A career as a lab biologist can take many forms, but the general public seems to see it as a lone, lab-coated researcher sitting at a bench, setting up a series of in vitro experiments by hand in small tubes or streaking out a little yeast on an agar plate.Thats not inaccurate at all all of us lab rats have done time with a manual pipettor while trying to keep track of which tube in the ice bucket gets which solution. Its tedious stuff. But because biology experiments generally scale well, and because more data often leads to better conclusions, life science processes can quickly grow beyond what can be handled manually. Ive seen this time and again in my 25 years in science, from my crude grad school attempts to miniaturize my assays and automate data collection to the multi-million dollar robotic systems I built in my career in the pharmaceuticalindustry. Biology can get pretty big in a hurry. Another day at the office. By Maggie Bartlett, National Human Genome Research Institute [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsBeing able to do hundreds of experiments at the click of a mouse is remarkably powerful, but the expense of the equipment involved … Continue reading →

Genomics and systems biology pioneer Lee Hood, who will step down as ISB president in January. (Institute for Systems Biology Photo) Seventeen years after founding the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), spurring the creation of systems biology as a field, genomics and biotechnology pioneer Lee Hood is stepping down as its president. Hood will step down from the position in January, but will remain on ISBs board of directors and at the head of the 30-person Hood Lab. He will also continue to serve as thesenior vice president and chief science officer of the affiliated Providence St. Joseph Health system. Hood will be replaced by well-known biotechnologist and immunotherapy researcherJames Heath, who currently holds an endowed professorship at Caltech. He is also the director of the NanoSystems Biology Cancer Center, professor and co-director at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at UCLA, and a serial biotechnology entrepreneur. As president, Heath will be responsible for setting the direction for ISBs research and education programs as well as efforts in launching spin out companies and otherwise commercializing the work done in its laboratories. I am extremely honored to assume the position of president of ISB, Heath said in a press release. It … Continue reading →

Adapting platform technologies to push the boundaries of experimental design Snapshot of video from Labcyte Genomics Symposium 2016 GeneMill is an open access synthetic biology foundry, located within the Centre for Genomic Research (CGR) at the University of Liverpool. Dr. Linda DAmore is Operational Manager at the GeneMill Foundry in Liverpool. One of four foundries funded by the BBSRC, it is also part of the Centre for Genomic Research, which offers high-throughput genomics platform analysis. Specifically, GeneMill provides high-throughput construction and testing of synthetic DNA constructs, using a variety of platforms. At the Labcyte Genomics Symposium, Dr. DAmore discussed how miniaturization of synthetic biology has reduced working volumes from 1.5 ml to … Continue reading →

Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle) (blog) Institute for Systems Biology names new president to replace co-founder Leroy Hood Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle) (blog) James Heath will take over as president of the Institute for Systems Biology in January more. Institute for Systems Biology. Providence acquired Dr. Leroy Hood's Institute for Systems Biology in March 2016. In January 2018, Hood will step down as ... and more » Go here to read the rest: Institute for Systems Biology names new president to replace co-founder Leroy Hood - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle) (blog) … Continue reading →

Imagine spending countless hours working on a piece of art that is destined to be destroyed. Mangled. Hacked up and tossed aside. All that will remain of your original work is a skeleton of foam, aluminum wire and wood alongside a big pile of clay. This is the reality sculptor David Smus works within every day. After months of intricate detail work and painstaking care, he sacrifices a perfect clay sculpture for the opportunity to create within what is arguably one of the most permanent art forms there is: bronze. As dramatic as it sounds, its all just part of the lost-wax process of metal casting. To get to the bronze end product, Davids clay sculptures are coated with rubber and plaster to make a negative mold, and often they are cut up into more manageable pieces or torn apart in the process. It actually gets kind of hair-raising because you put all this time and attention into an original, and then the idea is to, like, hack it up when youre making the mold, he says with a laugh and a shake of his head from his kitchen table in Harmony, Maine. Its kind of a nervous part of … Continue reading →

Nature.com Structural biology The tick-tock of circadian clocks Nature.com Circadian clocks are cellular timekeeping systems that synchronize biological activities with night and day. In cyanobacteria, timekeeping is coordinated by a post-translational clock that consists of KaiA, KaiB and KaiC, which can tick autonomously in ... Read more from the original source: Structural biology The tick-tock of circadian clocks - Nature.com … Continue reading →