Bio371 tag cloud

A shout-out to the Mycology class - here's the tag cloud for this class

I thought it was interesting that the word plant comes up so much - this is probably indicative of how important the fungi are to plants both in good and bad ways.

Bio321 tag clouds

For those headed into Bio321 this Spring - here are tag clouds of the content to give you a view into the course!

The lecture:

The lab:

Genetically altered HIV to battle leukemia

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/10/health/a-breakthrough-against-leukemia-using-altered-t-cells.html/ref=science&gwh=D9083766D40AE2F7CE684DB2E7476883&_r=0

HIV attacks the immune system and as a retrovirus it can insert its genome into the immune cells' DNA. This research team is using a genetically modified form of HIV to have it specifically put certain genes into the T cells that cause them to target the B-cells (which are the problematic dividing cells in this case)

The exposure of the modified HIV to the T-cells takes place outside of the body then the newly altered T-cells are returned to the host. Sounds like this is in the promising stage but still needs further work

I especially think it's so amazing to be using such a destructive virus to our benefit

Thanks to Alex Pedicone for bringing this one to my attention!

Living in sub-zero brine

Murray et al. 2012. Microbial life at −13 °C in the brine of an ice-sealed Antarctic lake. PNAS

Lake Vida is in the Antartic, how's this for a place to live:

• sits at -13 deg C
• salt concentrations 6 times that of sea water
• sits under 50-100 ft of ice
• aphotic (little or no light penetrates)
• anoxic (no oxygen)

(taken from Nature journal's website here)

As always though, microbes abound - albeit ~10-fold lower concentrations than lakes, and a lot more tiny cells that normal. Now that doesn't mean the diversity is high - in the survey they found ~32 species in 8 different phyla - but c'mon, give any microbes credit for living down there!

The researchers cored deep, viewed the cells via fluorescent staining and microscopy, and coupled that with rRNA gene sequence analysis.

Link to the original article: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/11/21/1208607109

Link to more general article: http://www.nature.com/news/life-abounds-in-antarctic-lake-sealed-under-ice-1.11884

Holiday soaps

Can't think of a better soap to have around than this

http://www.etsy.com/shop/CleanerScience

Time for the beach?

http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/07/dirtiest-beaches-nrdc

It doesn't matter how expansive the ocean is, the beaches aren't always pristine!

I was happy to see that the NC beaches were generally on the "cleaner" end. This was based on coliform bacteria present. Interesting factoid - beaches that meet minimum federal standards would still sicken 1 in 28 swimmers. Not sure how that was calculated but impressive if true.

South Padre Island in Texas was also listed as one of the cleanest - nice to hear given how many students flock down there each Spring

the titantic's second demise - bacteria

http://www.microbeworld.org/index.php?option=com_jlibrary&view=article&id=8629&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=twitter

appropriate timing of this story coinciding with 3D release of the movie!

living in the deep ocean, chomping on iron, not a typical way to make a living but someone's got to do it....