Friday, September 30, 2016

Weekly Links September 30 , 2016



“MUST READ”
Do women stay cooler under stress than men? Men and women make very different decisions under pressure. But who loses their head? Mara Mather and researchers at the University of Southern California were curious to see if stress changes how people m…
tags: Pocket weeklylinks
DISRUPTION, REVOLUTION
tags: weeklylinks
    • The CRISPR–Cas9 tool enables scientists to alter genomes practically at will. Hailed as dramatically easier, cheaper and more versatile than previous technologies, it has blazed through labs around the world, finding new applications in medicine and basic research.
But for all the devotion, CRISPR–Cas9 has its limitations. It is excellent at going to a particular location on the genome and cutting there, says bioengineer Prashant Mali at the University of California, San Diego. “But sometimes your application of interest demands a bit more.”
TOOLS/TECHNIQUES
tags: weeklylinks
    • It is evident that molecular biology has also undergone democratization based on emergence of so-called “do it yourself” (DIY) advocates of biology (DIY-BIO), which on the surface seems like a good thing. But, as I’ll expand upon below, DIY-BIO has morphed in a way which has elevated concerns that a well-intentioned DIY aficionado anywhere can now access genetically powerful CRISPR reagents that might inadvertently unleash a harmful home-made organism.
  • CoreGenomics: Comparison of DNA library prep kits by the Sanger Institute
Comparison of DNA library prep kits by the Sanger Institute The views expressed by James in this blog are his own. Any similarity to the views of anyone, or any organisation, alive, dead or undead are entirely accidental. Short Bio: James received a…
tags: Pocket weeklylinks
COMPANIES
tags: weeklylinks
    • To say that Bill Linton has a long-term vision for Promega, the Fitchburg, WI-based biotech business he founded in 1978 and continues to lead as chairman and CEO, would qualify as an understatement. In 2013, he told the Isthmus newspaper that he was working to arrange a corporate structure that would allow Promega “to celebrate its 100-year anniversary as a private company, as an independent company.”
  • I tried the Amazon for labs and it makes life way easier!
I tried the Amazon for labs, and it makes life way easier! Ordering a kit for an experiment could quickly become a nightmare. There are an incredible amount of suppliers out there who are selling similar products that could greatly vary in price and…
tags: Pocket weeklylinks
SOMETHING DIFFERENT
tags: weeklylinks
    • The sugar industry paid scientists in the 1960s to play down the link between sugar and heart disease and promote saturated fat as the culprit instead, newly released historical documents show.
The internal sugar industry documents, recently discovered by a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, and published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine, suggest that five decades of research into the role of nutrition and heart disease, including many of today’s dietary recommendations, may have been largely shaped by the sugar industry.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Friday, September 23, 2016

Weekly Links September 23 , 2016



“MUST READ”
tags: weeklylinks
    • Key patents on the CRISPR technology were awarded to the Broad and Harvard University based on Zhang’s research developing a CRISPR system that edited mouse and human genes — many of them at the same time, Zhang and his team reported in a 2013 paper. The University of California is challenging those patents on behalf of UC Berkeley biochemist Jennifer Doudna and one of her key collaborators on a seminal 2012 paper, which described editing the test tube DNA using CRISPR.
  • www.nytimes.com
A Cautionary Tale of ‘Stem Cell Tourism’ The surgeon gasped when he opened up his patient and saw what was in his spine. It was a huge mass, filling the entire part of the man’s lower spinal column. “The entire thing was filled with bloody tissue, a…
tags: Pocket weeklylinks
The Parasite Underground When Vik was in his late 20s, blood started appearing in his stool. He found himself rushing to the bathroom as many as nine times a day, and he quit his job at a software company. He received a diagnosis of severe ulcerativ…
tags: Pocket weeklylinks
DISRUPTION, REVOLUTION
For biotech CEO Rachel Haurwitz, CRISPR is big business BERKELEY, Calif. — The question on the test was about CRISPR, but Rachel Haurwitz, then a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, botched it. She had never heard the term.
tags: Pocket weeklylinks
TOOLS/TECHNIQUES
tags: weeklylinks
    • The future of personalized medicine depends on affordable DNA sequencing. In the race for the $1,000 genome, several sequencer manufacturers are working on making equipment that can sequence DNA and RNA faster and more accurately. But so far, only one company – San Diego, California-based Illumina – has US FDA regulatory approval to use its sequencer in the clinic.
  • The Basics of Running a Chromatography Column - Bitesize Bio
tags: weeklylinks
    • Column chromatography is a common technique used to separate individual compounds from a mixture. You can use column chromatography on both a small or large scale to isolate and purify material for use on a later experiment.
If you are new to column chromatography or just want a refresher, then read on for a quick description of the basic process.
Explaining Genomics – No More Lies! In presenting simple explanations, are we setting ourselves up for a fall? “I have a confession to make. We’ve been lying to you.” Those were the words my school biology teacher (hello Mr. Boddington!) chose to op…
tags: Pocket weeklylinks
Get that Genotyping PCR to Work EVERY TIME Say you just joined a lab and have been assigned your very own project to work on. As part of your new responsibilities, you have to breed and maintain the mutant (or transgenic) mouse line which you will b…
tags: Pocket weeklylinks

