Genes for Radiation Sensitivity

Published by Howard Hughes Medical Institute on April 06, 2009  :

HHMI researchers have identified a group of genes that influence a person's sensitivity to radiation. The findings are a step toward a long term goal of developing new tests that would help physicians determine the optimal dosage of radiation for cancer treatment based on a person's genetic profile.

• "This study identifies a set of genetic variants that influence how a cell responds to radiation induced damage," said Vivian G Cheung.
• "Now that we know these genetic variations, we hope to build predictors that tell us who is more sensitive to radiation, so that we can decrease dose of radiation therapy to avoid damaging normal tissue," said Cheung an HHMI investigator at the Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania and the University of Pennsylvania. Cheung  who is physician-scientist, was interested in how ionizing radiation induces damage in DNA, she said she was surprised that so little is know about why people differ in the amount of damage they sustain when exposed to radiation.
• Cheung and colleagues used human cell lines as proxies, exposing them to a standard radiation dose and noting which cells survived and which was killed. The cell lines had been previously developed from cells  collected from 15 families in Utah and represented about 150 individuals with well documented pedigrees.
• The scientists used microarrays designed to analyze the activity of more than 10,000 genes to take snapshots of gene expression in the cells prior to radiation exposure, and at two and six hours after exposure. After those studies, the researchers narrowed their focus to 3,280 genes whose expression went up or down by at least 50 percent.
• Among those genes, some were already know to have roles in repairing DNA damage, regulating the cell cycle or apoptosis.
• Each pattern of gene expression change in an individual's cells represented an inborn "phenotype", indicating sensitivity to radiation. In experiment the sensitivity was a function of whether the cell survived or were killed by the dose of radiation
• The radiation-response genes the team identified had been catalogued in the Human Genome Project, so their locatiions within the genome were known. But the activity of each gene was controlled by a switch-like bit of regulatory DNA. Variation in these regulatory sequences accounted for the differences in radiation response from one person to another.
•  The location of these regulators were not know.Researcher knew that some of the sequence might be within the genes themselves whereas others could be nearby or even on another chromosome.
  
• Using computational analysis, the scientists identified more than 1,250 phenotypes that segregated in certain families, however the locations were not pinpoints but long stretches of genetic material. To narrow down the search further they used " text mining".
• In addition, the team also used RNA interference to turn down the gene regulators.
• Cheung and her team found a set of 18 radiation-response genes, five of which were regulated by DNA sequence within or in neighboring the genes-so called cis regulators and 13 that were controlled by distant DNA sequences- trans regulators.
• As the researchers expected, a number of the regulatory sequence proved to be transcription factors, which bind to genes and turn their activity up or down. But to their surprise, the majority turned out not to be transcription factors. "And yet they still influence gene expression, so we are now trying to find out how they regulate gene expression levels," says Cheung.

Early warning for Dementia

from BBC.co.uk; published on  April 6, 2009

Heightened activity in an area of the brain that deals with memory may give a subtle early warning of dementia decade later, UK research suggests.

• It was known that carrying a rogue version of a gene called ApoE4 raised the risk of Alzheimer's disease. Now researchers have linked the same mutation with raised activity in an area of the brain called hippocampus in people as young as 20. 
  
• The researchers from Oxford University and Imperial College London, believe over activity in the hippocampus may effectively wear it out, raising the risk of dementia in later life.
  
• They hope their work could be a first step towards developing a simple method to identify people at increased risk of developing dementia.
  
• They could then potentially be offered early treatment and lifestyle advice.
  
• Carrying one copy of the rogue ApoE4 gene raises the risk of Alzheimer's by up to four times the normal, two copies by up to 10 times.
• But not everyone with the rogue gene will develop the condition. Researcher Dr. Clare Mackay said: "These are exciting first steps towards a tantalising prospect , a simple test that will be able to distinguish who will go on to develop Alzheimer's."
•  It take us a step closer to accurately predicting who will develop Alzheimer's before any symptoms become apparent.
• "The causes of Alzheimer's are complex both genetic and environmental and if we can understand these better , we can enhance efforts to help people lower their risks". "This study paves the way for further research that could help us understand how brain function in younger adults may contribute to the development of Alzheimer's disease later in life." said by Rebecca  Wood of the Alzheimer's Research Trust and Professor Clive Ballard director of research at the Alzheimer's Society respectively.

CSIR-UGC-NET?

