Category Archives: Biology

CHATHAM Join the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy for the JAWsome hands-on learning opportunity. The Conservancy is hosting an Introduction to Shark Biology Workshop in July and August at The Boathouse at Pleasant Bay Community Boating. What makes sharks unlike other animals? What characteristics do they have that enable them to hunt so well? Swim so fast? Learn the basics of shark biology and develop an understanding of their anatomy by participating in the workshop. Youth will participate in several learning labs, and end the workshop by participating in a spiny dogfish shark dissection. The workshop will run on several dates over the course of the summer to provide an opportunity for locals and visitors to be immersed in shark biology. The age range for the event is youth entering grades 4-7. The cost is $25 per participant and runs from 1-4:30 p.m. on July 7 and 28, and August 11 and 25. Youth should wear clothes that are comfortable and that will be okay if they get dirty. The program will be on the beach where they can be barefoot, but it will not be water-based. Youth are asked to bring a reusable water bottle to stay hydrated, as well … Continue reading →

CHENNAI: With the Class X results out, CBSE schools are seeing a huge demand for biology at the Class XI level which school managements are attributing to National Entrance Eligibility Test (NEET) that is based on the CBSE syllabus. Those running CBSE schools in the city say while state board students have been migrating to such schools ever since the NEET bugle was sounded last year, this year ICSE students are joining CBSE schools en masse. S Padmini, principal of Hindu Senior Secondary School (CBSE), said the school has more number of students enrolling from ICSE than state board schools this year. "The demand for the biology group is more because of NEET," she said. Shobha Raman, principal of Vidya Mandir, Mylapore, said students preferred the biology course in CBSE schools as it is a gateway for NEET. Schools like DAV, Maharishi Vidya Mandir, Chettinad Vidyashram and Chennai Public School have reported increased interest from students for biology. Principal of Chettinad Vidyashram, Amudhalakshmi, said the application-oriented learning in CBSE makes the difference when it comes to competitive exams and hence this spike in migration. See the original post here: NEET effect: Demand for biology at CBSE schools in Chennai goes … Continue reading →

June 2, 2017 by Grove Potter Artem Evdokimov, the CEO and chief science officer at HarkerBIO. Credit: Douglas Levere HarkerBIO is a "shining star" in the growing biotech ecosystem taking shape on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. The small structural biology company determines 3-D structures of proteins for drug and biotech companies. That may sound straightforward even simple but the process is something right out of Star Trek. HarkerBIO uses sophisticated biochemical techniques, supercomputing power and laboratory expertise to decipher the giant, complex structures of proteins. The company then uses that information to help pharmaceutical companies sleuth out sites where drug-like molecules may bind, eventually creating molecules for new medicines. Biotech companies, meanwhile, use the structural data to improve enzyme catalysts that hasten difficult chemical transformations. HarkerBIO was formed in 2015 by Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, which is home to the Department of Structural Biology at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB, to commercialize Hauptman-Woodward's expertise in X-ray crystallography. It now has 14 employees, participates in the START-UP NY economic development program and has a partnership with Albany Molecular Research Inc., a contract research and manufacturing organization with a lab on the medical campus. Drug discovery … Continue reading →

The first wave of publicly traded engineered biology companies hasn't exactly served as a shining example for the field. Unrealistic expectations, unrivaled mismanagement, poor investments, awful technology and business strategies, and worse have pushed several companies to the brink of insolvency. If industrial biotech companies such as Gevo, Amyris, and TerraVia haven't considered bankruptcy or selling off assets, then they're simply operating in denial. Each has reduced the hard-earned money of investors to pennies on the dollar. Meanwhile, the one public company that has avoided these missteps has problems of its own. The very public face-plants and lack of meaningful execution have had broader consequences for the field. Even the most promising private companies have no firm plans to go public anytime soon. Meanwhile, many deep-pocketed companies in the industries that could potentially benefit from engineered biology have been burned too many times to take the technologies seriously, which has threatened large sources of much-needed funding for platforms looking to make a commercial splash. That said, there may be a relatively low-risk strategy for patient investors that want to make money from engineered biology. Image source: Getty Images. Would Tesla exist today if it launched out of the gate attempting … Continue reading →

.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Trappers responded with outrageous claims, charging that the initiative was backed by out-of-state animal rights extremists who were uninformed about wildlife. Opponents of trapping, they claimed, were trying to destroy our way of life. And this was just the beginning: Once they stop trapping, they will come after hunting, and fishing, and ranching, and logging. Many of my fellow hunters also defended trapping, repeating the same arguments. When it comes to predators like wolves or bears, its all black-and-white to some people. Youre either one of us or one of them and there is little room for rational discussion; if you dont agree with them, they attack with fervor. During the trapping debate, hunting organizations dusted off the ballot-box biology defense, saying that such decisions should be made by wildlife professionals whose opinions are based on science, not by citizens who are acting out of emotion. We hunters love to claim that our approach to wildlife management is based on science. And, of course, it should be, but too often its not. The Idaho Fish and Game Department conducts aerial shooting of … Continue reading →

