UPDATED: Wed., June 14, 2017, 12:06 a.m. OLYMPIA Good news for high school seniors unable to pass their biology assessment test: The Senate passed a bill that would let them get their diplomas anyway. But the bad news for those seniors and others who were unable to pass the math or English language assessment test is its different than the House bill. And while it seems likely the Legislature is going to remove that barrier to graduation, the deal isnt done yet. On a 43-to-5 vote, the Senate approved a proposal to drop the requirement that all high school students pass a biology assessment test. The test is typically taken in freshman or sophomore year, at the end of a biology course. Students who fail at that point can retake it multiple times or submit a collection of evidence to show they understand the material. They can also submit a grade above a certain score from the science portion of the ACT test. Even with those options, some 3,300 seniors had not passed the test as of early May and couldnt qualify for a diploma even though they had completed all other requirements. Most schools are allowing those students to … Continue reading →

A protein model is built into an electron density map, amino acid by amino acid. The result is a snapshot of the protein or protein complex at work. Image courtesy of Dr Sebastian Guettler. Several research teams at the ICR are devoted to structural biology a crucial discipline in cancer research that is shedding light on some of lifes most fundamental processes. We are excited about the potential this field has to enable the discovery of brand new cancer drugs. There are five key reasons why structural biology research excites us: If you want to support our structural biology research, please have a look at our chromatography appeal which will help fund a new, state-of-the-art, chromatography machine. Support our chromatography appeal Structure of RNA polymerase II. Image credit: David Bushnell, Ken Westover and Roger Kornberg, Stanford University. CC BY-NC 2.0. Our structural biologists explore the shapes of proteins in detail, down to the individual atom, and work out how they interlock with other proteins and potential drugs. Proteins are the drivers of all our biological processes, which are hijackedin cancer to drive cell growth and spread. Were interested in finding out what a protein looks like in three dimensions, to … Continue reading →

As part of its mission to encourage engagement within the genetics community, PLOS Genetics is supporting a number of conferences and meetings this year. In order to raise awareness about these conferences and the researchers who attend them, we are featuring a number of these conferences on Biologue, with posts written by the organizers, or the PLOS Genetics editors who are involved. PLOS Genetics will be supporting the 18th International Congress of Developmental Biology (ISDB2017), which will take place at the University Cultural Centre of the National University of Singapore from June 18th 22nd. We asked Hongyan Wang, a member of the local conference programme committee and PLOS Genetics Associate Editor, about the event. Organised by the International Society of Developmental Biologists (ISDB), the quadrennial ISDB congress will bring together over 700 developmental biologists from 35 different countries to share their exciting findings. The lead organiser of the 18th ISDB is Philip Ingham, current president of the ISDB, based in both Singapore and the United Kingdom. Singapore is now recognized as a leading biomedical research hub in Asia, and has a vibrant Developmental Biology research community. It was on this recognition that Philips bid to stage the 2017 Congress was … Continue reading →

Decades of research into characterization, prevention, detection and treatment have substantially expanded our collective understanding of cancer biology. However, these insights elicit a new generation of unanswered questions about the complexity of this group of often-deadly diseases. Historical investigations yielded the key understandings that cancer cells arise from indigenous cells, and most, if not all, tumors are derived from a single parent cell1. In 2000, Hanahan and Weinberg simplified the many aspects of transformation from normal human cells into cancerous ones through six essential cell physiology alterations. These so-called hallmarks of cancer include self-sufficiency in growth signals, insensitivity to anti-growth or inhibitory signals, evasion of apoptosis, unlimited replication capability, sustained angiogenesis, and tissue invasion and metastasis2. They later added deregulating cellular energetics and avoiding immune destruction as emerging hallmarks; genome instability and mutation and tumor-promoting inflammation as enabling characteristics3. The impact of external stimuli, interactions with neighboring cells and the extracellular matrix (ECM), heterogeneity, inherited traits, and other factors further complicate the elucidation of cancer biology. Along with the expanding scope of research interests, methodologies have evolved to include live cell studies in addition to conventional biochemical and fixed cell assays. Live cell assays allow researchers to dynamically study a … Continue reading →