HOUSTON - (March 26, 2015) - Taking out the garbage is a crucial step in housecleaning. Similarly, autophagy is the body's first-line of defense against the buildup up of toxic substances, degrading old organelles and proteins to provide new substrates and building blocks. In this way, autophagy prevents the buildup of "garbage" that can result in destruction of neurons and cause neurologic diseases. A forward genetic screen in Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies) identified mutant copies, or alleles, of a gene called cacophony associated with defects in autophagy and cellular homeostasis. In a report that appears in PLOS BIOLOGY, Dr. Hugo Bellen and his colleagues at Baylor College of Medicine and the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children's Hospital and BCM, and Dr. Chao Tong, at the Life Sciences Institute and Innovation Center for Cell Biology, Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China, find that mutations of human homologs (genes that carry out similar functions) of cacophony and its partner straightjacket (Cacna1a and Cacna2d2 respectively) cause defects in autophagy in neurons. The human homologues of these genes are associated with severe neurologic diseases such as episodic ataxia 2, familial hemiplegic migraine, absence epilepsy, progressive ataxic and spinocerebellar ataxia 6, … Continue reading →

Thanks to recent advances in synthetic biology a hybrid discipline of engineering and biology that makes possible the manipulation of DNA of microorganisms such as yeast, bacteria, fungi and algae a new generation of organism engineers has already started experimenting withthe creation of new flavors and ingredients. In doing so, they have the potential to transform synthetic biology into a new creative platform to enable chefs, bakers or brewers to create new flavor profiles for food and drink. Imagine being able to create the next acclaimed ingredient that makes foods more savory, harnessing the power of thenoble rot to make a wine the equal of a bottle of Chteau dYquem, or fermenting a new cheese that has more flavor complexitythan Roquefort. Creative types in foodie capitals around the nation would no doubt be interested in experimenting with these new products and tastes, just as visionary chefs Ferran Adri, Wylie Dufresne and Grant Achatz experimented with the molecular gastronomy trend when it firststarted to gomainstream. One company at the forefront of using synthetic biology to create new types ofcultured ingredients is Ginkgo Bioworks, a Boston-based start-up that emerged from Silicon Valleys Y Combinator (the same incubator that gave us Airbnb and … Continue reading →

March 27, 2015, 4 a.m. ALEX Pearse has his sights set on a PhD in marine biology an unlikely career goal for someone who didnt finish high school. ALEX Pearse has his sights set on a PhD in marine biology an unlikely career goal for someone who didnt finish high school. Alex Pearse: from electrician to marine biologist. 150326LP30 I left school after year 10 and started an apprenticeship with my uncle as an electrician, Mr Pearse said. Five years on, his uncle decided to close the business and Mr Pearse was forced to reassess. He told me to either take over it or do something else and I decided I wanted to do marine biology, he said. It was the path I wanted to take if Id finished high school and Id been thinking about it a lot in the year leading up to it. Having not completed school, however, Mr Pearse did not have an ATAR and the pathway to study was not straightforward. I looked at my girlfriend at the times coursebook, actually, and I saw Deakin and I saw the associate degree and that offered you a pathway to get into marine biology if you didnt … Continue reading →

Foraging bats obey their own set of 'traffic rules', chasing, turning and avoiding collisions at high speed according to new research publishing in PLOS Computational Biology. Dr Marc Holderied and colleagues from the University of Bristol studied pairs of Daubenton's bats (Myotis daubentonii) foraging low over water for stranded insects in Somerset, UK. He said: "Collective movements of flocking birds or shoaling fish are amongst the most fascinating natural phenomena. Everyone has experienced the challenges of walking through a moving crowd, however, what information individuals use for movement coordination is very difficult to know - except in the case of echolocating bats." These flying mammals discern their surroundings by emitting loud and high-pitched biosonar calls and listening for the returning echoes. Bat biosonar imaging is much sparser in information than vision, so Dr Holderied was able to accurately measure the biosonar calls of the interacting bats and calculate what each of the individuals perceived. The results indicated that bats obey their own intriguing set of 'traffic rules': they chase each other, perform tandem turns and even slow down to avoid collisions. The authors modelled the bats' biosonar view of their surroundings during these interactions and discovered that the bats swap … Continue reading →