SYLLABUS FOR LIFE SCIENCES
PAPER I AND PAPER II

1. MOLECULES AND THEIR INTERACTION RELAVENT TO BIOLOGY
A. Structure of atoms, molecules and chemical bonds.
B. Composition, structure and function of biomolecules (carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, nucleic acids and vitamins).
C. Stablizing interactions (Van der Waals, electrostatic, hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic interaction, etc.).
D. Principles of biophysical chemistry (pH, buffer, reaction kinetics, thermodynamics, colligative properties).
E. Bioenergetics, glycolysis, oxidative phosphorylation, coupled reaction, group transfer, biological energy transducers.
F. Principles of catalysis, enzymes and enzyme kinetics, enzyme regulation, mechanism of enzyme catalysis, isozymes.
G. Conformation of proteins (Ramachandran plot, secondary, tertiary and quaternary structure; domains; motif and folds).
H. Conformation of nucleic acids (A-, B-, Z-,DNA), t-RNA, micro-RNA).
I. Stability of protein and nucleic acid structures.
J. Metabolism of carbohydrates, lipids, amino acids, nucleotides and vitamins.
2. CELLULAR ORGANIZATION
A. Membrane structure and function: Structure of model membrane, lipid bilayer and membrane protein diffusion, osmosis, ion channels, active transport, ion pumps, mechanism of sorting and regulation of intracellular transport, electrical properties of membranes.
B. Structural organization and function of intracellular organelles: Cell wall, nucleus, mitochondria, Golgi bodies, lysosomes, endoplasmic reticulum, peroxisomes, plastids, vacuoles, chloroplast, structure & function of cytoskeleton and its role in motility.
C. Organization of genes and chromosomes: Operon, interrupted genes, gene families, structure of chromatin and chromosomes, unique and repetitive DNA, heterochromatin, euchromatin, transposons.
D. Cell division and cell cycle: Mitosis and meiosis, their regulation, steps in cell cycle, and control of cell cycle.
E. Microbial Physiology: Growth, yield and characteristics, strategies of cell division, stress response.
3. FUNDAMENTAL PROCESSES
A. DNA replication, repair and recombination: Unit of replication, enzymes involved, replication origin and replication fork, fidelity of replication, extrachromosomal replicons, DNA damage and repair mechanisms.
B. RNA synthesis and processing: Transcription factors and machinery, formation of initiation complex, transcription activators and repressors, RNA polymerases, capping, elongation and termination, RNA processing, RNA editing, splicing, polyadenylation, structure and function of different types of RNA, RNA transport.
C. Protein synthesis and processing: Ribosome, formation of initiation complex, initiation factors and their regulation, elongation and elongation factors, termination, genetic code, aminoacylation of tRNA, tRNA-identity, aminoacyl tRNA synthetase, translational proof-reading, translational inhibitors, post- translational modification of proteins.
D. Control of gene expression at transcription and translation level: Regulation of phages, viruses, prokaryotic and eukaryotic gene expression, role of chromatin in regulating gene expression and gene silencing.
4. CELL COMMUNICATION AND CELL SIGNALING
A. Host parasite interaction: Recognition and entry processes of different pathogens like bacteria, viruses into animal and plant host cells, alteration of host cell behavior by pathogens, virus-induced cell transformation, pathogen-induced diseases in animals and plants, cell-cell fusion in both normal and abnormal cells.
B. Cell signaling: Hormones and their receptors, cell surface receptor, signaling through G-protein coupled receptors, signal transduction pathways, second messengers, regulation of signaling pathways, bacterial and plant two-component signaling systems, bacterial chemotaxis and quorum sensing.
C. Cellular communication: Regulation of hematopoiesis, general principles of cell communication, cell adhesion and roles of different adhesion molecules, gap junctions, extracellular matrix, integrins, neurotransmission and its regulation.
D. Cancer: Genetic rearrangements in progenitor cells, oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes, cancer and the cell cycle, virus-induced cancer, metastasis, interaction of cancer cells with normal cells, apoptosis, therapeutic interventions of uncontrolled cell growth.
E. Innate and adaptive immune system: Cells and molecules involved in innate and adaptive immunity, antigens, antigenicity and immunogenicity. B and T cell epitopes, structure and function of antibody molecules, generation of antibody diversity, monoclonal antibodies, antibody engineering, antigen-antibody interactions, MHC molecules, antigen processing and presentation, activation and differentiation of B and T cells, B and T cell receptors, humoral and cell-mediated immune responses, primary and secondary immune modulation, the complement system, Toll-like receptors, cell-mediated effector functions, inflammation, hypersensitivity and autoimmunity, immune response during bacterial (tuberculosis), parasitic (malaria) and viral (HIV) infections, congenital and acquired immunodeficiencies, vaccines.
5. DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY
A. Basic concepts of development: Potency, commitment, specification, induction, competence, determination and differentiation; morphogenetic gradients; cell fate and cell lineages; stem cells; genomic equivalence and the cytoplasmic determinants; imprinting; mutants and transgenics in analysis of development.
B. Gametogenesis, fertilization and early development: Production of gametes, cell surface molecules in sperm-egg recognition in animals; embryo sac development and double fertilization in plants; zygote formation, cleavage, blastula formation, embryonic fields, gastrulation and formation of germ layers in animals; embryogenesis, establishment of symmetry in plants; seed formation and germination.
C. Morphogenesis and organogenesis in animals: Cell aggregation and differentiation in Dictyostelium; axes and pattern formation in Drosophila, amphibia and chick; organogenesis – vulva formation in Caenorhabditis elegans; eye lens induction, limb development and regeneration in vertebrates; differentiation of neurons, post embryonic development-larval formation, metamorphosis; environmental regulation of normal development; sex determination.
D. Morphogenesis and organogenesis in plants: Organization of shoot and root apical meristem; shoot and root development; leaf development and phyllotaxy; transition to flowering, floral meristems and floral development in Arabidopsis and Antirrhinum.
E. Programmed cell death, aging and senescence.
6. SYSTEM PHYSIOLOGY - PLANT
A. Photosynthesis: Light harvesting complexes; mechanisms of electron transport; photoprotective mechanisms; CO2 fixation-C3, C4 and CAM pathways.
B. Respiration and photorespiration: Citric acid cycle; plant mitochondrial electron transport and ATP synthesis; alternate oxidase; photorespiratory pathway.
C. Nitrogen metabolism: Nitrate and ammonium assimilation; amino acid biosynthesis.
D. Plant hormones: Biosynthesis, storage, breakdown and transport; physiological effects and mechanisms of action.
E. Sensory photobiology: Structure, function and mechanisms of action of phytochromes, cryptochromes and phototropins; stomatal movement; photoperiodism and biological clocks.
F. Solute transport and photoassimilate translocation: Uptake, transport and translocation of water, ions, solutes and macromolecules from soil, through cells, across membranes, through xylem and phloem; transpiration; mechanisms of loading and unloading of photoassimilates.
G. Secondary metabolites - Biosynthesis of terpenes, phenols and nitrogenous compounds and their roles.
H. Stress physiology: Responses of plants to biotic (pathogen and insects) and abiotic (water, temperature and salt) stresses; mechanisms of resistance to biotic stress and tolerance to abiotic stress
7. SYSTEM PHYSIOLOGY - ANIMAL
A. Blood and circulation: Blood corpuscles, haemopoiesis and formed elements, plasma function, blood volume, blood volume regulation, blood groups, haemoglobin, immunity, haemostasis.
B. Cardiovascular System: Comparative anatomy of heart structure, myogenic heart, specialized tissue, ECG – its principle and significance, cardiac cycle, heart as a pump, blood pressure, neural and chemical regulation of all above.
C. Respiratory system: Comparison of respiration in different species, anatomical considerations, transport of gases, exchange of gases, waste elimination, neural and chemical regulation of respiration.
D. Nervous system: Neurons, action potential, gross neuroanatomy of the brain and spinal cord, central and peripheral nervous system, neural control of muscle tone and posture.
E. Sense organs: Vision, hearing and tactile response.
F. Excretory system: Comparative physiology of excretion, kidney, urine formation, urine concentration, waste elimination, micturition, regulation of water balance, blood volume, blood pressure, electrolyte balance, acid-base balance.
G. Thermoregulation: Comfort zone, body temperature – physical, chemical, neural regulation, acclimatization.
H. Stress and adaptation
I. Digestive system: Digestion, absorption, energy balance, BMR.
J. Endocrinology and reproduction: Endocrine glands, basic mechanism of hormone action, hormones and diseases; reproductive processes, neuroendocrine regulation.
8. INHERITANCE BIOLOGY
A. Mendelian principles: Dominance, segregation, independent assortment, deviation from Mendelian inheritance.
B. Concept of gene: Allele, multiple alleles, pseudoallele, complementation tests.
