2016 News & Careers
January
Author: Maria Zagorulya
Many scientists dream to create or join a biotech startup. Indeed, if a startup succeeds, the rewards are enticing. However, a startup is a risky business. Nine out of ten startups will fail for a number of reasons. Gambling factor aside, some believe that involvement in a startup is not worth the stress, while others argue that the experience is invaluable. So why join a startup? What are the pros and cons of performing science in a startup environment? Working in a biotech startup can be dissatisfying to a scientist for several reasons.
Author: Hriday Bhambhvani
“Researchers teach a machine how to learn like a human” – sounds like something out of a Frank Herbert sci-fi novel, right? Not quite. A group of scientists have developed an algorithm that encapsulates our learning abilities and recapitulates them in computers. These computers are able to recognize and draw novel visual concepts that are mostly indistinguishable from those created by humans, demonstrating an improved capacity for information acquisition and retrieval. The work, published in the latest issue of Science, represents a major advance in the field: a significant shortening in the time it takes computers to consolidate new concepts and apply them in new areas.
Author: Hriday Bhambhvani
The mystery of aging has plagued scientists for centuries. Indeed, biologist August Weismann proposed the cell damage theory in 1882 – “Like components of an aging car, parts of the body eventually wear out from repeated use, killing them and then the body.” The prevailing view of aging today is along the same lines; we age due to increasing cellular malfunction over the years. In general, it is thought that the quality control mechanisms within the cell break down in the aging process. These quality control functions serve to eliminate proteins that are not functional and have lost their typical structure. When quality control functions go awry, misfolded proteins aggregate and contribute to the pathogenesis of a variety of debilitating diseases: Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, for example.
February
Author: Julie Spitzer
Putting the pencil to the paper and completing the calculations are one thing. Everything looks sound, smooth and flawless on a notepad as if nothing could go wrong. Why would it? Building your creation is a whole different question. The figures may look logical in the notebook but combined with real physical materials, well, it's a whole new set of calculations. Now, there are lives at risk. Real people will be in here, traveling, mindlessly, to see friends or family or business partners and expecting to come back home safely.
March
Author: Jessica Johnson
Bioengineering has origins dating back thousands of years in the form of devices such as artificial limbs and crutches meant to assist movement. Although prosthetic development remains a focus of contemporary bioengineering, the field has greatly expanded to combine engineering, biology, physics, mathematics, and medicine in order to solve biological problems.
Author: Maria Zagorulya
The environmental sciences are the study of the world around us. Combining knowledge from fields like ecology, meteorology and geology, environmental scientists research the Earth’s natural and unnatural processes and provide solutions to environmental problems. For example, a few days ago, environmental scientists developed an improved computational model for predicting climate change.
April
May
Author: Hriday Bhambhvani
Surely, no budding scientist imagines him/herself as ever working in the legal field. Interestingly, though, both graduate school and law school overlap in at least one regard. Defending one’s stance with appropriate data in a compelling manner is a skill that everyone, scientist or lawyer-to-be, is forced to pick up along the way. This skill’s utility makes scientists attractive prospects for careers in intellectual property law.
Author: Julie Spitzer
A team of scientists, led by Jillian Banfield of the University of California - Berkeley, redesigned the Tree of Life on Monday after discovering thousands of new bacterial organisms over the last 15 years, according to a UC-Berkeley news release.
June
Author: Madeleine Jepsen
Soap, shampoo, deodorant, lotion — people use these products every day, but rarely think about what goes into making them. This is the job of cosmetic chemists: they develop the array of hair, face, and skin products scattered across bathroom counter tops. These chemists conduct the research necessary for formula development and manufacturing and test the safety of the products before they enter the marketplace. Ultimately, chemists are involved in many of the steps before a product goes from concept to shelf.
Author: Madeleine Jepsen
Imagine a jigsaw puzzle that solves itself when someone takes it out of its box. Researchers at McMaster University have synthesized a molecule able to self-assemble into ring structures. These molecules are the chemical equivalents of self-assembling puzzle pieces.
Author: Eleanor Sheekey
From William Hartnell to David Tennant through to Peter Capaldi, the legendary Doctor Who has always had the ability to completely regenerate. The term regeneration is used more generally in Biology to include renewal of cells, tissues and limbs. It is not surprising, therefore, that an exciting new discovery published in Nature by Nacu et al. has shed light on a crucial part of the process involved in limb regeneration(1). Scientists hope that this new insight can be extrapolated for use in mammals, in particular for organ regeneration.
July
Author: Jennifer Charlicki
World renowned psychologist, Carl Rogers, once said “We think we listen, but very rarely do we listen with real understanding, true empathy. Yet listening, of this very special kind, is one of the most potent forces for change that I know.”
Author: Madeleine Jepsen
A new mechanism for Parkinson's disease has recently been proposed by researchers studying the TMEM230 gene. This gene, which is involved in the transportation of neurotransmitters, is the first in its class to be implicated in the disease. The discovery has opened a new window for potential treatment options for those living with the disease.
Author: Eleanor Sheekay
A recent study published in Nature reveals the role of a voltage gated sodium ion (Nav) channel in the mechanical pain response. The study was conducted using toxins collected from the arachnid Heteroscodra maculata, the 5-inch arboreal tarantula notable for its chalky white stripes and thick rear legs. H. maculata transmits two potent toxins—Hm1a and Hm1b—to prey through its powerful bite.
