Why We Have An Appendix?
Why We Have An Appendix?
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Why We Have An Appendix?
Interview with Simon Conn: STEMterview
Have you ever wondered how to become a scientist? Watch me explain my (not so planned) career through science so far! Thanks to: Asha Patel and the Denning Lab at Nottingham University for their human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocyte image Nicholas Wragg for the diagram of his PhD project Juan Jose Guijarro Leach and his spontaneously differentiated embryonic stem cell footage
Music: Vacation Uke (Title theme), TBBT theme tune, Song 2- Blur
Dr. Zachary Ardern, Postdoctoral Fellow, at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK delivered an exciting talk on, ‘How can life evolve new genes?’. In his talk, he highlighted the importance of overlapping genes and short genes like ORFs (Open Reading Frames) in microbial genomes. He explained the so-called ORFan genes which are found only in a small group of species or in one genome. He also pointed out the overlapping genes present in the SARS-CoV-2 genome and discussed its strong selection and the dynamic evolution of novel overlapping genes which act as a factor in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
He briefly talked about different models of gene origins and tools like RNA profiling, comparative genomics, evolutionary sequence analysis, etc. He introduced a tool, ‘OLGenie’ which detects overlapping genes by analysing excess constraints. Looking at genotype-phenotype maps between single-stranded sequences and the fault in the structure is an important part of the whole region of de-novo origin. He focused on ORF3a overlapping genes in SARS-CoV-2 and on finding the correlation between different reading frames. He concluded his talk by supporting the highly dynamic behaviour of genomes over time and understanding how this happened is fundamental in biology.
Dr. Prashanth N. Suravajhala, a Principal Scientist, Systems Biology at the Amrita University, Kerala, delivered an amazing talk entitled, ‘Where are we heading as researchers post covid times? A Systems Biologist perspective’.
Throughout his talk, he emphasized seeing the pandemic as an opportunity to foster thinking and learning as a researcher. He presented three fascinating studies his lab conducted on SARS-CoV-2 with regard to its infection capability and persistence. He concluded the talk with a brief introduction to Bioclues and the need to have a work-life balance to become a better scientist.
Dr. Babak Momeni, Assistant Professor of Biology, Boston College, USA, delivered a very fascinating talk entitled ‘Harnessing microbial potentials: from protection against infections to food safety. Throughout two parts he explained the importance of studying the complexity of microbial interactions and their community structures.
In the first part, his lab employs a combination of theory and wet lab-driven approaches to answer the puzzling questions of how complex microbial interactions can be exploited to fend off the consequences of antimicrobial resistance and other infections. His lab studies the nasal microbiota trying to harness their potential in improving respiratory health. In the second part of the talk, he explained some of the efforts taken out in his lab to reduce the hazardous impact of aflatoxin on food safety.
Dr. Shikha Sharma from the Project Scientist – I and the National Institute of Plant Genome Research, New Delhi, India, delivered an exciting talk entitled ‘Bacterial Research in OMICS ERA’. In her talk, she walked us through different state-of-the-art innovations in the field of microbial research and their implications for human and plant health.
The talk gave importance to Next Generation Sequencing platforms to decipher the characteristics of biofilms or the oral microbiome.
In this video, Dr Marta Gabryelska and her daughter Kalina are chatting about the COVID-19 pandemic, the virus, infection symptoms and vaccinations. They are testing whether masks really help prevent the spread of the virus. In a fun and easy way, Marta answers all of Kalina’s questions and concerns.
Sometimes a picture can tell the whole story
Dr. Adarsh Dharan, Research Associate Professor, Loyola University Chicago, USA delivered an exciting talk titled; ‘Understanding HIV- 1 Nuclear Import’. He discussed the cytoplasmic trafficking and nuclear import of HIV-1 genomes during infection and several other factors associated with their entries into the nucleus by showing these nuclear import kinetics during infection in a number of cell lines.
He further explained that, unlike other previous studies, reverse transcription is not a process that is completed in the cytoplasm but still an ongoing process once the nuclear import is even done. He presented his study confirming the presence of assembled capsids inside the nucleus and also the functional role of these capsids there.