C. Extensions of Mendelian principles: Codominance, incomplete dominance, gene interactions, pleiotropy, genomic imprinting, penetrance and expressivity, phenocopy, linkage and crossing over, sex linkage, sex limited and sex influenced characters.
D. Gene mapping methods: Linkage maps, tetrad analysis, mapping with molecular markers, mapping by using somatic cell hybrids, development of mapping population in plants.
E. Extra chromosomal inheritance: Inheritance of mitochondrial and chloroplast genes, maternal inheritance.
F. Microbial genetics: Methods of genetic transfers – transformation, conjugation, transduction and sex-duction, mapping genes by interrupted mating, fine structure analysis of genes.
G. Human genetics: Pedigree analysis, lod score for linkage testing, karyotypes, genetic disorders.
H. Quantitative genetics: Polygenic inheritance, heritability and its measurements, QTL mapping.
I. Mutation: Types, causes and detection, mutant types – lethal, conditional, biochemical, loss of function, gain of function, germinal verses somatic mutants, insertional mutagenesis.
J. Structural and numerical alterations of chromosomes: Deletion, duplication, inversion, translocation, ploidy and their genetic implications.
K. Recombination: Homologous and non-homologous recombination, including transposition, site-specific recombination.
9. DIVERSITY OF LIFE FORMS
A. Principles and methods of taxonomy:Concepts of species and hierarchical taxa, biological nomenclature, classical and quantititative methods of taxonomy of plants, animals and microorganisms.
B. Levels of structural organization: Unicellular, colonial and multicellular forms; levels of organization of tissues, organs and systems; comparative anatomy.
C. Outline classification of plants, animals and microorganisms:Important criteria used for classification in each taxon; classification of plants, animals and microorganisms; evolutionary relationships among taxa.
D. Natural history of Indian subcontinent: Major habitat types of the subcontinent, geographic origins and migrations of species; common Indian mammals, birds; seasonality and phenology of the subcontinent.
E. Organisms of health and agricultural importance: Common parasites and pathogens of humans, domestic animals and crops.
10. ECOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES
A. The Environment: Physical environment; biotic environment; biotic and abiotic interactions.
B. Habitat and niche: Concept of habitat and niche; niche width and overlap; fundamental and realized niche; resource partitioning; character displacement.
　
C. Population ecology: Characteristics of a population; population growth curves; population regulation; life history strategies (r and K selection); concept of metapopulation – demes and dispersal, interdemic extinctions, age structured populations.
D. Species interactions: Types of interactions, interspecific competition, herbivory, carnivory, pollination, symbiosis.
E. Community ecology: Nature of communities; community structure and attributes; levels of species diversity and its measurement; edges and ecotones.
F. Ecological succession: Types; mechanisms; changes involved in succession; concept of climax.
G. Ecosystem: Structure and function; energy flow and mineral cycling (CNP); primary production and decomposition; structure and function of some Indian ecosystems: terrestrial (forest, grassland) and aquatic (fresh water, marine, eustarine).
H. Biogeography: Major terrestrial biomes; theory of island biogeography; biogeographical zones of India.
I. Applied ecology: Environmental pollution; global environmental change; biodiversity-status, monitoring and documentation; major drivers of biodiversity change; biodiversity management approaches.
J. Conservation biology: Principles of conservation, major approaches to management, Indian case studies on conservation/management strategy (Project Tiger, Biosphere reserves).
11. EVOLUTION AND BEHAVIOUR
A. Emergence of evolutionary thoughts: Lamarck; Darwin–concepts of variation, adaptation, struggle, fitness and natural selection; Mendelism; spontaneity of mutations; the evolutionary synthesis.
B. Origin of cells and unicellular evolution: Origin of basic biological molecules; abiotic synthesis of organic monomers and polymers; concept of Oparin and Haldane; experiment of Miller (1953); the first cell; evolution of prokaryotes; origin of eukaryotic cells; evolution of unicellular eukaryotes; anaerobic metabolism, photosynthesis and aerobic metabolism.
C. Paleontology and evolutionary history: The evolutionary time scale; eras, periods and epoch; major events in the evolutionary time scale; origins of unicellular and multicellular organisms; major groups of plants and animals; stages in primate evolution including Homo.
D. Molecular Evolution: Concepts of neutral evolution, molecular divergence and molecular clocks; molecular tools in phylogeny, classification and identification; protein and nucleotide sequence analysis; origin of new genes and proteins; gene duplication and divergence.
E. The Mechanisms: Population genetics – populations, gene pool, gene frequency; Hardy-Weinberg law; concepts and rate of change in gene frequency through natural selection, migration and random genetic drift; adaptive radiation and modifications; isolating mechanisms; speciation; allopatricity and sympatricity; convergent evolution; sexual selection; co-evolution.
F. Brain, Behavior and Evolution: Approaches and methods in study of behavior; proximate and ultimate causation; altruism and evolution-group selection, kin selection, reciprocal altruism; neural basis of learning, memory, cognition, sleep and arousal; biological clocks; development of behavior; social communication; social dominance; use of space and territoriality; mating systems, parental investment and reproductive success; parental care; aggressive behavior; habitat selection and optimality in foraging; migration, orientation and navigation; domestication and behavioral changes.
12. APPLIED BIOLOGY:
A. Microbial fermentation and production of small and macro molecules.
B. Application of immunological principles (vaccines, diagnostics). tissue and cell culture methods for plants and animals.
C. Transgenic animals and plants, molecular approaches to diagnosis and strain identification.
D. Genomics and its application to health and agriculture, including gene therapy.
E. Bioresource and uses of biodiversity.
F. Breeding in plants and animals, including marker – assisted selection.
G. Bioremediation and phytoremediation.
H. Biosensors.
13. METHODS IN BIOLOGY
A. Molecular biology and recombinant DNA methods: Isolation and purification of RNA , DNA (genomic and plasmid) and proteins, different separation methods; analysis of RNA, DNA and proteins by one and two dimensional gel electrophoresis, isoelectric focusing gels; molecular cloning of DNA or RNA fragments in bacterial and eukaryotic systems; expression of recombinant proteins using bacterial, animal and plant vectors; isolation of specific nucleic acid sequences; generation of genomic and cDNA libraries in plasmid, phage, cosmid, BAC and YAC vectors; in vitro mutagenesis and deletion techniques, gene knock out in bacterial and eukaryotic organisms; protein sequencing methods, detection of post-translation modification of proteins; DNA sequencing methods, strategies for genome sequencing; methods for analysis of gene expression at RNA and protein level, large scale expression analysis, such as micro array based techniques; isolation, separation and analysis of carbohydrate and lipid molecules; RFLP, RAPD and AFLP techniques
B. Histochemical and immunotechniques: Antibody generation, detection of molecules using ELISA, RIA, western blot, immunoprecipitation, floweytometry and immunofluorescence microscopy, detection of molecules in living cells, in situ localization by techniques such as FISH and GISH.
C. Biophysical methods: Analysis of biomolecules using UV/visible, fluorescence, circular dichroism, NMR and ESR spectroscopy, structure determination using X-ray diffraction and NMR; analysis using light scattering, different types of mass spectrometry and surface plasma resonance methods.
D. Statistical Methods: Measures of central tendency and dispersal; probability distributions (Binomial, Poisson and normal); sampling distribution; difference between parametric and non-parametric statistics; confidence interval; errors; levels of significance; regression and correlation; t-test; analysis of variance; X2 test;; basic introduction to Muetrovariate statistics, etc.
E. Radiolabeling techniques: Properties of different types of radioisotopes normally used in biology, their detection and measurement; incorporation of radioisotopes in biological tissues and cells, molecular imaging of radioactive material, safety guidelines.
F. Microscopic techniques: Visulization of cells and subcellular components by light microscopy, resolving powers of different microscopes, microscopy of living cells, scanning and transmission microscopes, different fixation and staining techniques for EM, freeze-etch and freeze-fracture methods for EM, image processing methods in microscopy.
G. Electrophysiological methods: Single neuron recording, patch-clamp recording, ECG, Brain activity recording, lesion and stimulation of brain, pharmacological testing, PET, MRI, fMRI, CAT .
H. Methods in field biology: Methods of estimating population density of animals and plants, ranging patterns through direct, indirect and remote observations, sampling methods in the study of behavior, habitat characterization-ground and remote sensing methods.
I. Computational methods: Nucleic acid and protein sequence databases; data mining methods for sequence analysis, web-based tools for sequence searches, motif analysis and presentation.

