Author: Feng Zhu
Editors: Nayiri Kaissarian, Jimmy Brancho, and Noah Steinfeld
What is Chaos?
Is our solar system stable, or will the orbits of the planets at some point collapse into the Sun? Closer to home: will it rain tomorrow?
Both these questions turn out to be surprisingly tricky to answer for the same underlying reason: the mathematical models we use to understand these systems are chaotic.
Continue reading “Chaos: Not Quite (but Almost) Randomness – Part 1 of 2”
Author: Jessica Y. Chen (@BluntDrJChen)
Editors: Charles Lu, Ellyn Schinke, and Shweta Ramdas
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke
It’s frustrating, as a scientist, to watch from afar as the claims of anti-vaxxers are given credence in many parts of the country, despite ample evidence suggesting that they’re not correct.
Why and how can so many people be misled?
Continue reading “Science Communication: A Duty of the Next-Generation Scientist”
Author: Kristina Lenn
Editors: Alex Taylor, Zena Lapp, and Scott Barolo
People say that “love” is probably the most abused word in the English language. I disagree. I think the word that is most misused is “genius.”
I taught engineering at Wayne State University for three years, and the class I taught that was most frustrating for the students was programming. Many of my students would come to me and say how discouraged they were; how they seemed to be behind everyone else; and how they thought they should already know how to do everything. My response was, “If you already knew how to do it, why would you need the class? It’s required for a reason.” In fact, many of them would look at me and say, “You hardly even think about the answer. You just start typing the code and it magically works.” I had to remind them that I’d been teaching for years and programming for almost a decade.
Coming to you LIVE from the 3rd annual RNA Symposium: Advancing RNA Bioscience into Medicine. Follow us on Twitter or the tag #umichrna!
Live blogger: Sarah Kearns. Editor: Whit Froehlich.
Neurodegenerative diseases and genetic conditions lack effective treatments. Patients with disorders like Huntington’s disease (HD) and congenital amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) thus have unmet medical needs. To begin to get to the heart of these disorders, researchers like Dr. Anastasia Khvorova, a professor at UMass Medical School, are looking for strategies to target RNA in order to develop treatments. Continue reading “Size Matters: Using oligonucleotide siRNAs for Targeted Therapeutics”
Coming to you LIVE from the 3rd annual RNA Symposium: Advancing RNA Bioscience into Medicine. Follow us on Twitter or the tag #umichrna!
Live blogger: Whit Froehlich. Editor: Sarah Kearns.
Roy Parker, Ph.D., is a Professor at the University of Colorado and Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute who studies the regulation of translation and degradation of messenger RNA (mRNA) using yeast as a model organism. Degradation of mRNA is accomplished in coordination with the removal of the “poly-A tail” at its end, which precedes degradation from either end of the molecule. His other work includes investigation of the processes around mRNA decapping and storage in P-bodies. He is speaking today about RNA granules, and generally about aggregated RNA structures, as well as some of their roles in disease. Continue reading “Stressed out about RNA Granules; Roy Parker”
Coming to you LIVE from the 3rd annual RNA Symposium: Advancing RNA Bioscience into Medicine. Follow us on Twitter or the tag #umichrna!
Live blogger: Sarah Kearns. Editor: Whit Froehlich.
Suppose you have some extremely important information in the form of a blueprint and it’s your job to protect it. It’s not just a blueprint for a top-secret location – it’s the blueprint to life; it specifies how every cell in the body should function. Continue reading “Through Space and Time: Monitoring RNA Translation; Jonathan Weissman”
Coming to you LIVE from the 3rd annual RNA Symposium: Advancing RNA Bioscience into Medicine. Follow us on Twitter or the tag #umichrna!
Live blogger: Sarah Kearns. Editor: Whit Froehlich.
Most of the work done in your cells is done by complex molecules called proteins. Made up of long chains of amino acids, they are required for the structure, function, and regulation of your body’s tissues and organs. The design of these proteins comes from DNA, the genetic code of life. But the pathway from double helix DNA to protein, as it turns out, is a complicated one. Continue reading “Genetics of Colorectal Cancer; Eric Fearon”
Coming to you LIVE from the 3rd annual RNA Symposium: Advancing RNA Bioscience into Medicine. Follow us on Twitter or the tag #umichrna!
Live blogger: Whit Froehlich. Editor: Sarah Kearns.
Melissa Moore, Ph.D., is currently the Chief Science Officer at Moderna Therapeutics, having previously been on the faculty at the University of Massachusetts as Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology and Eleanor Eustis Farrington Chair in Cancer Research with a concurrent appointment as Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Her work ranges widely in RNA, currently focusing on pre-mRNA processing for medicinal applications. Continue reading “Modern(a) developments in mRNA theraputics; Melissa Moore”
Author: Alison Ludzki
Editors: Zena Lapp, Alex Taylor, and Sarah Kearns
Gyms are riding out their busiest season, as patrons hang on to their New Year’s resolution exercise programs. But will it last? It seems inevitable that exercise participation wanes from January through December, except for maybe a blip prior to “beach body” season. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is one newer exercise option that could help your resolution stick.
Continue reading “Health Benefits of High-intensity Interval Training: Helping you HIIT the Gym”
Author: Attabey Rodríguez-Benítez
Editors: Jimmy Brancho, Andrew McAllister, and Noah Steinfeld
When I got sick as a child, my great-grandmother used to treat me with unpleasant fish oil. She would say, “bébete esto para que te pongas mejor y tengas un corazón fuerte” (“drink this so you can get better and have a strong heart”). Both of my parents also swore by fish oil, taking these enormous yellow pills, which I did not take myself because I was afraid to choke on them. These large fish oil pills were full of omega-3 fatty acids. My family explained that the supplements helped with high blood pressure, but never explained why they worked. As it turns out, there is still quite a lot of debate in the scientific community as to how omega-3s impact human health.
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