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February 2012 |
| Welcome Visiting Professor Maynard Olson |
Maynard Olson from the University of Washington will be spending this spring semester at Duke and the IGSP as a Visiting Professor. He will be working informally on a number of research projects and will be joining in on some teaching as well.
For those of you who don't know Maynard, he is recognized as a founder of the Human Genome Project and is the recipient of the 2007 Gruber Prize in Genetics for his contributions to genome science. He chaired the initial advisory council for the US component of the Human Genome Project and served on three committees of the National Academy of Sciences, including the original one that addressed whether there should be a Human Genome Project. His latest research focuses on natural genetic variation in humans and bacteria, including the pathogen responsible for the majority of deaths in patients with cystic fibrosis. He will be at Duke until May 2012.
It is a great privilege for us to have Maynard with us for a few months, and we hope everyone - faculty and students alike - will take advantage of his being here. You might catch him at one of our many seminars or in his office in CIEMAS 2353C.
Students: a reminder that there is still time to apply for an Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship! Applications are due by February 17th. |
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New Way to Learn About - And Potentially Block - Traits in Harmful Pathogens
"Our approach marries classical microbiology techniques with 21st century genome-sequencing technologies," said Raphael Valdivia. "If you encounter a new dangerous microorganism and want to determine what genes are important, I think this represents an effective way to learn all we can, as fast as we can." Read the original study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
New Evolution
The first genomes to be sequenced revealed something surprising: On a genetic level, we’re not that different from other species—even some very distantly related ones. Greg Wray is learning that it’s not the genes that matter, Duke Magazine reports, it’s the way they are used.
Gen. Dempsey Tours Duke Labs
Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with April Brown and Chris Woods among others during a two-day visit to campus. Brown and Woods are integral to a defense-funded effort to detect viral infections based on the gene expression profiles of their human hosts.
Genes, Criminal Behavior Linked in Study
A study based in part on earlier work by Terrie Moffitt suggests that genes play a key role in determining who leads a life of crime and who stays on the straight and narrow, The Huffington Post reports.
Romeo Is Dead, But Lemur Conservation Endures
In a New York Times blog post, Anne Yoder comments on the death of "beloved Romeo," the Western Hemisphere's only successfully housed captive diademed sifaka.
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Enhancing Geneticists' Perspectives of the Public Through Community Engagement
In Genetics in Medicine, Susanne Haga, Julianne O'Daniel and colleagues discuss a public engagement program called Genome Diner intended to facilitate dialogue between researchers and middle school students and their parents.
High-Resolution Genome-Wide Analysis of Irradiated Diploid Yeast Cells Reveals a High Frequency of Genomic Loss of Heterozygosity (LOH) Events
In Genetics, Fred Dietrich is a collaborator on a study representing the first high-resolution genome-wide analysis of DNA damage-induced LOH events performed in any eukaryote.
Adenylate Cyclase 7 is Implicated in the Biology of Depression and Modulation of Affective Neural Circuitry
In Biological Psychiatry, Ahmad Hariri is an author of a report on a comparative gene array analysis that implicated ADCY7 in the modulation of mood regulatory neural mechanisms and, possibly, risk for and pathophysiology of depression.
Effect of Genetic Testing for Risk of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus on Health Behaviors and Outcomes: Study Rationale, Development and Design
In BMC Health Services Research, Geoff Ginsburg, Scott Joy, Joe Lucas, Susanne Haga, Alex Cho and colleagues report on a study they say will help establish whether providing type 2 diabetes genetic risk information in a primary care setting can help improve patients' clinical outcomes.
Centromeres Poised En Pointe: CDKs Put a Hold on CENP-A Assembly
In Developmental Cell, Beth Sullivan and Kaitlin Stimpson discuss a study showing that cyclin-dependent kinases hold the CENP-A assembly machinery in an inactive state until mitotic exit.
Integrative Systems Biology: An Attempt to Describe a Simple Weed
In Current Opinion in Plant Biology, Philip Benfey and colleagues propose that 'triangulation' among transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics is a meaningful approach to begin an integrative analysis and uncover a systems level perspective of Arabidopsis biology. |
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For details and updates on IGSP seminars and events, see the Events Calendar.
A selection of upcoming events:
Wednesday, February 1st
Systems Biology Seminar
Hunt Willard presents "Cleaning the Attic: Searching for Order, Sense and Function in 'Junk' DNA."
Thursday, February 2nd
Genomic and Personalized Medicine Forum
Lori Orlando from the Department of Medicine will present "Implementation Science as an Opportunity for Personalized Medicine."
Monday, February 6th
Computational Biology
Helen Wearing from the University of Mexico's Department of Mathematics will present "Conserved Scaling Relations in the Population Dynamics of Infectious Disease."
Tuesday, February 7th
Tuesday Seminar Series
Amy Grunden from NC State presents.
Friday, February 17th
Science & Society Journal Club
Stay tuned for details. |
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