Category Archives: Biology

Cornell University Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Crowdfunding Campaign Gopher tortoises and blue jays. A vintage Army-issue shovel. Sun and rain and wind. Hundreds of students who have gone on field studies through the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology over the last 50 years have memories as diverse as the ecosystems they studied. Alumni say their graduate field study was the most important thing they did in graduate school, the spark that ignited their academic career. Its a long-standing tradition in this department, that we expose grad students early in their career to asking questions in nature, said Kelly Zamudio, the Goldwin Smith Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, a field study instructor. But the course has become more and more expensive over time, which is why the idea of the endowment came about. Wed hate for this class to cease to exist, especially given its history. Field study costs $2,000 per student beyond course tuition. To ensure that future students will have the same life-changing opportunity to pursue two-week field studies at the Archbold Biological Field Station in Florida, EEB hopes to raise $15,000 this month through crowdfunding to cover housing, transportation, field equipment, field trips and lab fees … Continue reading →

If a bacterial population is to meet fluctuating production targets, it needs to comply with workforce schedulingnot just by clocking off, but by clocking on, too. To enforce off/on control across entire bacterial populations, scientists based at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) have developed a framework for the engineering of a DNA master clock at the colony level. This master clock works by combining synthetic biology circuits that can dynamically increase and decrease DNA copy number and thereby turn gene expression up and down. Until now, methods for controlling or programming bacterial cells involved transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation. The UCSD team, led by Jeff Hasty, Ph.D., worked out a new method. It involves engineering dynamic DNA copy number changes in a synchronized fashion. Details of the new method appeared July 10 in the journal Nature Genetics, in an article entitled Synchronized DNA Cycling across a Bacterial Population. The article describes how DNA concentration can be increased to turn on a synthetic gene circuit. By controlling DNA copy number, researchers can effectively regulate gene expression. We engineered colony-wide DNA cycling inEscherichia coliin the form of plasmid copy number oscillations via a modular design that can be readily adapted for … Continue reading →

News Release University of Vermont July 10, 2017 Contact: Jeff Wakefield [emailprotected] 802-578-8830 UVM Faculty Win $300,000 NSF Grant to Explore Making of a Bio Major What can universities learn from the maker movement about teaching biology to undergraduate students? Can the world of making help universities get more creative students excited about careers in biology? The National Science Foundation has awarded a $300,000 grant to a team of faculty at The University of Vermont to find out. The grant went to Andrew Mead, a research associate in the Biology Department, along with former Biology chair Jim Vigoreaux, now an associate provost, and associate professor of English and problem-based learning researcher, Libby Miles. The grant application and the research program it proposes were built around a pilot Biology course created by Mead and Vigoreaux and funded by an Engaged Practices Innovation grant from the Office of the Provost, called BioFabLab. Students in the course design, prototype, and build their own experimental instruments working in partnership with experts at Burlington Generator, a Burlington makerspace to assist Biology faculty in their research. Working in teams, students are given a real research question and, over the course of the semester, develop an experimental … Continue reading →

July 7, 2017 An artists rendition of a carbon nanotube porin embedded in a cell membrane with a single strand of DNA passing through it. Credit: Adam Gardner Proteins in lipid membranes are one of the fundamental building blocks of biological functionality. Lawrence Livermore researchers have figured out how to mimic their role using carbon nanotube porins. Using high-speed, atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM), the team showed that a new type of biomimetic channelcarbon nanotube porins (CNTPs)also is laterally mobile in supported lipid membranes, mirroring biological protein behavior. The research opens the door to use CNTPs as models to study membrane protein physics, as well as versatile and mobile components for artificial cells and hybrid systems that combine biological cells and man-made components. Lipid membranes represent one the fundamental components of the architecture of life because they provide a versatile matrix for a variety of membrane proteins that can perform a variety of tasks including molecular recognition and signal transduction, metabolite transport and membrane remodeling. The 2-D fluid nature of the lipid membrane not only allows it to adapt to a variety of shapes, but also permits membrane proteins to diffuse within this 2-D plane, enabling many important biological processes. "To … Continue reading →

Social justice warriors flipped out at feminist YouTuber Laci Green on Saturday after she said the terms male and female refer to biological sexes. Last week, Teen Vogue published a visually explicit and kinda gross article about a certain sex act,which included diagrams of the female and male reproductive anatomy. The diagrams described female anatomy as the anatomy of a non-prostate owner, and described male anatomy as that which belongs to a prostate owner so as to avoid using the terms male and female. But Green pointed out that these descriptions are insane, as the word female literally describes someone who was born with a female reproductive system. These correct statements about human biology were apparently too triggering for social justice warriors to handle, because they raked her over the coals. Someone tried to tell Green shes wrong, saying that a post-operative trans woman that is, a man who undergoes surgery to appear female runs the risk of developing prostate cancer. But this weird statement only proves Greens point that those who are biologically male cant magically become female, even if they like to call themselves that or have their bodies rearranged with plastic surgery. Another asked Green where she … Continue reading →

