Grant Jacobs • Jan 30, 2011 •
If you’re looking for a pictorial overview of gene transcription–the process of making a RNA copy of a gene–or just like making up posters to put on your walls, you might like to download this free poster (1.94 Mb PDF) from Nature Reviews Genetics by Vikki Weake and Jerry Workman. As you … Read More
Grant Jacobs • Dec 04, 2010 •
You won’t have missed the fuss over NASA’s their non-extra-terrestrial life, where evidence suggests that a bacteria may show signs of tolerance to arsenic received wide coverage in the media. xkcd, of on-line cartoon fame, offers this There’s a great collection of commentary to Richard Thaler’s call for informed examples of ’things … Read More
Grant Jacobs • Nov 01, 2010 •
Some readers may recall earlier in the year I wrote about Myriad Genetics facing a judicial ruling against their patent of the BRAC1 and BRAC2 genes. This ruling had implications as if genes were patentable[1] in the USA, as the judge queried the validity of patenting genes merely because they had been isolated. Read More
Grant Jacobs • Oct 29, 2010 •
Not the bar kind. As has become customary for me, on Friday I try clean up browser tabs I’ve left open holding an interesting article. It’s my end-of-the-week clean-up and blog links for readers. The scale of the universe (Those not interested in astronomy or the scale of things may wish … Read More
Grant Jacobs • Oct 28, 2010 •
I’d like to write about today’s paper* from the 1000 genomes project, but I have a tax return to file first. In the meantime a quatrain and a haiku: There's no forsaking what you are No existential leap As witnessed here in DNA and code A thousand genomes deep ... We're all mutants you and I, all broken codes for … Read More
Grant Jacobs • Oct 14, 2010 •
A ‘lite’ review of an attempt to improve motif screening of genomes using additional data. Considering local minima of histone acetylation in a context of high histone acetylation may be one way forward. A number of years ago at a biotechnology sector after-talk drinks I found myself trying to convince a CEO that often … Read More
Grant Jacobs • Oct 07, 2010 •
Platypuses[1] are one of Australia’s oddest creatures. They’re furry, mainly nocturnal aquatic creatures that swim with their eyes shut paddling with their webbed front feet and steering (or braking) with their rear feet. Their homes are burrows in the river banks. While not endangered, water pollution is an issue for their survival.[2] … Read More
Grant Jacobs • Oct 03, 2010 •
I like to follow what computational neurologists are working on. Large-scale studies in neurology using genetics and other approaches use techniques related to my own skills (I’m a computational biologist) and neurology is fascinating. Here Sebastian Seung from MIT presents a TED lecture about work towards what he calls the human ‘connectome’, a map of … Read More
Grant Jacobs • Sep 16, 2010 •
Autism is probably one of the best known neurological disorders, in part due to promotion in Hollywood movies such as Rain Man. It is described in the On-line Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) database as being ‘characterized by a triad of limited or absent verbal communication, a lack of reciprocal social interaction or responsiveness, and restricted, … Read More
Grant Jacobs • Aug 24, 2010 •
A chain of proteins hold bacterial DNA in a compacted spiral. You and I are eukaryotes. Our cells have nuclei, repositories that contain our DNA and the proteins that read them to produce an RNA copy of them. [caption id="attachment_3694" align="alignleft" width="300"] HeLa cells* stained for DNA (Source: Wikimedia Commons.)[/caption] In earlier … Read More