HEALTH/MEDECINE
tags: weeklylinks
    • The Francis Crick Institiute in London, the biggest biomedical research institute in Europe, has officially opened its doors for research this week. Scientists have begun to move into the £650 million facility and are taking up residence in their new labs
Research at the Crick aims to discover how and why disease develops in order to find new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat conditions such as cancer, heart disease and stroke, infections and neurodegenerative conditions like motor neurone disease.
tags: weeklylinks
    • Some of the most promising advances in cancer research in recent years involve treatments known as immunotherapy. These advances are spurring billions of dollars in investment by drug companies, and are leading to hundreds of clinical trials. Here are answers to some basic questions about this complex and rapidly evolving field.
  • New clue to how lithium works in the brain
New clue to how lithium works in the brain Since the 1970s, U.S. doctors have prescribed lithium to treat patients with bipolar disorder. While the drug has a good success rate, scientists are still unsure exactly how it achieves its beneficial effe…
tags: Pocket weeklylinks
COMPANIES
tags: weeklylinks
tags: weeklylinks
    • The Palo Alto startup does this by offering up article extracts from published science papers using natural language processing. The Bioz platform helps researchers select products, plan experiments, write papers, apply for grants and collaborate, speeding up experimentation and drug discovery.
SOMETHING DIFFERENT
tags: weeklylinks
    • Winning isn’t everything.
So says the man who recently received $22 million after bringing to light multiyear accounting violations at Monsanto, the agribusiness and chemicals giant. Even though his is the second-largest award issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission under its five-year-old program to encourage whistle-blowers to come forward (after a $30 million award in September 2014), it feels, he told me, like something of a hollow victory.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Monday, September 19, 2016

Weekly Links September 19 , 2016



“MUST READ”
tags: CRISPR weeklylinks voyage
    • For Wiedenheft, the key to survival has been seclusion. When he struck out from Doudna's lab, he opted for a return to Montana State University in Bozeman, where he did his PhD, over an offer from a larger, better-known institution. “At the end of the day, the opportunities for solitude and being outdoors make me more creative and a better scientist,” he says. But like other young scientists who graduate from powerhouse labs, he can't help but wonder how different life might have been if accolades in biomedical science were given to the first authors on a paper, rather than the last. Now and then, he admits, he doesn't feel quite appreciated enough. “Some days it matters, some days it doesn't.”
DISRUPTION, REVOLUTION
tags: weeklylinks
    • By this point, you can’t have escaped hearing about CRISPR. First discovered in the 1980’s, the repeated sequences and their function in bacterial defense systems remained a mystery until almost 10 years ago, when it was hailed as the biggest scientific discovery of the century. Since then, scientists have leveraged the adaptable, heritable mechanism to develop the most powerful gene-editing technology to date, known as CRISPR-Cas9.
TOOLS/TECHNIQUES
tags: weeklylinks
    • ust as no one in the 80s believed that computers would one day govern every aspect of our lives, today most of us still don’t believe that gene editing will change very much.
This new video from Kurzgesagt – In a Nushell takes a look at the history of genetic engineering, the advent of CRISPR, and how this will impact the future. 
tags: weeklylinks
    • Routine PCR? Let’s be honest, there’s no such thing. Even with the simplest PCR reaction things can go wrong, so you need to have a good checklist of ideas for PCR troubleshooting and rectifying the problem. Today I have brainstormed all of the ways I can think of to approach problems with standard PCR reactions.
  • What is CRISPR? - YouTube
tags: weeklylinks CRISPR
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HEALTH/MEDECINE
tags: weeklylinks
tags: weeklylinks
    • Much research efforts are being put into studying the gut microbiome right now because we realize it is super important. In both the inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) and in Clostridium difficile infections, the right mirobiome plays a crucial role in recovery. This article will focus on the gut because there are some awesome examples of modern medicine at work. Let’s first take a brief overview of the microbiome in the gut.

COMPANIES
Life Sciences Marketplace Quartzy Raises $17 Million To Build Up The Supply Side Quartzy, a lab supplies marketplace, announced it has closed a $17 million round in Series B financing to help the startup build up the supply of lab equipment offered …
tags: Pocket weeklylinks
tags: weeklylinks solutions
tags: illumina weeklylinks
    • Work on a new £60 million facility at Granta Park – set to employ up to 500 staff – could begin late this week or early next, Business Weekly can disclose.
SOMETHING DIFFERENT
tags: innovation GE weeklylinks
    • Yet all of this exposes G.E. to new competition beyond its traditional rivals like Rockwell Automation, Siemens and United Technologies. Tech giants, including Amazon, Cisco, Google, IBM and Microsoft also have their eye on the industrial internet market, as do a bevy of start-ups.
There is precedent for trouble in other industries, of course. Google and Facebook transformed media and advertising, Amazon redefined retailing, and Uber applied an entirely new business model to taxis, which hadn’t changed much in generations.
tags: weeklylinks
    • How Yvon Chouinard turned his eco-conscious, anti-corporate ideals into the credo of a successful clothing company.
·         Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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