Marine arthropods called sea spiders use gut peristalsis to move hemolymph and oxygen throughout most of their bodies, according to a team of researchers led by Dr. H. Arthur Woods from the University of Montana. A sea spider on the sea floor. Image credit: Timothy R. Dwyer / PolarTREC 2016 / ARCUS. Sea spiders, or pycnogonids, are small, primarily bottom-dwelling marine arthropods that superficially resemble the true, terrestrial spiders. There are over 1,300 known species, ranging in size from 1 mm to over 90 cm. They are found in the Mediterranean and Caribbean Seas as well as in the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans. Relative to other arthropods, sea spiders have long legs in contrast to a small body size. The number of walking legs is usually 8, but species with 10 and 12 legs exist. Unlike true spiders, sea spiders do not possess a specialized respiratory system oxygen is absorbed by the legs and is transported via hemolymph (fluid, analogous to the blood in vertebrates) to the rest of the body. The sea spiders have an unusual gut in the first place, Dr. Woods said. Unlike us, with our centrally located guts that are all confined to a single body … Continue reading →

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160524/371361LOGO) Technological advancements aimed at development of advanced products and increasing R&D investments by leading manufacturers are some of the key factors contributing to increasing demand for these enzymes, kits, and reagents. In addition, increasing adoption of molecular diagnostics is expected to serve this industry as a potential growth driver. Molecular biology enzymes, kits, and reagents are majorly used in genomics-related application areas. Increased funding for research in the field of genomics and sequencing are expected to augment growth during the forecast period. Furthermore, these products are used in the drug discovery and development stages in pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies. Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies contribute to the largest share of the end users of molecular biology enzymes, kits, and reagents. This dominant share can be attributed to increasing investments in R&D, expanding biopharmaceutical & biotechnology industry in the Asia Pacific region, and government initiatives in various countries to develop the biotechnology & pharmaceutical industry. Browse full research report with TOC on "Molecular Biology Enzymes And Kits & Reagents Market Analysis By Product (Kits and Reagents, Enzymes), By Application (PCR, Sequencing, Cloning, Epigenetics), By End User, And Segment Forecasts, 2014 - 2025" at: http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/molecular-biology-enzymes-kits-reagents-market Further key findings from the report … Continue reading →

Readers respond to our blog post "Washington lawmakers will likely allow high school seniors who failed state test to graduate" (6/23/17), about throwing out results of the end-of-course biology test: Susan Smith Lindsey: I am concerned about the "dumbing down" of our high school students by waiving these end of course exams. Why are the students not passing these exams? If they are unable to pass these exams are they adequately prepared for college, university, or community college or will they be required to take remedial courses thereby pushing the responsibility to the community colleges, etc., for what they should have learned in high school? Peter Hire: There's plenty of people who don't test well, others who just aren't that smart, and still others who might not need a particular area of study in their future. Didn't the shenanigans with the WASL a decade ago teach our state anything? Lauren House: Biology is not a college requirement for many students unless they plan to go into a science based field. The test is also based on standards that have been replaced for several years so it is a no-brainer to eliminate this. It has nothing to do with "dumbing down" … Continue reading →

By chemistry standards, the Friedel-Crafts alkylation is a venerable reaction. First reported by chemists Charles Friedel and James Crafts in 1877, the reaction attaches an alkyl substituent to an aromatic ring using an alkyl halide as one of the reactants. It turns out that Nature has been doing this reaction for even longerscientists just didnt know it until now. Harvard Universitys Emily P. Balskus, Hitomi Nakamura, and Erica E. Schultz have discovered an enzyme, dubbed CylK, that accomplishes this same transformation during the biosynthesis of cylindrocyclophanes, natural products made by cyanobacteria that are toxic to cells (Nat. Chem. Bio. 2017, DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.2421). Because aromatic-alkyl linkages are such important motifs in synthetic compounds, were hoping that the enzyme we found will ultimately be useful for chemical production, says Balskus, who led the research effort. Her team also found a new type of metal-dependent halogenating enzyme, named CylC, that creates secondary alkyl chlorides. Secondary alkyl halides can be tricky to prepare in the lab because the intermediates en route to making them tend to rearrange. The same can be said for using secondary alkyl halides as reactants in the Friedel-Crafts alkylation. Secondary alkyl halides have been notoriously problematic substrates for that reaction, … Continue reading →

Conservative Review SCOTUS just made a mockery of biology AND the Second Amendment Conservative Review When juxtaposing one decision with another case of inaction, it is clear that six members of the Supreme Court believe there is a fundamental right to force states to change biology and recognize birth certificates of same-sex couples as if both ... Read the original: SCOTUS just made a mockery of biology AND the Second Amendment - Conservative Review … Continue reading →