SCHEME OF EXAMINATION
LIFE SCIENCES

The Joint CSIR-UGC JRF/LS (NET) Examination shall comprise 2 papers:
PAPER I:
This paper shall be of 2 hours and 30 minutes duration and shall have a maximum of 200 marks.
Part ‘A’ of Paper I shall contain 40 General Science questions. These questions shall be common to all subject areas of NET Examination. A candidate shall be required to answer a maximum of 25 questions from Part ‘A’. In case, a candidate answers more than 25 questions, only the first 25 answered questions will be taken up for evaluation.
Part ‘B’ of Paper I shall have 100 questions. A candidate shall be required to answer a maximum of 75 questions. In case a candidate answers more than 75 questions, only the first 75 answered questions shall be evaluated.
All questions shall be of two marks each. There will be negative marking for wrong answers.
PAPER II:
This paper shall be of 2 hours and 30 minutes duration and shall have a maximum of 200 marks
This Paper shall consist of 39-45 short answer type questions requiring descriptive answers. To answer each question, a candidate will be provided one page each.
There shall be one compulsory question of twenty Marks. In addition to the compulsory question, the candidate is required to answer a maximum of 15 questions of twelve marks each .

Graduating In Recession?

Published in Wall Street Journal on March 30, 2009;

Graduating With a Major in Go-Getting  :-

Many college students graduating this spring haven't been so lucky to get good job. That's no one surprise given that the number of U.S. job openings sank to below three million in January, according to the Labor Department, the lowest level since 2000.

Worse, employers recruiting on college campuses expect to hire about 22% fewer graduates from this year's class than last year's, according to a new report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

Still, career experts say graduates have some advantages over senior professionals:-

• Youth Has Advantages:

1. Newbie grads are less expensive than job seekers with a few years of work experience. In this economic conditions, getting more for less is an attractive option for many firms. While new graduates might not have the breadth of experience, they usually are wiling to work hard and do what's required to get ahead, says Kerri Day Keller, director Career Services at Kansas State University.
2. Recent graduates tend to be more flexible than more established workers. Without the burden of a mortgage, a spouse and children.
3. Young people tend to be more open to alternatives than professionals already on a well worn career path and would be smart to look at finance jobs outside of banking like at a hospital or transportation company.
4. Don't rule out internships even though they are temporary and pay little or nothing. They are something few experienced workers can afford to pursue. It's a great way to get your foot in the door of a company. This can give graduating students new skills, a broader network and a way to set themselves apart from others. And if the job market improves, an intern who was well regarded is in a good position to be hired.

• Be Creative:

1. College grads need to be more creative than their experienced counterparts. In your resume, focus on and give specifics of the things you have done or accomplished. Do not just describe the position. You shall also want to broaden your definition of experience and highlight it. Mention your internships, sports and volunteer activities. Describe actions and accomplishments that show leadership skills and initiative. If you were the treasurer for your college student government, highlight the size of the budget you managed and any results you delivered.
2. More critical is a strong network of mentors and contacts. It's practically impossible to land a job today without some kind of professional connection. Young people have had less time to build contacts, which means reaching out in unconventional ways. Ask the friends of your parents for advice and information but not a job. Tap your alumni databases to find people at companies you did like to work with. And join networking sites like Linkedln.com to foster relationships with professionals who can get your resume in front of decision makers.

• Reach Out to the Industry:

1. You should attend industry conferences; introduce yourself to more experienced attendees and request their business cards.
2. Email new contacts with your resume.
3. Ask for 20 minutes of their time to get feedback and suggestions on how to move forward with your job search.
4. Introduce yourself to marketing people manning the booths to find out if any company recruiters were in attendance.(I am here today trying to sell myself).

Tips to reduce depression

• Sweat exercise: Do any form of aerobic exercise - such as brisk walking, biking, or running in place—until you work up a healthy sweat.

• Turn on your favorite music and dance, dance, dance—until you work up a sweat.

• Sing in the shower.

• Instead of listening to the radio or talking on your cell phone, roll up the car windows and sing loudly.

• Get a dog or other pet—or simply visit a pet store to boost your spirits.

• Plant and tend a garden—an herb garden takes up very little space.

• If you are really upset, take a brisk walk and focus exclusively on the physical and emotional sensations you experience in your body. Stay out of your head—no thoughts allowed!

• Rent funny videos or see funny movies and plays.

• Go to the store and read all the humorous greeting cards.

• Treat your self to a great cup of coffee—if you take half-decaf and half regular, you can have two cups a day (too much caffeine can bring you down, but one cup is safe enough).

• Let nature bring you up—walk by the ocean or other waterways, hike the hills and forests.

• Draw, paint, or write.

• Avoid foods that zap your energy—for most people, sugar and pasta can be downers.

• Give yourself a hand or foot massage, or go get a back rub or body massage.

• Take a hot bubble bath with candles and music in the room.

Stem Cells and Heart Diseases?

Published in Technology Review on March 21, 2007 By Emily Singer:-

So far, clinical studies have produced mixed results, but a new set of trials aim to sort out the best approaches to therapy.

• It's a tantalizing thought, injecting stem cells isolated from a person's own blood into an ailing heart in hopes of repairing years of accumulated decay. The trails have yielded mixed results, creating controversy over various aspects of the treatment, the type of cells that are used, the way they are delivered and when in the course of the disease they are given.
• "If it work, it could revolutionize cardiology, says Amish Raval , cardiologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who is running a stem cell trial for heart failure.
• Nearly five million people in the US have heart failure caused by damage to the heart that interferes with its ability to pump blood and nearly a million people suffer heart attacks each year. Heart diseases accounts for one in every 2.8 deaths in US.
• Those people who fail on traditional medication or mechanical therapies, stem cells may have the potential to improve on that. Scientists must determine the best cells to transplant , the best way to prepare cells and when and how they should be delivered.
• The result of stem cell trials for heart disease till date were mixed, some studies found moderate improvements in a few measures of heart function, but none were able to show a clear health benefit.
• The variability comes from different methods used to purify the stem cells. As bone marrow contains two types of stem cells 1- Blood forming Stem Cells-give rise to blood cells; 2- Mesenchymal Stem Cells- give rise to muscle and bone.
• Previous trials have used a mixture of these two types of cells, some scientists think that isolating one or other cell type from mix will boost healing power to heart. "So selecting cells with therapeutic potential is a better idea, "says Raval.
• A specific type of blood forming stem cell will be injected directly into the heart muscle rather infusing the cells, that will boost growth of new blood vessels thereby increasing blood flow to the heart. "With heart failure, we think is loss of microvasculature( the smallest blood vessels), that's what we are trying to treat with the cells," says Douglas Losordo, director Cardiovascular Research Instituteat Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
• While all the human trials to date have used adult stem cells, scientists are not giving up on the potential of embryonic stem cells. These cells are easier to grow and manipulate. They have already been able to push embryonic stem cells to develop into clusters of heart cells that can actually beat and they are now testing different cell types for their healing power.

WiMax in India?

 Publish by Business Week(12.40.08) and fobes( 03.04.08):-

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/mar2008/gb20080312_479990.htm?campaign_id=rss_tech

http://www.forbes.com/2008/03/04/india-wimax-mobile-tech-wire-cx_ew_0304india.html

Tata Communications unveils an ambitious plan to become global leader in wireless broadband by launching the world's largest commercial network.

•  On Mar. 4, 2008 India's Tata Communications , an emerging broadband player, announced the countrywide rollout of a commercial WiMax network, the largest anywhere in the world of the high-speed, wireless broadband technology.
  