August
Author: Adam Zhang
Mathematicians at Georgia Tech have recently announced a proof for graph theory's Kelmans-Seymour Conjecture. The conjecture, proved by mathematician Xingxing Yu and his team, goes as follows: "If a graph is 5-connected and non-planar, then G has a TK5."
Author: Dana Lowry
Researchers in the UK have created a possible supplement that may be used for managing weight loss in the future. The scientists have developed a powdered form of a molecule that is digested by our gut bacteria. These bacteria then produce a substance able to curb appetite and decrease desire for junk foods.
Author: Jennifer Charlicki
Recent research has tackled the question: what can we do to minimize the physical and mental stresses from work? Dawn Querstret and colleagues suggest that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can foster positive effects on workplace rumination, fatigue, and sleep. One group of participants engaged in a CBT workshop where they answered questions about their workplace, and also listened to how others cope with work-related stress, whereas the second group of participants did not. Six months after the initial assessment, the two groups were compared, and Querstret and her team concluded that CBT had in fact had positive effects on various aspects related to workplace exhaustion.
Author: Jennifer Charlicki
Are you a student stressed about upcoming final exams? Is your motivation slowly decreasing with every textbook chapter you read? Well, you’re not alone. Identifying stress doesn’t seem to be the issue for students; “I’m so stressed out” is a common response to many questions. The issue is identifying ways to attack this stress in a sustainable manner.
September
Author: Hriday Bhambhavani
Micah Simmons is a lab manager in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine. He works in the lab of Dr. James Meador-Woodruff, under whom he investigates the molecular mechanisms underlying schizophrenia.
Author: Jennifer Charlicki
Every year, 211 million pregnancies occur around the world (WHO, 2007), and during pregnancy, one of the most commonly used drugs is marijuana (“Alcohol, drugs, and babies: Do you need to worry?” 2005). There has been an increase in the amount of pregnant women smoking marijuana to aid their morning sickness. However, marijuana use while pregnant has shown compensatory effects in how children prenatally exposed to marijuana perform tasks pertaining to executive functioning.
Author: Adam Zhang
We have all heard Descartes’ famous quote “cogito ergo sum”—I think, therefore I am. But what does it mean to think? Or perhaps, what is it to think? To answer this question, the Allen Institute for Brain Science has released the Allen Brain Observatory, a collective, standardized “survey of cellular activity in the mouse visual system.” This first-of-its-kind open source database is unprecedented both in size and comprehensiveness, and it allows researchers all over the world to begin discerning the neural circuitry underlying how we experience the world around us.
October
Author: Eleanor Sheekey
Dr Jean-Léon Maître is a group leader in the Genetics and Developmental Biology unit at Institute Curie in Paris, one of the leading medical and biophysical research centres in the world. Dr Maître earned his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Cell Biology and Genetics in Germany, and the Institute of Science and Technology in Austria.
Author: Adam Zhang
The 1996 film Twister follows a group of storm chasers who are designing a revolutionary device to understand tornadoes and create more advanced warning systems. This device would release hundreds of small sensors into the heart of a tornado, collecting structural data from within these natural phenomena. Of course, the movie’s plot is fictitious, but what if such a revolutionary device was actually designed?
November
Author: Hriday Bhambhvani
In our modern information age, communication of data is rapid, and increasingly innovative and impactful research is being conducted and published at a tremendous rate across the world. Simultaneously, the general public is growing more interested in science, with prominent scientific personalities such as Stephen Hawking being catapulted to fame on a global stage. Science journalists hold a crucial role in this dynamic as they seek to bridge the gap between groundbreaking discoveries and the general public.
Author: Jennifer Charlicki
Dr. Nancy Galambos is a developmental psychologist and professor in the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Alberta. Much of her recent research is centered around the changes that occur in various social and developmental aspects of our lives in adolescence, early adulthood, and onwards.
Author: Dana Lowry
A recent study from Stanford University suggests that defective mitochondrial clearance may provide the crucial link between genetically and sporadically caused Parkinson’s cases. The researchers have shown that mutations in different genes related to mitochondrial clearance among individuals may cause different ‘types’ of Parkinson’s disease. According to Xinna Wang and her colleagues at Stanford, the Miro protein connects these outlying cases.
Author: Joshua Smith-Sreen
The recent Ebola epidemic killed more than 11,000 people and infected more than 28,000 between 2014 and 2016. The outbreak began in the early spring of 2014, when a new variant of the Ebola virus emerged in Guinea and rapidly spread throughout West Africa. This crisis prompted an immediate response from the scientific community to try to develop an effective therapy for the diversity of symptoms, from fever and weakness to bleeding from the eyes, which characterize the viral disease. Fortunately, a drug was recently found to have the potential to treat the Ebola Virus Disease, according to findings from the clinical trial PREVAIL II in the New England Journal of Medicine on October 13.
December
Author: Madeleine Jepsen
From a football team’s victory to the results of a political election, people frequently try to predict others' emotional responses to an event — a phenomenon known as affective forecasting in the social sciences.
Author: Eleanor Sheekey
The 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Fraser Stoddart, and Bernard Feringa for their pioneering work of molecular machines. The award highlights the promise of their intricate designs in a range of applications from medicine to material science.