Category Archives: Author benefits

Author benefits

Focus on symbiosis at Nature Reviews Microbiology

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This month (October 2008) Nature Reviews Microbiology publishes a Focus on Symbiosis . Microbial symbioses include beneficial, harmful and neutral relationships and are important in animal and plant health, immunity and disease, as well as in ecology and the environment. The special Focus issue of Nature Reviews Microbiology highlights exciting advances in understanding of partnerships between organisms and their environments.

Topics covered include manipulation of insects by endosymbiotic bacteria, marine chemosynthetic symbioses, the ancient arbuscular mycorrhiza, model symbiosis systems, the highly distinctive features of gut microbiotas and how they have evolved, and a glimpse of how experimental approaches will shape the future of this fascinating field. These Reviews and Perspectives highlight this emerging and important field. The accompanying library collates the most recent relevant original Research articles, News & Views and Reviews from across Nature Publishing Group.

European Commission survey on Internet resources for research

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Via e-mail from Arnaud Berghmans of Deloitte Belgium on behalf of Augusto Burgueño of the Research Directorate-General of the European Commission:

Deloitte is conducting, on behalf of the European Commission, a survey on Internet-based services in support of the research process. So far, responses have been received from more than 3,500 EU researchers. As a benchmark, Deloitte would like to get the opinion of researchers already using the Internet for research and is asking readers of this website for their help by taking the survey.

About the survey

With this survey, the European Commission would like to find out which Internet-based resources (such as websites, wikis, social networks, mailing lists, bulleting boards, chat rooms, etc) the research community at large currently uses when carrying out research, and which ones it would be willing to use in the future.

The survey has six sections corresponding to the following phases of a research project: (1) Generate, elaborate and refine ideas; (2) Find partners; (3) Set up the research project; (4) Seek funding; (5) Run the research project; and (6) Exploit results. Each section has 3 questions.

The results of this survey will help the European Commission better understand what Internet-based services could in the future facilitate the participation of the research community in the European research and innovation programmes.

The questionnaire is anonymous and responses are aggregated for analysis. It takes ten minutes to complete.

Upon request, the survey results can be shared.

Link to the survey is here

Nature podcast US election special

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In the third of Nature‘s election-themed podcasts available online, the journal looks at where US innovation policy might go under a new president. You can listen or read a trascript at the journal’s podcast index page. In the latest podcast, Stephen Ezell of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation says that “substantial amounts of research into basic science must occur before we can ever reach technology and therefore government has a substantial role to play in being a funder of basic and applied research in the United States. When you look at a great number of US companies and industries, specific companies like Google, like (UNCLEAR 14:18), like Oracle, these were all companies that got their initial funding from basic government grants for research in science and technology. Extending and increasing the amount of government funding for research is one of the most important things the next administration can do.” The panel goes on to discuss how research could be funded and possible mechanisms for promoting US competitiveness in the global sphere. William Bates of the Council of Competitiveness compares the presidential candidates: “Senator Obama has been very explicit in endorsing doubling of the research budget. Senator McCain speaks about the importance of research, but I think he has been a little more hesitant to embrace a specific doubling goal of the research agencies. They’re certainly talking about it and that’s a big step in the right direction.” Hear or read more via the Nature podcast index.

An archive of the Nature Podcasts, which are all free, can be found here. Each week, Nature authors talk about their newly published papers, on topics ranging from craters formed by asteroid collision, tsunami risk in the Bay of Bengal, the sequence of the grapevine genome, a mouse with obsessive compulsive disorder, a new species of ape, and many more.

Upcoming scientific events in Second Life

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On Monday 22 September, the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology will be running their first consultation session, A Vision for Science and Society, in the virtual world of Second Life, at Second Nature Island. (Time: 1850 – 2000 GMT/1050 – 1200 PDT.) The UK Government has issued a new consultation document entitled A Vision for Science and Society. The resource centre for woman is keen to ensure that issues of gender equality are part of the agenda and are holding a series of focus groups to discuss the topic. Monday’s event will be held entirely in Second Life and all are very welcome to attend. It will be just over an hour long and will involve informal discussion in small groups on some of the issues. You do not have to have read the report, and men and women are equally welcome. The event is free, but you are asked to book in advance to give them an idea of numbers. You can book by email or telephone. See the UK Resources for Women website for further details.

