The Caldwell Theater in Boca Raton is putting on a production of Secret Order. The play, by Bob Clyman, is set inside a Manhattan cancer research institute. NYT review (2007) is here.
Bioinformatics search engine
The Biomedical Informatics Group at the University of Madrid has released a web-based bioinformatics search engine.
Jackson Lab to receive $28 million for starters
The Collier County commission voted to move forward with $28 million in short-term funding to keep the Jackson Lab proposal moving forward. The funding is designed to allow Jackson to recruit partners and private donations to the project. Final decision on full funding is delayed.
Nanotech coatings produce 20 times more electricity from sewage
Engineers at Oregon State University have made a significant advance toward producing electricity from sewage, by the use of new coatings on the anodes of microbial electrochemical cells that increased the electricity production about 20 times.
The findings, just published online in Biosensors and Bioelectronics, bring the researchers one step closer to technology that could clean biowaste at the same time it produces useful levels of electricity – a promising new innovation in wastewater treatment and renewable energy.
Engineers found that by coating graphite anodes with a nanoparticle layer of gold, the production of electricity increased 20 times. Coatings with palladium produced an increase, but not nearly as much. And the researchers believe nanoparticle coatings of iron – which would be a lot cheaper than gold – could produce electricity increases similar to that of gold, for at least some types of bacteria.
Graphene oxide gets green
A new paper from the lab of Rice chemist James Tour demonstrates an environmentally friendly way to make bulk quantities of graphene oxide (GO), an insulating version of single-atom-thick graphene expected to find use in all kinds of material and electronic applications.
A second paper from Tour and Andreas Lüttge, a Rice professor of Earth science and chemistry, shows how GO is broken down by common bacteria that leave behind only harmless, natural graphite.
The one-two punch appears online this week in the journal ACS Nano.
A new code of conduct for researchers
A new European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity will be presented by the European Science Foundation at the World Conference on Research Integrity. The code addresses good practice and bad conduct in science, offering a basis for trust and integrity across national borders.
This Europe-wide code offers a reference point for all researchers, complementing existing codes of ethics and complying with national and European legislative frameworks. It is not intended to replace existing national or academic guidelines, but represents agreement across 30 countries on a set of principles and priorities for self-regulation of the research community. It provides a possible model for a global code of conduct for all research.
Jackson Lab partners with USF
Today The Jackson Laboratory announced that its first medical partner for the new research and education village in Collier County will be the University of South Florida, one of the nation’s fastest-growing biomedical research universities.
Jackson and USF will collaborate on a variety of initiatives to lead the nation toward personalized medicine, in which disease prevention and treatment are based on a person’s unique genetic makeup, or genome. The partnership will result in new research gains and education programs, as well as providing better health care and increased economic opportunities for the citizens of Collier County and Southwest Florida.
“Jackson is an ideal partner for USF,” said Dr. Stephen Klasko, dean of the USF College of Medicine and CEO of USF Health, which consists of USF’s Colleges of Medicine, Nursing and Public Health.
“The Laboratory’s longstanding expertise in mammalian genetics and its cutting-edge genomics research are known around the world,” Dr. Klasko said. “We want to give our students and residents an education that will help them become leaders in the new era of genomics-based personalized medicine. The possibilities for collaboration are limited only by our own imaginations.”
In turn, USF Health’s strong research environment and academic entrepreneurial model will be assets for Jackson, said Charles E. Hewett, PhD, Jackson’s vice president and chief operating officer.
Click the headline to visit the Jackson Lab news site
Version 1.0 of Microsoft Biology Foundation complete
Version 1.0 of the Microsoft Biology Foundation (MBF), which is licensed under the OSI-approved Microsoft Public License, has shipped.
MBF is a language-neutral bioinformatics toolkit built as an extension to the Microsoft .NET Framework, initially aimed at the area of Genomics research.
Currently, it implements a range of parsers for common bioinformatics file formats; a range of algorithms for manipulating DNA, RNA, and protein sequences; and a set of connectors to biological web services such as NCBI BLAST.
Biotech clusters take lumps in Fla media
Jeb Bush’s basic idea of investing “cold, hard cash” in a venture that may or may not pay off in the distant future comes under attack in this Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel editorial. Meanwhile, the Ft. Myers News-Press tallies-up Florida’s biotech investment and the payoff in jobs here with a balancing piece here. The Ft. Lauderdale piece is primarily an anti-Jeb! piece, while the News-Press laments the slow pace of job creation.
I seem to remember that the federal highway system was expensive and took a long time to complete. But it turns out that it was a pretty good investment in terms of economic impact. Well times have changed and we are solidly in the information economy. We don’t need a new interstate system, more skyscrapers and airports. In fact, some areas are now downgrading paved roads to gravel.
The future is less industrial and more information based. But expectations and mortgage payments won’t wait. There is reasonable anxiety over the time lag between investment and payoff. This generation of workers is rejecting an investment that will benefit their own grandchildren.
The Tea Party is going after virtually all public investment that does not pay off now. Florida’s biotechnology leadership must loudly, publicly defend Florida’s investment. Florida’s biotech investors must recognize that loudly, publicly creating jobs now may be their best investment. All of Florida’s biotechnology industry needs to get ahead of this public argument or become roadkill.
Effective OTC Prostate Cancer Test Kit Likely in Next Few Years
An over-the-counter prostate cancer test kit could be coming to a pharmacy near you, thanks to the collaborative work of a University of Central Florida chemist and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Orlando researchers.
UCF’s Qun “Treen” Huo and M.D. Anderson-Orlando’s Dr. Cheryl Baker and Jimmie Colon teamed up about 18 months ago with a very ambitious plan. Huo wanted to develop an effective, inexpensive test to screen for prostate cancer that would be easy enough to use at home or a local pharmacy.
Hou’s work has been awarded a $100,000 tech transfer grant to move the technology closer to reality.
