Category Archives: Biology

Michael Jewett - Establishing cell free biology for the production of therapeutics, materials, and c Watch on LabRoots at http://labroots.com/user/webinars/details/id/315 Imagine a world in which we could adapt biology to manufacture any therapeutic, material, or chemical from renewable resources,... By: LabRoots … Continue reading →

Peter Godfrey-SmithsPhilosophy of Biology (Princeton University Press), may not sound like the kind of book even science enthusiasts want to crack open for pleasure, but its a great way to get up to speed on all the issues that working biologists love to debate amongst themselves. Godfrey-Smith is a professor in the Philosophy Program at City University of New York. His more academic books include, Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection (Oxford University Press), and Theory and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science (University of Chicago Press). His main areas of interest include the philosophy of mind and pragmatism. In just 200 pages, Philosophy of Biology includes short, succinct chapters on mechanisms and models, natural selection, genes, adaptation and function, species and the Tree of Life, evolution and social behavior, and information. But as I mentioned in my last post, the question for many science geeks is: why even bother with a book on philosophy at alllet alone the philosophy of science? What good is it? So, I asked Scott Carson, an associate professor of philosophy at Ohio State University, what he tells his students at the start of each semester. Carsons main areas of interest are the history … Continue reading →

Researchers at the Department of Biology at Maynooth University have made a significant breakthrough in the study of the human pathogenic fungus, Aspergillus fumigatus. The fungus, which severely affects some cancer patients, produces a toxic molecule, gliotoxin. The toxin causes disease in immune-compromised patients such as cancer sufferers and is also a major issue in food safety. The researchers had previously discovered that the toxin actually damages the fungus itself, but that the production of the toxin stimulates repeat production (a positive feedback loop). The scientists have now discovered that a new molecule (GtmA) shuts down the mechanism causing the repeat production. This type of molecular off-switch has never been seen before in biology, and may form the basis of a therapy to treat aspergillus infection in patients. Discussing the breakthrough, Professor Sean Doyle, Department of Biology, Maynooth University, said he believed the breakthrough could form the basis of treatment for patients in the future. This is a major breakthrough because if we can discover exactly how toxin production is switched off in one fungal species, this will provide insights into how we can do it in other human, animal and plant disease-causing fungi. This might form the basis of … Continue reading →

London, UK (PRWEB UK) 27 August 2014 Companies in the field of synthetic biology are emerging from the laboratory and into the commercial world, revolutionising existing markets and establishing new markets. The investment team behind the Rainbow Seed Fund, a 24 million early-stage venture capital fund dedicated to kick-starting promising UK tech companies, says synthetic biology now provides an exciting investment opportunity. In the past few years, we have seen a burgeoning number of start-ups based on synthetic biology, said Rainbow Seed Fund investment manager Oliver Sexton, who recently joined the team alongside Dr Andrew Muir and Mark White. Based on world-leading research from academic institutions and blue-sky industry labs, products and platforms are being developed that offer the real potential in diverse and significant global markets. Perhaps even more exciting synthetic biology is enabling entirely new products that were simply impossible using the previous generation of biological tools. The Rainbow Seed Fund has worked with a number of partners, including the University of Warwick, to help communicate a better understanding of the field of synthetic biology. The Fund recently released the What is Synthetic Biology? video to help explain not just what synthetic biology is, but also highlight the … Continue reading →

ETEP BIOLOGY TEACHER Extended Teacher Education Program at University of Southern Maine advising. University of Southern Maine Biology department advising. Careers in Teaching and Teacher Education. By: University of Southern Maine Biology Advising … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 25-Aug-2014 Contact: Shane Canning shane.canning@biomedcentral.com 44-203-192-2429 BioMed Central Sequencing RNA, not just DNA, could help doctors predict how prostate cancer tumors will respond to treatment, according to research published in the open access journal Genome Biology. Because a tumor's RNA shows the real time changes a treatment is causing, the authors think this could be a useful tool to aid diagnosis and predict which treatment will most benefit individual cancer patients. Colin Collins and Alexander Wyatt, and other researchers from the Vancouver Prostate Centre at the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, matched 25 patients' treatment outcomes with the RNA sequence of their prostate cancer tumors. They suggest that similarities between the RNA of some of the patients' tumors could open up new avenues of treatment. Prostate cancer is the fourth most common cancer worldwide, but can be effectively managed. Doctors normally recommend a combination of therapies, because patients' reaction to treatment varies considerably. The side-effects of these treatments can be significant, so current research is focused around precision medicine classifying patients on their tumor's molecular changes, and only giving them the treatments that are expected to be most effective. To investigate variations between the highest risk cases … Continue reading →

Welcome to Natural Science Biology Lecture Fall 2014 Welcome to Natural Science Biology Lecture Fall 2014. By: Amy B Hollingsworth … Continue reading →

Biology Graphics Mono Loop Hd. Stock Footage "This is a preview video. Download high quality footage at: http://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/10723894?ref=silverstepper More stock media here: http://www.pond5.com?ref=silverstepper Editing... By: Tiera Steakley … Continue reading →

The fresh-water polyp Hydra, a member of the over 600-million-year-old phylum Cnidaria, is famous for its virtually unlimited regenerative capability and hence a perfect model for molecular stem cell and regeneration research. This polyp, with its simple structure and radial symmetry, can help us understand how our body axes came to evolve. Scientists from Heidelberg and Vienna have brought this evidence to light through their research on the formation of new polyps in the Hydra through asexual reproduction. Their findings have now been published in the journal Nature. Project participants include a working group under the direction of Prof. Dr. Thomas Holstein and Asst. Prof. Dr. Suat zbek at the Centre for Organismal Studies (COS) of Heidelberg University and Dr. Heiko Schmidt at the Center for Integrative Bioinformatics Vienna (CIBIV) of the Max F. Perutz Laboratories (MFPL). The Hydra reproduces asexually by producing buds on the body wall of the adult, which then mature to form new polyps. The Heidelberg researchers delved into this process at the molecular level and discovered that a signal pathway is used that triggers the left-right asymmetry of organs in higher animals, including humans. The processes that play out at the molecular level are strikingly … Continue reading →

Chemical Reactions - Introduction to Biology - 5.8 Article: http://www.academyofone.org/028-chemical-reactions-introduction-to-biology-5-8/ Visit: http://academyofone.org AoO Prime: http://www.academyofone.org/register-2/ Royalty free music... By: Academy of One … Continue reading →