There's something quite ascetic about revision — the isolation, the runes, the obsessive calligraphy (I really don't know where I'd be without 0.38mm Japanese pens)
Hope everyone's exams are going well, I'll get back to posting come February ‒ in the meantime, here are a few interesting new research findings from the past few weeks
Cells use “cytonemes” to exchange signalling proteins, allowing contact-dependent distribution of morphogens (so-called “patterning factors” that direct development). Interesting because these actin protrusions (a type of filopodium) were just thought to be structural » Science
The synonymous codon has been pronounced dead. It wasn't really news (apparently!) but whatever, the paper's still cool. » Science
…also, a Perspective piece on the above, written by the researcher whose lab I'll be working in this summer!
A really nice book chapter called The Nuclear Physique (to distinguish it from “nuclear physics”) on the biophysics of that all-important part of the cell. Above all, very eloquently written and (rarely for scientific literature) a historical perspective. » Int. Rev. Cell and Mol. Biol.
Calcium ions induce PIP2 clusters on lipid bilayers at the same concentrations in which they're found in the cell. Coincidentally what I've just been revising… (above) Notably, you wouldn't expect these clusters to be found with confocal microscopy, so they could've been hiding up until now. It's not just what's in your membrane that counts, but how the rafts and clusters form (laterally). » BBA Biomembranes
The first structure of a Tet enzyme, from the family that removes methyl groups on histone proteins (a form of epigenetic regulation) » Nature - if you can't get access to this, definitely read the press release (although I don't recommend it in general), epigenetics is becoming quite established now
The UN has declared 2015 the international “year of light” (“and light-based technologies” but that doesn't sound as good). Time to get up to scratch on photonics! (don't look at me like that) » European Physical Society
Google a chemical and you'll get offered a 3D structure. This isn't really news, but it's a nice new tool I'll use. Not sure how long this has been available, but I only noticed last week.
Everyone's still arguing over whether science is reproducible… This is kinda centrally important to the scientific process, and if nothing else, seeing biostatisticians pick apart other biostatisticians' biostatistics is pretty informative.
A linguist and a marine biologist are working together to investigate the human tongue. Like an octopus' arms, the tongue is a rigid boneless 'lever' functioning via hydrostatics. 2 species of octopus and the worm C. elegans are under study.
A review of single-molecule studies of DNA replication in Chem Soc Revs
A 4D protein binding site structural database — Peptisite — has been set up. I feel I called this to some degree
Ok, technically Burra et al called it in 2008 and I tweeted from their paper? Still… Protein “structure” is a many-splendored thing, I'm excited about checking this out after exams. Not letting myself play with it yet, but I'm interested in seeing how they do the “ensemble visualisation” (i.e. of multiple protein structures).
m6A modification governs RNA decay & longevity. N6-methyladenosine modifications have long been known in cells, but it's been found to regulate mRNA half-life [thus in turn that of proteins]. » Nature
Researchers block HIV replication (according to the press release). I've not had time to read the full paper » Angewandte Chemie
That's all I've got for now, off back into the woods I go