Another event next week is taking place in the real world (first life) and simultaneously in Second Life. Scientific researchers and web2.0: social notworking? at the British Library in London on Wednesday 24 September from 1800 to 2030 GMT, and is organized by Sarah Kemmitt. This free event is the second in the BL’s quarterly café scientifique exploring varied topical issues in science. Timo Hannay, the Publishing Director of nature.com, will introduce the subject followed by a discussion with the audience. This provocative title aims to stimulate discussion on the following questions: is Web 2.0 all about attitudes or technologies?; what can Web 2.0 do for your research?; as a scientist, are there good reasons for getting involved beyond social ‘notworking’?; and web 3.0: another buzzword or a semantic revolution for science on the web? There is a lively discussion group on Nature Network in which aspects of these topics have been debated in the run-up to the evening. This event is free but pre-registration is required. For those interested who cannot attend in person, details of the Second Life parallel alternative are here.

Several further scientific events are scheduled in Second Life in the next few weeks. Some highlights include:

Sunday 10 February: Darwin Day Monkey Parade

Tueesday 11 February: “Nano-science and the Quantum World” talk on Nanotech Island.

Monday 18 February: “Manatee conservation and classification” talk on Second Nature

Thursday 21 February: George Monbiot talk on climate change on Second Nature.

Friday 22 February: talk by Dr David Grinspoon, an astrobiologist from the Denver Museum of Science & Nature.

Further details and links to the calendar of events can be found here.

See the website Second Nature for more information about Nature’s island in Second Life, where there is a video introduction and tutorial for first-time users, and much other information about Second Nature and the events there. If you are familiar with Second Life, you can go directly to Second Nature by visiting this link.

There is a Nature Network Second Life group for those interested in using this virtual world for scientific activities.

Free poster on pluripotent cells

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Pluripotent cells offer great promise for the future of regenerative medicine. However, cells with pluripotent potential are difficult or impossible to isolate from patients, which makes methods for experimentally induced pluripotency in readily available somatic cells invaluable. Accompanying the September issue of Nature Reviews Molecular and Cell Biology, and free to access online, is a poster by Christopher Lengner and Rudolf Jaenisch, which compares and contrasts the properties of pluripotent embryonic stem cells with those of laboratory-generated pluripotent cells.

In the same issue of the journal is a related Essay, The promise of human induced pluripotent stem cells for research and therapy, by Shin-ichi Nishikawa, Robert A. Goldstein and Concepcion R. Nierras (Nature Reviews Molec. Cell Bio. 9, 725-729; 2008) The abstract:

Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are human somatic cells that have been reprogrammed to a pluripotent state. There are several hurdles to be overcome before iPS cells can be considered as a potential patient-specific cell therapy, and it will be crucial to characterize the developmental potential of human iPS cell lines. As a research tool, iPS-cell technology provides opportunities to study normal development and to understand reprogramming. iPS cells can have an immediate impact as models for human diseases, including cancer.

Download the free poster.

A glossary and a list of recommended further reading is also available.

See also the Nature Reviews collection of articles on stem cells, which is free to access online for six months.

Sign up for the Nature Network Berlin Dinners

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Nature Network’s Berlin group, run by Philipp Selenko, is organizing a series of dinners during the Twentieth International Genetics Conference (to be held in Berlin from 12 to 17 July). The dinners are free to attend and are intended to provide the opportunity to meet some of the distinguished scientists who are speaking at the conference in a relaxed atmosphere.

Friday 11 July: Oliver Smithies & Mario Capecchi, winners of the 2007 Nobel prize in Medicine ’for their discoveries of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells.’

Monday 14 July: Elisa Izaurralde & Frank Uhlmann, respectively Max Planck Director at the MPI for Developmental Biology in Tuebingen and group leader at the Cancer Research UK Institute in London. Elisa works on various aspects of RNA biology whereas Frank is interested in the functional properties of eukaryotic cell division.

Tuesday 15 July: Eric Lander, Peer Bork & Dinshaw Patel.Eric is the Founding Director of the Broad Institute of the MIT; Peer is the Scientific Coordinator of the EMBL Stuctural Biology and Bioinformatics Program. The two are internationally known for their pioneering work in deciphering the DNA/RNA sequence space. Dinshaw runs a structural biology laboratory at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Institute in NYC where he has unraveled some key features of RNA and DNA molecules, most recently those of siRNAs.