Shreveport Times 1:06 p.m. CT June 1, 2017 Recent graduate Melissa Traver and current students Samantha Lyons and Andrianna Walsh won the top prize in the American Physiological Societys Video Contest.(Photo: Courtesy of Centenary College) Recent Centenary College graduate Melissa Traver and current students Samantha Lyons and Andrianna Walsh have won the top prize in the American Physiological Societys Video Contest for their creative entry explaining the effects of this autoimmune syndrome on kidney function. Lyons, Traver, and Walsh were all students in Dr. Cristina Caldaris Principles of Immunology course in fall 2016, and their video emerged from an assignment in the class. In the past, Caldari has used episodes of Mystery Diagnosis (a Discovery Life show) as a teaching tool in labs. The episodes feature patients who suffer from immune system issues, usually autoimmune disorders. The end of the semester assignment is for groups of students to create their own Mystery Diagnosis video and present it to the rest of the class, explains Caldari. This past year I saw that the American Physiological Society had this video contest, so instead of creating a Mystery Diagnosis, I asked the students to prepare a video that would fit APSs criteria for … Continue reading →

The Olympian (blog) Matt Driscoll: There's more to race protests at Evergreen than biology professor and viral videos The Olympian (blog) This year's approach to the annual event is where biology professor Bret Weinstein got involved. In emails that were eventually published by the Cooper Point Journal, Weinstein objected to white students, faculty and staff being asked to leave campus ... and more » Read more: Matt Driscoll: There's more to race protests at Evergreen than biology professor and viral videos - The Olympian (blog) … Continue reading →

BUFFALO, N.Y. HarkerBIO is a shining star in the growing biotech ecosystem taking shape on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. The small structural biology company determines 3-D structures of proteins for drug and biotech companies. That may sound straightforward even simple but the process is something right out of Star Trek. HarkerBIO uses sophisticated biochemical techniques, supercomputing power and laboratory expertise to decipher the giant, complex structures of proteins. The company then uses that information to help pharmaceutical companies sleuth out sites where drug-like molecules may bind, eventually creating molecules for new medicines. Biotech companies, meanwhile, use the structural data to improve enzyme catalysts that hasten difficult chemical transformations. HarkerBIO was formed in 2015 by Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, which is home to the Department of Structural Biology at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB, to commercialize Hauptman-Woodwards expertise in X-ray crystallography. It now has 14 employees, participates in the START-UP NY economic development program and has a partnership with Albany Molecular Research Inc., a contract research and manufacturing organization with a lab on the medical campus. Drug discovery When youre discovering a drug, you have a lot of small molecules to choose from. You have … Continue reading →

Twenty years ago, proponents of genetic engineering promised that GMO foods would increase yields, reduce pesticides, produce nutritious foods and help feed the world. Today, those promises have fallen far short as the majority of GMO crops are engineered to withstand sprays of Roundup herbicide, which is increasingly documented as a risk to human health. Now, new genetic engineering technologies such as synthetic biology and gene editing are being hailed with the same promises of revolutionizing food production, medicine, fuels, textiles and other areas. But a closer look at this next generation or "GMOs 2.0" technologies reveals possibly even greater risks than existing GMO technology with possible human health risks and negative impacts on farming communities worldwide, among other unintended consequences. And while products developed using current genetic engineering methods are regulated by the U.S. government, GMOs 2.0 products are entering the market with few or no regulations. Synthetic Biology: Extreme Genetic Engineering While traditional genetic engineering involves inserting genes from one species into another, GMOs 2.0 technologies like synthetic biology aim to create life from scratch with computer-synthesized DNA. "Genetic engineering has moved on from the first generation GMO crops," said Jim Thomas, program director at the ETC Group, … Continue reading →

The energy emanating from Northfield High School science teacher Jody Saxton West seemed to spill over into her students. As the sophomores in her Advanced Placement Biology class worked on their real-world application projects during class Wednesday, there was a certain energy. "You can see the earnestness," Saxton West said. "I love it. These kids are 16 years old and they are producing real information." Over the last few weeks, the AP Biology students have worked in small groups, performing independent research projects using Bio-Rad algae beads a product, meant to aid in pollution control, which only hit the market last fall. The beads are essentially fresh water algae wrapped in a polymer plastic. They allow students to test rates of photosynthesis and cellular respiration. The student projects vary from testing the beads under different light concentrations to predicting how they might react to the different seasonal temperatures of Lake Victoria. The information will be shared back to the company. It's an example of a Northfield School District classroom using a community partnership to provide real-world learning. In this case, the "community" aspect of the partnership is less local. Bio-Rad is a company in Hercules, California, which works on innovating … Continue reading →