Cell Biology

Grow a New Head & Brain?

A new paper published in PLoS Genetics has identified the gene that allows Schmidtea mediterranea to regenerate not only its limbs, but also its head and brain. The gene, called ÔÇ£smed-prep,ÔÇØ is similar to a gene found in humans, according to a Wired.com post.

Puppies! Aid in Cancer Research

The official LSUHSC New Orleans twitter account posted a message this morning that read: Slobbery kisses from ‘man’s best friend’ aid #cancer research. #lifescience #research http://cli.gs/sveR7b. As a dog person, I’m all for research that benefits humans and their best friends.

And what do the pound signs mean before certain words in that message? The pound sign is called a hashtag and it allows those terms to be searched in twitter.

Human Genome @ 10

Nature.com has a special news section celebrating the Human Genome Project’s 10th anniversary. The contents are mostly included in the April 1st issue. They are asking scientists to participate in a survey to calculate the impact of the sequence.

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.

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.