Basic Sciences

Neuroscience Info Framework

There’s a new, free portal to neuroscience information from the NIH called NIF: Neuroscience Information Framework.

NIF is a free, web-based, portal to a wide variety of neuroscience-relevant resources, funded by the National Institutes of Health. We have an extensive registry of over 2500 resources along with a custom web index and literature archive. Through the NIF Data Federation, we provide a direct query of over 40 databases, with new ones being added regularly.

Type a key word on the homepage to see find information about NIH grants, projects, neuroscience tools, and biomedical literature. A search for LSU gives search results from a variety of sources, from grants to clinical trials, even gene info. Other tabs link to web resources and literature from Pubmed.

The NIF registry is a useful way to locate neuroscience research resources from a network curated by the NIH. The Registry could be a starting point to find jobs, mentoring and educational opportunities in the neurosciences.

You can also recommend neuroscience resources such as materials, training, software, funding, services, data, jobs or people.

The Librarian’s Review:The search results screen can seem a little overwhelming, but clicking on the arrow by ‘log in preferences’ will make the search box disappear. If you’re used to using Excel, the NIF search result interface is similar. Categories can be sorted or removed to customize the view, and results can be exported, which is useful if you want to put them into Refworks or Endnote. Abstracts appear if you hover your mouse too long over the field, which can get annoying when trying to scan results.

Overall, NIF is a useful portal, acting as a clearinghouse for a number of different to resources, tools, grants and programs in neuroscience. The interface is fairly simple to use, though first time users might get overwhelmed by the amount of information available. It’s a good attempt to make a useful, curated portal for a specialty. Would like to see more of this.

NIF: Neuroscience Information Framework
http://www.neuinfo.org/
also available under our online resources

Winter Olympics & Exp Physiol

New Orleans was so busy with the Saints in the Superbowl and then Carnival that many missed that the Winter Olympics have started again. Experimental Physiology has issued a special themed issue (v95 n3 March 2010) in commemoration of the athletic event. The issue explores “the biological and environmental challenges elite winter athletes must overcome to win gold.”

Off campus access will require a Library barcode & PIN.

PubMed?« Revisions in February

Changes coming to PubMed in early February include:

Current Protocols in Bioinformatics

We are pleased to announce an addition to our Current Protocols series: Current Protocols in Bioinformatics.

From the preface:

Bioinformatics occupies a unique niche amongst the sciences, lying at the intersection of biology, genetics, biochemistry, computer science, mathematics, statistics, and numerous other allied fields. The inherent strength of the field of bioinformatics comes from the relationships between investigators in these allied fields; collaborations between these individuals has led to (and will continue to lead to) the development of novel methods and approaches, furthering advances in each of these areas…Current Protocols in Bioinformatics is designed to provide the experimentalist with insight into the types of data and protocols required to perform basic tasks in the area of bioinformatics. More importantly, it provides insight into understanding and properly interpreting the data produced by these methods.

Whether you are wondering what questions publicly available databases can answer, how to analyze protein expression patterns, or you want wanting to build your own biological database, this resource can tell you how.

Access now. (off campus requires login with library barcode & PIN)

Fast Help for E-Resources

The LSUHSC Libraries have access to almost 200 databases so how do you decide which one to start searching in? The Reference Librarians have created 6 E-Resources at a Glance sheets for each of the school of LSUHSC.
Electronic Resources at a Glance: Allied Health
Electronic Resources at a Glance: Dentistry
Electronic Resources at a Glance: Graduate Studies
Electronic Resources at a Glance: Medicine
Electronic Resources at a Glance: Nursing
Electronic Resources at a Glance: Public Health
Let us know what you think.

1st Chemotherapy Agent Used 100 years ago

Paul Ehrlich developed what is now recognized as the first chemotherapy agent 100 years ago. On August 31, 1909 his 606th compound of arsenobenzene was developed. He was searching for a way to treat syphillis.

Snowball Dye has Neuroscience Use

Love to dye your tongue fun colors with New Orleans snowballs in the Summer? Look closer at the FD&C blue dye no.1 in your bubble gum flavored treat.

Researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center have discovered that the food additive may protect nerves in the event of spinal cord injury. The report was published in the early edition section of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences yesterday.

The only side effect was that the rats turned blue.

Link to the pdf of the article is available to LSUHSC faculty staff & students. It can be accessed off-campus with a valid LSUHSC library barcode & PIN. You can find more information at our remote access webpage.

Springer Protocols

The LSUHSC Libraries recently purchased a subscription to Springer Protocols. This database of “reproducible laboratory results” includes:

as well as from a vast number of Laboratory Handbooks, such as The Biomethods Handbook, The Proteomics Handbook, and the Springer Laboratory Manuals.

It is available on & off campus.

