and when the update is complete (sometime Tuesday, afternoonish is the goal, we will tell you when its…
May 18, 2012
I have a some updates on a few stories I covered the past couple of weeks:
Some people who proclaim to have 'chronic fatigue syndrome' show everyone just how NOT CRAZY they are... by transcribing my entire interview with Conspiracy Skeptic by hand (they cant hold a job you see-- 'brain fog') and…
May 16, 2012
La Sierra University April 2011--
L. Lee Grismer, a field biologist at La Sierra University in Riverside, is gaga over a new species of forest gecko from Southeast Asia that he will present in the scientific journal Zootaxa in three months.
...
Grismer will test his hypothesis that the forest…
May 15, 2012
There are two groups of people I would be perfectly happy if they all just disappeared. Like, right now.
1-- Politicians
2-- Clergy/reverends/pastors/whatevers
Even the shittiests, hipsterish of musicians contributes more to positive to society than those two groups of people. Stephanie Meyer has…
May 15, 2012
As a resident of the state of Oklahoma, I am legally required to publish the following post:
GO THUNDER!!!!!! WHOOOOOOOO!! WHOOOOOOOOOO!!!