• Already 10 Indian cities and 5,000 retail and business customers use the product, and by next year Tata will offer service in 115 cities nationwide. The folks at Tata can hardly contain their excitement. "WiMax is not experimental, it's oven-hot," says Tata's Prateek Pashine, in charge of the company's broadband and retail business.
  
• Tata Communications, aims to blanket India in WiMax, a super-speedy version of wireless broadband, by March 2009. The plan will cost more than $100 million and span 115 Indian cities. 
• The goal: to provide 20 million broadband connections by 2010, a target set by the Indian government.
  
• The wireless technology is fast, covers broad areas, penetrates buildings well and can be rolled out rapidly. Tata is further speeding up the process by mounting WiMax equipment on cellular towers owned by its sister company, carrier Tata Teleservices.
• Intel, whose silicon chips power WiMax,  "The more countries and telcos that get behind this technology the better," says R. Sivakumar, chief executive of Intel South Asia. 
  
• It has used the technology from Telsima, a Sunnyvale (Calif.) maker of WiMax base-stations and the leading WiMax tech provider in the world. For now, the technology will be restricted to fixed wireless, but Tata plans to make it mobile by midyear. 
• The company has invested about $100 million in the project, which will increase to $500 million over the next four years as it begins to near its goal of having 50 million subscribers in India.
  
• "If it doesn't succeed in India, it will be difficult [for it to succeed] anywhere else. In fact, even with as many as seven broadband providers in the market, the total Indian subscriber base is just 3.2 million and there is no clear market leader. But with the WiMax rollout Tata can gain a leadership position and add "a few thousand subscribers a day," says Alok Sharma, chief executive of Telsima.
  
• But also important is the ordinary Indian retail customer who can watch movies via WiMax and enjoy Tata's other unique offerings. For instance, users can take in an early morning worship service at the famous Balaji temple in South India. The temple permitted Tata to install cameras so that Hindu devotees from around the world could watch the proceedings in the temple around the clock. To get connected initially, users will simply have to go to a store, buy a router, install it, and then they become instantly connected. It will be as easy as buying apples, Tata executives promise.
  
• Access will cost about $25 a month.
  

Stanford Imposes Deeper Cuts

Updated March 10, 2009:-

http://harvardmagazine.com/breaking-news/stanford-imposes-deeper-cuts-too

citing worsening economic and financial conditions, Stanford’s provost, John Etchemendy, has told that University’s faculty senate that deeper budget reductions would be required.

• In a presentation on March 5, the provost announced that Stanford’s $800-million “general funds budget” would be trimmed by nearly $100 million for the fiscal year beginning on September 1.
  
• Schools that depend heavily on their own endowed funds will, of course, see declines in these revenues comparable to the general funds decline”—which he indicated would be 15 percent across the board.
  
• Stanford derives $900 million from endowment distributions for its annual operating revenues; at Harvard, the comparable figure is approximately $1.4 billion currently
  
• The new decision represents an acceleration of plans put in place last fall, when Stanford foresaw a $100-million reduction phased in during the next two fiscal years, and means that the budget is to be reduced about $30 million more in the first year than recently anticipated
  
•  To achieve the goal, Stanford will now impose a salary freeze for the fiscal year, a step it had not previously planned to take.
  
• Stanford said that its general-funds budget—for faculty and staff salaries, administrative operations, and non-research expenses—would need to be reduced $45 million in the 2009-2010 fiscal year, with further reductions of equal magnitude in the following year
  
• “Since the endowment is the university’s primary source of investment income, the result will be a long-term decrease in university revenue,” even though Stanford, unlike Harvard, is in the middle of a multi billion-dollar capital campaign (as are Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale; Brown, Dartmouth, and Princeton are conducting somewhat smaller campaigns), which has helped bring in significant new cash and pledges: 
• Stanford reported raising $785 million in fiscal year 2008.

Sight After Stroke ?

March 31 (Bloomberg):-

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=aO3GPH0N9bKE&refer=science

Patients who are partially blinded by a stroke can recover some vision by retraining their brains with vigorous eye exercises, a study showed.

• Strokes occur when the blood flow to the brain stops. They can be caused by a blood clot that blocks a blood vessel in the brain or by a blood vessel that breaks and bleeds in the brain, according to the National Institutes of Health.
  
• The patients who engaged in the exercises on a computer every day for nine to 18 months were able to improve their vision significantly, research reported in  Journal of Neuroscience found.
  
• The findings show that doctors may finally have a way to help stroke victims regain some lost sight in addition to improving speech and movement, said the lead study author, Krystel Huxlin. More research is needed to confirm the findings, she said.
  
• Strokes each year afflict about 795,000 people in the U.S., according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 
  
• The condition kills more than 143,000 people, making it the third-largest cause of death, behind heart disease and cancer, and the leading cause of serious, long-term disability in the U.S., according to the American Heart Association.
  
• Researchers studied seven people who had suffered a stroke that damaged the part of the brain known as the primary visual cortex.Five completed the study, while two were used as controls and didn’t receive the visual exercises.
  
• Those with damage to the primary visual cortex often can’t drive, read or do ordinary chores like shopping. The damage can cause blindness in one-quarter to half of the normal field of view, making any objects left or right of center appear gray or dark.
  
• The goal of the study was to see if the area of the brain that focuses on motion perception could be stimulated enough.
  
• Participants in the study stared at a small black square in the middle of a computer screen while every few seconds a group of about 100 small dots appeared on the screen somewhere in the area relevant to where the person’s vision was damaged.
  
• The patients’ brains initially couldn’t process that the dots were present, although their eyes were taking in the information. 
  
• After daily exercises of 15 to 30 minutes once or twice a day, the patients’ brains began to process the information, allowing them to become aware of the dots, the authors said. The researchers then moved the dots further into the blind areas, to help improve sight even more.
  
• It can take up to two months to retrain the brain to see one part of the blind area.

Harvard May Cut Capital Spend

 Published by Bloomberg. com:-

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=a5m_yEduje2E&refer=science#

 Harvard University is planning to cut yearly capital spending by as much as half as it faces a 30 percent drop in its endowment.

• Harvard, the world’s richest school, may slice a four-year, $4 billion spending plan to $2 billion to help it weather the recession, according to a Moody’s Investors Service report.
  
• Harvard is already cutting its budget, freezing hiring and offering early retirement to some staff, after its $36.9 billion endowment lost $8 billion in the four months ended Oct. 31.
  
• The cut, as much as $500 million a year, sets back the university’s plan, initiated 10 years ago, to expand its main campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, across the Charles River in Boston.
  
• The Moody’s report reviewed Harvard’s $5.8 billion in debt, including $2.5 billion in bonds the university sold in December and January.
  
• The university broke ground early last year on its construction in Boston’s Allston section. The complex, on 8.5 acres, is set to house the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, the Department of Developmental and Regenerative Biology, and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, bringing together scientists from Cambridge and Harvard Medical School.
  
• The Harvard School of Public Health is also expected to occupy part of the complex. Harvard has estimated that as many as 1,000 people would work there. The construction is part of a plan to expand over the next 50 years on about 250 acres of land the school bought in Allston.
  
• In the meantime, the Stem Cell Institute and other departments targeted for the new location are being put in other university buildings in Cambridge and Boston.
  