Wednesday 16th July: Rudi Jaenisch & Barry Dickson discuss issues about model organisms in science. Rudi is at the Whitehead Institute in Boston and a distinguished expert in mouse genetics and embryonic stem-cell biology. Barry is the Scientific Director of the Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna, and known for his work in on axon guidance in Drosophila . He has recently embarked on a journey to unravel the molecular principles of complex animal behaviour.

All dinners will start at 7 p.m. and take place at the Meierei, Kollwitzstrasse 42, Prenzlauer Berg.

Philipp writes “We hope that you are as excited as we are about the program and that many of you will show up for those special events!” For further information (including travel directions), please see the Nature Network Berlin forum; if you have any additional questions, you can contact Philipp via email.

Nature Network Berlin has set up a shared Google calendar for these and other Berlin-related events.

Web focus on smoking, nicotine and addiction

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Cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of death and disease in the United States. Understanding the genetic and pharmacological factors surrounding nicotine and other substances of abuse will lead to insight into ways to prevent psychological dependence and addiction A special web focus, presented by Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, is a compilation of some key articles from Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, Nature Medicine, Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, Neuropsychopharmacology and The Pharmacogenomics Journal on smoking, nicotine and addiction; many of them free to access online. Examples of featured articles include:

Development of Procedures for Early Human Screening of Smoking Cessation Medications

KA Perkins, C Lerman, ML Stitzer, CA Fonte, JL Briski, JA Scott & KNR Chengappa.

Contingency Management: Utility in the Treatment of Drug Abuse Disorders

ML Stitzer & R Vandrey.

Smoked Marijuana as Medicine: Not Much Future

H Kalant.

Clinical Pharmacology of Nicotine: Implications for Understanding, Preventing, and Treating Tobacco Addiction

NL Benowitz.

By Now, “Harm Reduction” Harms Both Science and the Public Health

AI Leshner.

Development of RNAi as a therapeutic strategy

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Molecular Therapy presents a special web focus, gathering together top articles on RNAi originally published in Molecular Therapy, Nature, Nature Medicine, Nature Reviews Genetics, Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, British Journal of Cancer and other NPG journals, free to access for a limited time. This collection covers latest research on the development of RNAi-based tools for drug target and gene function analysis as well as work describing the development of the technology for therapeutic applications.

Special issue of Heredity on experimental evolution

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The journal Heredity is publishing a special issue on experimental evolution, under the guest editorship of Graham Bell. The goal of experimental evolution is to understand the mechanics of adaptation by observing the outcome of natural selection in simplified laboratory microcosms. The experimental approach allows us to study fundamental features of evolution such as the fixation of beneficial mutations, the extent of specialization, the repeatability of adaptation and the effect of sex. The May issue of Heredity marks the great expansion of the field in recent years. It features mainly work on microbial and viral systems concerned with the genetic basis of adaptation, and the complications introduced by conflicting sources of selection and complex social interactions.

Visit the Heredity website to read the articles, all free to access.

Editorial: Experimental evolution

G Bell

Reviews

The spread of a beneficial mutation in experimental bacterial populations: the influence of the environment and genotype on the fixation of rpoS mutations

T Ferenci

Predicting evolution from genomics: experimental evolution of bacteriophage T7

J J Bull and I J Molineux

Experimental evolution: Experimental evolution and evolvability

N Colegrave and S Collins

The tragedy of the commons in microbial populations: insights from theoretical, comparative and experimental studies

R C MacLean

Experimental evolution of plant RNA viruses

S F Elena, P Agudelo-Romero, P Carrasco, F M Codoñer, S Martín, C Torres-Barceló and R Sanjuán

Kin selection and the evolution of virulence

A Buckling and M A Brockhurst.

Nature Insight Molecular Cancer Diagnostics

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A key priority in translational cancer research is the discovery of molecular biomarkers that improve the early diagnosis of cancer and guide cancer prognosis, including the design and assessment of new therapeutic avenues. A Nature Insight in the current issue (Nature 452, 547-589; 3 April 2008) highlights key approaches for the discovery and validation of cancer biomarkers, at the level of DNA, RNA and protein analysis. It also focuses on non-invasive imaging tools and serum analyses that will be important in detecting tumours and monitoring the course of cancer therapy. Translating these advances into personalized cancer care will entail challenges far beyond the scientific discovery and validation strategies. We hope that the articles in this Insight not only bring together key aspects of the translational research into cancer biomarkers but also draw attention to associated issues such as trial design, tissue collection and regulatory requirements. This Nature Insight is freely available online for six months.