CRISPR standards
Share your thoughts on the editorial in our June issue. Read more
Method of the Year 2016
As is our tradition every year we have chosen a method, or in this case a set of methods, that have experienced rapid growth in the last years. This year’s choice of epitranscriptome analysis does not comprise a single technique but is based on advances in detecting, enriching and profiling base modifications on all RNA species. Read more
Building core strength
Core facilities and technology centers play a vital role in advancing science. Learn more about how they impact methods dissemination (here) in this month’s editorial. Read more
Glycoscience: a tea party no longer
Later this year or early next Richard Cummings plans to launch The Human Glycome Project. It will happen during a workshop that he is currently organizing and which is open to scientists from near and far. The workshop is slated to be held at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. Also in the works is a Harvard-based center for glycoscience that reaches out to potential collaborators at all Boston-area universities and academic medical centers. Read more
Understanding and documenting variation in human genomes
To understand disease one needs to understand the genetic variations that underlie it. Many tools exist that predict the deleteriousness of variants in the human genome; PolyPhen2, SIFT or CADD (combined annotation dependent depletion), to name only a few examples. On page 109 of our March issue Yuval Itan et al. present the mutation significance cutoff (MSC) to replace a global threshold for calling variants deleterious, often used for CADD scores, with a gene-level threshold. For MSC, as for any other variant prediction tool, it was important to validate the quality of the predictions with variants known to be deleterious. Established mutation databases are often used as ground truth to test the quality of prediction tools. MSC, for example, was validated against variants found in two large databases, HGMD and ClinVar. Read more
Genomics at top-speed: Q&A with Stephen Kingsmore
Biomedical researcher Stephen Kingsmore is on the move. He has just taken on his new post running the new Rady Pediatric Genomics and Systems Medicine Institute, which is part of Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego. He is leaving Children’s Mercy Hospital (CMH) in Kansas City where he founded the Center for Pediatric Genomic Medicine. Read more
The ethics of self-organizing tissue
It becomes increasingly clear that stem cells are able to form remarkably complex structures in vitro, if they are handled right. In this month’s issue, two pieces raise the question of whether recent developments in methods for patterning embryonic stem cells in vitro raise potential ethical, regulatory or public perception concerns, or if they may do so in the future. Read more
DIY Biolabs – and why they matter
When proponents of Do-it-yourself Biology explain their motivation for getting involved in the movement they often resort to colorful imagery. Take for example Patrick D’haeseleer who helps organize the Counter Culture Labs in the San Francisco Bay Area. He asks, “When the first village tamed fire, the neighboring village was freaking out. Should only the village elders be allowed to make fire or should we teach everybody?” “Any new technology has risk, but it behooves us to have all citizens know how these technologies work and what the risks are. “ he continues, “ the technology needs to be democratized because it will dominate the 21th century.” … Read more
A physicist’s adventures in biology, funding and job-hunting:
Q&A with Ronald Walsworth who is a staff scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and a faculty member in the Harvard physics department. Read more
Funding crisis in basic research
The editorial in our November issue discusses the shortage of funding for basic science in the US and how the ramifications of funding shortfalls on society at large can be measured. But the US is not alone in facing a much tightened research budget. Read more
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Let’s give statistics the attention it deserves
Let’s give statistics the attention it deserves
Guidelines for algorithms and software in Nature Methods