• The school is facing other financial pressures. Undergraduate financial aid has doubled to $147 million since 2004. The Faculty of Arts and Science -- which has about $1.2 billion in debt, largely to pay for the construction of laboratory space costing about $800 million -- pays about $85 million annually in debt service, Harvard Magazine said in December.
  
• The university’s long-term target for its so-called endowment spend rate would “remain between 5 percent and 5.5 percent, with the university further adjusting spending levels” in 2011 and 2012 “to bring spending back in line with target funding,” Moody’s said.
  

Yale University have the same measures:-

• Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut on Feb. 24 postponed $2 billion in construction projects as well as reduced budgets and curtailed raises for employees after projecting a 25 percent drop in its $22.9 billion endowment for the year ending June 30.
  

Caffeine Cuts Workout Pain

Published in Scientific American Podcast:-

http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=bed-bugs-transmit-bites-and-angst-b-2009-04-01&sc=DD_20090402

Coffee before biking? You may have to stop on the side of the road sooner, but new research suggests that caffeine can help you get more bang from your workout buck, because it keep you from feeling the burn.

• A study published in the April issue of the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism.
  
• Researchers had 25 subjects engage into tow bouts of high intensity cycling. Before each session, they gave every subject a pill.
• One time, the pill contained the equivalent of two or three cups of coffee. The other time it was just a placebo.
• The participants all said they felt less pain in their leg muscles during the caffeine-assisted workout than they did with the sugar pill.

World's largest laser completed

Published in Scientific American:

http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=worlds-largest-laser-nif-2009-04-01&sc=DD_20090402

• The US Department of Energy has announced that the world's biggest laser is ready to start blasting away after 12 years in the making. 
• The $3.5 billion stadium size National Ignition Facility housed at Lawrence Livermore California consist of 192 separate beams, each of which stands as the most energetic ever built.
  
• The beams will focus on a single point to unleash their full, joint potential. The target : a BB size pellet of frozen hydrogen in the center of a 33 foot(10 meter) diameter chamber. The ultraviolet lasers should heat the pellet to hundreds of millions of degrees, forcing nuclear fusion to occur-the same super high heat and pressure atomic reaction that fuels the stars.
• Scientists have long hailed fusion as the ultimate clean energy source- hydrogen is abundant, though producing and storing it remains economically unattractive.
• A fusion reaction requires an immense amount of energy to get going, robbing its potential power output and harvesting and storing that energy is another task altogether.
• Beyond gunning for fusion, NIF could also one day focus its lasers on burning up some of the spent nuclear fuel from power plants that now sits in on-site pools or cement casks.
• Other NIF missions include updating supercomputer simulations of the nation's aging nuclear stockpile, which cannot be tested due to a 1992 moratorium.

Catalyst for Cheaper fuel cells

The material could replace platinum in hydrogen vehicles.

Published in Technological Review.com

A new catalyst based on iron works as well as platinum based catalysts for accelerating the chemical reactions inside hydrogen fuel cells. This finding could help make fuel cells for electric cars cheaper and more practical.

• Fuel cell researchers have been looking for cheaper, more abundant alternatives to platinum  which costs between $1,000 to $2,000 an ounce and is mined almost exclusively in just two countries- South Africa and Russia.
• One promising catalyst that uses far less expensive materials - iron, nitrogen and carbon has long been known to promote the necessary reactions, but at rates that are far too slow to be practical.
• Now researchers at the Institute National de la Recherche Scientifique in Quebec have dramatically increased the performance of this type of iron based catalyst. 
• Their material produces 99 amps per cubic centimeter at 0.8 volts, a key measurement of catalytic activity. That is 35 times better than the best nonprecious metal catalyst so far and close to the Department of Energy's goal for fuel cell catalysts: 130 amps per cubic centimeter. 
• The key insight was finding a way to increase the number of active catalytic sites within the material with more sites for chemical reactions, the overall rate of the reactions in the material increases.
• The catalyst is designed to work in proton exchange membrane fuel cells that operates at relatively low temperatures and has high power density.
•  PEM fuel cells use catalysts at two electrodes. One catalyst split hydrogen and other promotes a reaction that combines protons and oxygen to produce water. The second reaction  is more difficult to perform: in conventional fuel cells, platinum is used in both electrodes, but 10 times as much is needed on the water producing side.
• The new catalyst replace platinum on the water producing side, eliminating almost all of the platinum in the fuel cell.
• Many researchers are finding ways to reduce the amount of platinum needed, rather than replacing the material altogether.There are two more significant hurdles remain before it can be practical in fuel cells. 
• First -the catalyst's durability needs to be improved. After 100 hours of testing, the reaction rates decreased by half
• Second- because the catalyst can only work as fast as the reactants are provided, the transport of oxygen and proton into the material needs to be improved.
• The first step toward addressing the material's durability will be closely studying the catalyst to better understand how it works.

Superfast carbon memory

Graphene could make computer hard drives denser and speedier.

Published in Technological Review.com

Graphene, a flat sheet of hexagonally arranged carbon atoms, can transport electron very quickly:-

1. This made it a promising material for high radio frequency logic circuits, 
   
2. Transparent electrodes for flexible flate panel displays,
3. High surface area electrodes for ultracapacitors.

Now researchers at the National University of Singapore have made computer memory devices using graphene. Researchers  have made hundreds of prototype graphene memory devices and they work reliably, according to Barbaras Ozyilmaz.

• The key to making memory elements is a material that can have two different states. That is because computer memory is stored as two bits: 1 and 0.
• Hard drives  also need to be nonvolatile, which means the material should be able to hold on to those states without  requiring power.
• Today's hard disks are made of magnetic cobalt alloys and they store bits as one of two magnetic orientations of a small area on the disk.
• Ozyilmaz and his colleagues came up with an easy way to make graphene hold its two different levels of conductivity or resistance. Switching between these levels requires applying and removing an electric field.Researchers deposit a thin layer of a ferroelectric material on top of the graphene. 
• Ferroelectrics have an intrinsic electric field and applying a voltage changes the direction of the field and helps graphene sustain its conductivity.

Human Heart Grows New cells

 Drugs that enhance this innate capability might help heal injured hearts.

Publish in Technology Review.com

The human heart has a notorious reputation for being unable to heal itself, but now research suggests it is capable of at least some self repair. 

• Using carbon dating to gauge the age of heart cells, scientists have found that low numbers of new heart cells are continuously being created throughout a person's life.
  