Zombie Neurobiology

A Harvard Psychiatrist Explains Zombie Neurobiology

In Night of the Living Dead, zombies are brought back from the dead by a “mysterious force” that allows their brains to continue functioning. But how exactly does a zombie brain function? Finally, a Harvard psychiatrist has the answers.

Through education Dr. Steven C. Schlozman is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a lecturer at the Harvard School of Education. He is also an avid sci-fi and horror fan – and, apparently, the world’s leading authority on the neurobiology of the living dead. He has even drafted a fake medical journal article on the zombie plague, which he calls Ataxic Neurodegenerative Satiety Deficiency Syndrome, or ANSD (the article has five authors: one living, three “deceased” and one “humanoid infected”).

Check out some of the scholarly articles Dr. Schlozman has published.

The Ische’ Library has a large selection of Neurobiology books if you would like even more info.

Create a Healthy Environment for Earth Day

As part of National Environmental Education Week and Earth Day, the National Library of Medicine is promoting its toxicology resources. These resources include: ToxMAP, ToxTown, ToxMystery, MedlinePlus, Household Products Database, and Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB). Several of these resources are part of TOXNET which provides access a host of information related to toxicology, hazardous chemicals, and environmental health. For more information on Environmental Health and Toxicology, check out the Special Information Services page at NLM.

Scratch that Itch!

Nature Neuroscience has released an advance online publication of a study that has been getting press in the popular media. The study identifies specialized cells in the spinal cord which seem to be involved in the sensations of itching and scratching.

Synchronized Swimming Mitosis

The American Society for Cell Biology’s Image and Video Library is a great collection of still images and dynamic videos of the highest quality covering the field of cell biology. CellDance is an annual contest hosted by the ASCB that spotlights new video and digital images in microscopy.

My favorite is this video from University of California, San Francisco, which uses synchronized swimmers to illustrate mitosis. (The first place winner on the Golgi Appartus is pretty cool as well.)

The ASCB’s Image & video library invites contributions from all cell biologists who wish to publish high quality images and videos on the site, and all content is available to view for free online. As of yet there are no submissions from LSU! Maybe you could be the first to contribute.

Friday fun: Vollig Weichgekocht

This link is dedicated to anatomy fans:
http://www.sarahillenberger.com/news_sz.html

(The German translation in the title is something like ‘false softness’.)

MLA 2008: Continuing [my] Education on the PhD Experience

Yesterday I had the pleasure of taking the continuing education course The PhD Experience: Graduate School in the Basic Biomedical Sciences. As the library liaison to LSUHSC’s School of Graduate Studies, I was eager to learn more about what exactly goes on in those sometimes secret laboratories nestled away in the nooks of our urban campus.

Michele Tennant, Susan Kendall & Kevin Messner did a superior job at presenting an overview of graduate programs in the Basic Sciences. From departments to dissertations to dictostelium discoideum (that’s slime mold to us laypersons), the instructors gave a well-rounded overview of professional culture within the research community, as well as sound advice and techniques that librarians can use to reach these sometimes distant faculty, staff and students.

The course was about eight hours long, but don’t let that sway your choice if you have the opportunity to take this class. Anyone involved in library liaison activities with Basic Sciences, especially those who do not have a science background, will find this useful. What follows is a list of notes & resources I jotted down throughout the day.

• ‘omics: suffix indicating biology on a large scale (ie: genomics, proteomics, etc)
• “gene knockout”: when you knockout a particular gene to see what happens
• Barlow, Robert B., John E. Dowling, and Gerald Weissmann, eds. (1993). The Biological Century: Friday Evening Talks at the Marine Biological Laboratory Woods Hole: The Marine Biological Laboratory. (ISBN 0-674-07403-3): book recommended by Tennant – collection of science essays giving good overview of the development of biological science in the Twentieth Century.
• e-science trends – Kendall had attended a conference on this recently and had some interesting words on the development of the research process from a linear to circular structure with the advent of the web, which led to….
• Talking about a recent discussion in Science magazine about wikifying GenBank. (??!!) I’m all for 2.0 and all, but this does not sounds like such a good idea
• More info on trends in escience/translational medicine: Check out the session “Translational Medicine and the Library’s Role” on Tuesday afternoon (2-3:30) for more info.
• This book was recommended by Susan Kendall for information on how laboratory research works.
• Finally, Kevin Messner’s del.icio.us account offers all kinds of bioinformatics and biology links, in addition to other non-science related bookmarks

I hope you found this useful. Coming soon, the search for my missing mentee, the opening address, and more!

Anatomy got you down?

Get a leg up on your classmates and check out www.getbodysmart.com. Created by an anatomy teacher, this website is a great resource for learning about the skeletal system, muscle tissue physiology and the nervous system among other subjects. The animated drawings, diagrams and interactive quizzes will help you ace your next exam.