Friday Funnies: Explaining Academia

Helix

 Image from the "Pilot" episode courtesy of the Helix website.

Playing God and tampering with the genome can lead to deadly results--and that's clearly the case in the new original series "Helix" from the Syfy channel.

The series follows a group of experts from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) who travel to a remote research compound in the Arctic to investigate a dangerous new disease outbreak. However what they soon discover is that this deadly virus changes and mutates infected individuals into something bestial and superhuman. Cut off from the rest of the world, the scientists face a terrifying life-and-death struggle to find a cure for the disease before an outbreak annihilates the human race. 

Deception, double-agendas and constantly revealed plot twists make this show an exciting, fast-paced thriller. If you're interested, you can access the first three episodes here on the Syfy channel's website.  

If you still have some doubts, the show boasts and impressive list of veteran producers including Steven Maeda from "The X-files," Stephen Welke from "Alphas," and Ron Moore who helped make the "Battlestar Galactica" remake into such an awesome series. After watching "Helix" the past few weeks, I have am certain that the rest of the season will be just as action-packed. 

Forbes 30 under 30

Congratulations to UCSF student Jon Ostrem (left) and UCSF fellow David Weinberg (right) for being named to Forbes 30 under 30 list in the field of Science!

 

Ostrem, a student in the lab of Kevan Shokat, created mutant-specific inhibitors of the oncogene K-Ras.

Weinberg, a fellow at UCSF,  is studying how cells determine how much protein to produce.

I expect we will continue to hear many awesome things from these two! For the full list, follow This Link. 

Men in Science

Repost from Professor Sarah Boyer. Yay for people like man #2!

Overheard at the Society for Integrative & Comparative Biology meeting in Austin:

Man #1: "I think that if a meeting has a Women in Science event, there should also be something for Men in Science!"
Man #2: "I'm pretty sure that what you're asking for is commonly known as
'a meeting.'"

[I actually think SICB is a particularly good conference for women, thanks in part to awesome people like man #2.]

Friday Funnies: Holiday Vacation Edition

Happy Holidays from C2C!
For your enjoyment, one of my favorite PHD Comics:

Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences Symposium

The Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences Symposium is being held today at UCSF. The prize recognizes excellence in the field of Life Sciences. In its first year, the foundation awarded 11 prizes across the Life Science field including Cornelia Bargmann, David Botstein, Lewis C. Cantley, Hans Cleavers, Titia de Lange, Eric Lander, Napoleone Ferrara, Charles L. Sawyers, Bert Vogelstein, Robert A. Weinberg and Shinya Yamanaka. 

Today, UCSF is honoring the recipients of the 2013 prize with an all-day symposium. They event will highlight the fields of cancer, genetics, neurobiology and stem cell research. Awardees from last year will discuss recent advances in these fields with a special focus on big ideas in human health and disease. In addition, Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann will moderate a panel of the 2014 award winners. 

For those who can't make it to UCSF today or who were unable to get tickets, here is a link for the live stream:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/breakthrough-prize-in-life-sciences-awards-special-symposium



Update:

The 2014 Breakthrough Prizes were announced last night at NASA's Ames Research Center. The laureates will join last year's winners in the selection and judging of future prize winners. The 6 winners for 2014 include:

• Mahlon DeLong (Emory University)--for pioneering work in the treatment of Parkinson's Disease
• Richard Lifton (Yale University)--for identifying genetic determinants that lead to hypertension
• Michael Hall (University of Basel) --for the discovery of the enzyme TOR
• Alexander Varshavsky (CalTech)--for the study of intracellular protein degradation
• James Allison (UT Anderson Cancer Center)--for the development of immunotherapy treatments for cancer
• Robert Langer (MIT)--for the development of controlled drug-release systems and biomaterials

QBC Retreat 2013

My program and several other graduate programs in the Quantitative Biosciences Consortium (QBC) just returned from our annual retreat to Asilomar in Pacific Grove, CA. While there we heard talks from both students and professors, enjoyed humorous skits performed by the second years, and despite the chilly temperatures people braved walks on the beach during conference breaks. 

I feel as though I am sometimes in a chemistry bubble, so it was great to see the research interests of students in other programs. I myself presented at one of the poster sessions. The people who stopped by my poster had lots of positive feedback and suggestions for experiments.  I'm not sure how much time I will have to begin things before the holidays, but I'm excited to try some of these new directions come January!