• This raises the posibility that we may one day be able to use drugs to directly stimulate this regenerative capacity to patch up damaged hearts, rather than relying on cell transplantation therapies.
• Scientists can make new cardiomyocytes- heart muscle cells- from stem cells in cell culture experiments and evidence for cardiac stem cells has been building.
• But it was unclear until now whether new heart muscle cells are ever born under real life conditions inside the heart after birth.
• Ratna Bhardwaj and his colleagues at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden used radiocarbon dating to work out the age of heart cells compared to the chronological age of the person from which they were isolated.
• To do this, the team took advantage of nuclear tests done during the 1950s and 1960s, which led to a sharp increase of radioactive Carbon 14 in the atmosphere. The radioactive material was captured by plants as CO2 and then worked its way up the food chain and into the DNA of the human body. Soon after the tests were stopped, atmospheric C14 levels declined again, leading to  a corresponding drop in the C14 concentration in human DNA.
• The team measured C14 levels in the heart tissue of twelve deceased patients aged between 19 and 73 at the time of death and found elevated C14 even in those subjects who had been born two decades before the nuclear tests started, indicating that the radioactive carbon must have been incorporated into heart muscle cells long after birth.
• The heart muscle cell turnover is slow compared to other types of cells and decrease with age. 
• Using mathematical modeling the team find that only 1 percent of cells are typically exchanged per year in young adults. This rate  drops to only 0.4 percent by age 75. This means  that a 55 year old will have rebuilt 45 percent of her heart since birth.
• Other cells in the heart such as those that form connective tissue and blood vessels, renew much faster exchanging about 18 percent every year.
• Just why muscle cell turnover should be so slow remains unknown
• Bhardwaj and Murry both say that the discovery holds great  therapeutic potential if a drug can be found to stimulate increased renewal of heart  cells:-"A lot of us have been working on putting exogenous cells(cells from a donor or other parts of the body) into the heart," says Murry.
• Not everyone agree that a pharmaceutical approach is the best option. "A drug may stimulate a biochemical pathway too crudely and in regenerative medicine, we need to be very careful to avoid unregulated cell growth that could cause tumors," says Joshua Hare director of Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute at University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
• Hare argues that the best approach would be to identify and purify cardiac stem cells from the patient and amplify them in cell culture, then put them back into the body in a controlled way.
• There may be a third way ( Hare thinks) to harness the renewal power of the heart's own cells. He is currently developing therapies that aim to heal heart injuries with stem cells obtained from bone marrow." It may be that injecting these cells could also boost the activity of cardiac stem cells," he says.
  
  

Robot as Scientists

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE53167K20090402?feedType=nl&feedName=ustechnology

London(Reuters)-Watch out scientists – you may be replaced by a robot. 

Two teams of researchers said on Thursday they had created machines that could reason, formulate theories and discover scientific knowledge on their own, marking a major advance in the field of artificial intelligence.

• At Aberystwyth University in Wales, Ross King and colleagues have created a robot called Adam that can not only carry out experiment on yeast metabolism but also reason about the results and plan the next experiment.
  
• It is the world's first example of a machine that has made an independent scientific discovery- in this case, new facts about the genetic make up of baker's yeast.
  
• On its own it can think of hypotheses and then do the experiments and we have checked that it's got the result correct. People have been working on this since the 1960s. 
• When we first sent robots to Mars, they really dreamt of the robots doing their own experiments on Mars. After 40 or 50 years, we have now got the capability to do that.
  
• Their next robot, Eve, will have much more brain power and will be put to work searching for new medicines.
  
• King hopes that application of intelligent robotic thinking to the process of sifting tens of thousands of compounds for potential new drugs will be particularly valuable in the hunt for treatments for neglected tropical diseases like malaria.
  

King published his findings in the journal Science, alongside a second paper from Hod Lipson and Michael Schmidt of Cornell University in New York, who have developed a computer program capable of working out the fundamental physical laws behind a swinging double pendulum.

Just by crunching the numbers and without any prior instruction in physics- the Cornell machine was able to decipher Isaac Newton's laws of motion and other properties.

• Lipson does not think robots will make scientists obsolete any day soon, but believe they could take over much of the routine work in research laboratories.
  
• One of the biggest problems in science today is finding the underlying principles in areas where there are lots and lots of data. 
• This can help in accelerating the rate at which we can discover scientific principles behind the data.
  

Gene engineered viruses and battery?

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE5317A120090402?feedType=nl&feedName=ustechnology

Washington(Reuters)- Researchers who have trained a tiny virus to do their bidding said on Thursday they made it build a more efficient and powerful lithium battery.

1. They changed two genes in the virus called M13 and got it to do two things; 
2. build a shell made out of a compound called iron phosphate and then attach to a carbon nanotube to make a powerful and tiny electrode. 
3. The iron phosphate is generally not good conductor, but makes a useful battery material when patterned at the nano scale. 
4. Lithium batteries are powerful and light, but they do not release their electrons very quickly. The virus made material did, this translate into more battery power.
   
5. Once you have the right genetic sequence and have the right proteins then you just put them in solution with water and ions and they template the battery in the same way an abalone templates a shell. They build little shells around themselves.
   
6. The team is already working on a second generation battery using materials with higher voltage and electrical capacity, such as manganese phosphate and nickel phosphate said Belcher.
   
7. Such an electrode could conceivably make more powerful memory devices such as MP3 players or cellular telephones and are far more environmentally friendly than current battery technologies said Angela Belcher, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology material scientist who lead the research.
   
8. We could run an iPod on it for about three times as long as current iPod batteries. If we really scale it, it would be used in a car,such scaling is not even close, Belcher cautioned.
   

The technology is inherently green because it involves a live virus, We are having organisms make the material for us. We are confined to temperatures and solvents water that organisms can live in. It's clean technology. 

Better Cell Culture System

http://www.hhmi.org/news/anseth20090402.html

by Kristi S. Anseth

Howard Hughes Medical Institute-HHMI researchers have created a new type of "intelligent scaffold" for growing human cells that mimics conditions inside the body better than the standard, flat petri dishes often used in laboratories.

Anseth's team constructed their scaffold from hydrogels, which are polymer based compounds that absorb water. The scientists built the hydrogel using a light sensitive molecule that permitted them to snip apart the scaffolding with the flick of a laser beam.  They can use laser to alter 

1. the gel's stiffness, 
2. sculpt out chambers and channels 
3. release signaling molecules inside the gel matrix
   

The researchers have already used their light sensitive hydrogels to study the  behavior of cancer cells and cartilage forming stem cells. These hydrogels are useful for studying cell behavior because they mimic the natural environment in the body better than flat petri dishes. 

• for example, cancer cells migrate very differently when they are  on a two dimensional surface than in three dimensions.
• Ansth and her colleagues incorporated nitrobenzyl ether, a molecule that can be cleaved with wavelengths of light that do not damage cells. 
• Attaching this molecule was a critical step, because it gave the scientists the ability to remodel the hydrogel  even after cells had begun growing in it.
  
• Also it responds in seconds to minutes which enables us to alter that microenvironment on the same time scale as cellular events.
• In one experiment, researchers embedded mesenchymal stem cells- immature cells that can differenctiate into bond, cartilage, fat, muscle and pancreatic cells in the hydrogel. The msesenchymal cells were compact and round when packed inside the hydrogel. But when the researchers used light to partially degrade the gel structure- making it more pliable the cells quickly spread into a new shape.
• This experiment showed that we have the ability to control the local structure of the gel surrounding the cell
• Imagine, then , that we could use focused light to selectively degrade the material between two cells and then study their interaction.
• In another set of experiments the researchers selectively eroded material around living cells to "herd" cells within the gel without affecting their viability. Cell migration is of major interest to cancer researchers and team used fibrosarcoma cells which cause tumors of connective tissue .
• They also demonstrated that they could control biochemical signaling inside the hydrogel.They used the photodegradable molecule to tether a short sequence of amino acids to polymer. That sequence promotes the survival of mesenchymal stem cells but it also inhibits them from differentiating into the more specialized cartilage forming cells- Chondrocytes. Anseth's team wanted to see what would happen to the cells if they suddenly lost that signal , so after the cells had grown in the hydrogel for ten days, they released the amino acid sequence with a laser beam. The biochemical signal rapidly diffused out of the hydrogel and mesenchymal stem cells were able to differentiate into chondrocytes.
• This make hydrogel a powerful tool for designing vehicles for drug delivery and engineering new tissues in the laboratory.

Supply, Demand and Foreign Students

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/03/25/international

 written by — Elizabeth Redden, based on the " Internationalization of U.S. Doctorate Education" report published by National Bureau of Economic Research.

• The fact that large numbers of international students enroll in doctoral  programs in the United States is no surprise, but their considerable presence represents "one of the most significant transformations in U.S. graduate education" in the last quarter century, argues a new economic analysis of the supply and demand effects influencing student outflows from other countries and influxes into the United States.
  
• People will look at trends and say, 'Wow, there are a lot more Ph.D.'s going to foreigners. There are relatively fewer Ph.D.'s going to American citizens.'  I think one of the conclusions that some people jump to so that there's something wrong with the U.S.- we are failing behind.
  
• The relative erosion in the quality of education afforded to young people in the U.S. is a primary cause of the decline in share of doctorate degree in science and engineering awarded to U.S. students.
  
• The demand generated by increased bachelor's degree attainment in other countries, some with still developing higher education systems. This attributes to changing political circumstances including  the normalization of relations with China, now the second largest country of origin for international students.
  
• One senior physicist described how the influx of Chinese students at his research university met a need and allowed the department to  expand, as funding for physics remained glowing. 
  
• At the same time the number of undergraduates from the U.S. obtaining degrees in the physical and life Sciences was stagnate or declining and the size of college age population in the U.S. was declining.
  
• The paper does note that salaries for early career scientists with Ph.D.'s have increased more slowly than those of the college educated population more generally.
• We have got this surge of basically new Ph.D.'s in the labor markets and it looks like that has had some effect on not necessarily lowering salaries but in salaries growing at a lower rate than they would have otherwise. And that can lead back to B.A. production in the Unite States.

U.S.-Ph.D. Admissions Shrinkage

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/03/30/phd

Several colleges have recently announced that, regardless of application quality, they plan to admit fewer Ph.D. students for this coming fall 2009 than were admitted a year ago. The economics of doctoral education are different enough from those of other programs that some universitie's doctoral classes will be taking a significant hit, with potential ramifications down the road for the- 

1. academic job market, 
2. the availability of teaching assistants and 
3. the education of new professors.
   

• Emory University plans a 40 percent cut in the number of new Ph.D. students it will enroll this fall.
  
• Columbia University is planning a 10 percent cut.
• Brown University has called off a planned increase in Ph.D. enrollments.
• The University of South Carolina is considering a plan to have some departments that have admitted doctoral students every year shift to an every-other-year system. These cuts are exclusively for Ph.D. programs.

Terminal master's programs and professional school programs are generally being encouraged to fill their classes; those programs are of course ones in which many universities assume students will pay most or all costs themselves, using loans as needed.

The economic difference between Ph.D. and non-Ph.D. students is that the former [Ph.D.]tend to  be supported with tuition waivers and stipends, while many of the later[non Ph.D.] pay their own way or bring in federal or other aid.

Doctoral students at many universities receive full support from the universities, creating a very different dynamic- especially coupled with the need to make large cuts in budgets

• Emory is an example. The graduate program there must cut its budget by 13 percent. But all of its current students were promised their packages for up to five years of support- and those pledges were made prior to the economic downturn.  So officials  determined that the only way the graduate school could meet its budget target was a sharp reduction in the number of new Ph.D. students admitted. Last fall about 360 students started Ph.D. programs at Emory, this fall that figure will be about 220. There may be more teaching positions available as a result to those whose funding runs out before they finish their doctorates.
  
• At Columbia University, the 10 percent cut is for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, which typically enrolls 320 new Ph.D. students a year. 

How this will play out down the road is very unclear. As the job market for new Ph.D.'s especially in the humanities, has become so tight, some academics have questioned the appropriateness of departments admitting as many students as they have in the past. At the same time, aligning current Ph.D. admissions and job market trends is difficult, given the long time frame for completing doctorates. There are many underemployed Ph.D.'s today cursing some reports in the past predicting major shortages of faculty members- shortages that never came to pass.

• Catharine R. Stimpson , dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Science at New York University, said that the job market is an appropriate consideration in determining class size, but not the only one.
• Stimpson said NYU may want to reduce class size further a year from now.
• The factors to be considered, she said, include the job market, applicant quality and the right fits between the applicants and the NYU faculty in terms of research interests and expertise. And she said many universities must also factor in the costs of supporting graduate students ...

Starting in a Lab?

http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/mentor/daniel

This article is from Inside higher education by Tom Daniel professor of biology at the University of Washington, published on March 4,2009.

If you are a new graduate student in the sciences, you will rotate through several labs during your first year. Your challenge is to find the right lab for you- one that best matches your intellectual interests and that helps prepare you for your career.

How to get started in a lab?

Sample a range of lab environments and cultures. Find a lab that will help you develop as a researcher. Find out what the ground rules and expectation are; look for opportunities that will benefit your career. 

Be Smart:-

1. How many hours are you expected to be in the lab? Remember that research is not a 9 to 5 job, you should look forward to hanging out in the lab- but also make sure you know specific expectations for your time.
2. What's the definition of "progress" in lab work? what's the definition of progress in graduate work in your discipline?
3. will you have an opportunit to publish?
4. will you get credit- as an author, co author for the work you do in the lab? Will your intellectual work really be your own? Seek a lab that gives ownership of your ideas to you.
5. Will you have a chance to push beyond the boundaries of particular grants?
6. Will you be able to collaborate with other labs?
7. The best lab is not necessarily the one that pays the most.
8. Success is not always about being comfortable-so look for a lab where you will be pushed a bit.
   

How to evaluate labs?

Both established and new labs have great merit.

1. In an established lab, find out: What's the lab's track record? where have pople ended up working after their lab experience?
2. Recognize that some younger faculty members- who do not have well established labs and there fore do not have the same track record as established labs-- often bring the newst ideast to the discipline and are often willing to spend time with graduate students. Such labs might be a better place to try new things.
3. Where do people in the lab publish? In top tier journals?
4. Ask other students about the labs.
5. Trust your instincts.

Be clear about your own expectations for mentorship in a lab:

1. How often would you like to meet with faculty mentors? Make sure that the time you request is for the most pressing matters; do not waste time on minor details that you can find out elsewhere.
2. Can you get on the mentor's calendar? Ask other graduate students in the lab about the nature and extent of mentorship.

Make good use of your lab work; Publish early and publish often:

1. Publications are the currency of success.
2. Publications are a guaranteed path to a relatively carefree thesis preparation.

How to succed in a lab?

1. Participation is the key to any successful lab. A successful lab draws on a variety of skills, so contribute.
2. Recognize that a good lab is one with mutual mentorship; that means you need to contribute, too. As a first year student, you may well have expertise that others in the lab do not have. Be a good citizen; contribute the work. Recognize that you have the potential to be a valuable contributor from the very first day you walk in the door.
3. Learn from others and support others in the lab. Recognize the expertise of all of your lab colleagues- faculty, visiting scientists, postdoc, graduate students, undergraduates and even high school students.
4. During your first year , aim to complete a research paper that can be presented at a meeting or submitted.

Best of Luck!!!