Aug 2010
Do We Really Need Posters?
31/08/10 16:54 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Blogger Ms.PhD at YoungFemaleScientist questioned whether giving and viewing poster presentations at scientific meetings todays are really worthwhile. S. Pelech argues that scientific meeting are usually called conferences, because they are venues for discussion, and scientific posters offers opportunity for discourse between new trainees and established scientists that should not be underestimated. Read More...
A Dispassionate Look at Gene Patenting
31/08/10 14:50 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Duke Law School professor James Boyle argued that gene patents are necessary to spur biotech growth, and that opponents of gene patenting are arguing from a "moral" point of view, "protesting the hubris and in some eyes, heresy, of claiming to own the human genome." S. Pelech comments that it is rather late to get worked up about patenting genes, especially since the vast majority of gene sequence information has been generated at public expense. However, he also believes that the public funding of the human genome project may well have hurt the viability of many biotech companies and the industry, and this has delayed the translation of genomic information into practical applications. Read More...
The 'Arbimagical' Goal of the $1,000 Genome
30/08/10 16:08 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Blogger Keith Robison at Omics! Omics! wants to know which gene sequencing platform, from contending companies like ABI, Complete Genomics, GNUBio, Illumina, InoTorret and Life Technologies, will win the race to the 30X, $1,000 genome. S. Pelech wonders how much it is really going to cost to have a person's genome sequenced and get the DNA sequence analyzed to yield personal information of practical value, and who is going to pay for it? Read More...
Six Degrees of Scientific Misconduct
30/08/10 15:03 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Bloggers have debated over how Marc Hauser, a high-profile and prolific researcher that was caught allegedly fabricating data, should be punished, including whether he should be exiled from science or be able to be redeemed. S. Pelech comments that the falsification of data is seen as a very serious offense in the scientific community, because scientists formulate their research plans around what is currently known, and a great deal of time, energy and resources can be wasted. However, minor falsification of data is probably pretty wide spread and is inherent in "hypothesis-driven" research, but fortunately the self-correcting nature of scientific research will eventually get to the truth of the matter. Read More...
Making a Case for Lab Rotations
23/08/10 15:25 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Blogger Comrade PhysioProf makes a case for the usefulness of lab rotations for graduate students as part of the selection process for their research supervisor and training. S. Pelech lists a few negatives for long lab rotations and describes how shorter lab rotations are used at the University of British Columbia in the Experimental Medicine Graduate Program. Read More...
The Genome of Sitting Bull
23/08/10 14:21 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Science News reported that there are plans to sequence the genomes of Sitting Bull and some would like to similarly examine the genome sequences of other famous people in history. S. Pelech wonders about the merits and logic of sequencing the genomes of long dead celebrities at this time when our knowledge of the proteome is still so limited and funding is tight, and there are more pressing demands with dealing with a depressed global economy and major environmental problems. Read More...
Mysteries of the Human Brain
19/08/10 20:44 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Ray Kurzweil in an interview in Gizmodo said that we are very close to reverse-engineering the human brain, perhaps within a decade, and that the design of the brain lies in the genome. S. Pelech argues that complexity of the brain and its formation cannot be explained from purely genetic data, but must also encompass many external factors including sensory inputs, changing effector output needs depending on the environment, energy and nutrient supply, blood flow, temperature, exposure to toxins, trauma, and psychological stress. Moreover, elucidation of the linkages between proteins and other gene products within neurons will be even more challenging. Read More...
A Good Biomarker Is Hard to Find
17/08/10 20:32 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Blogger Monica Desai of the Guardian's science blog noted that despite the discovery of thousands of biomarkers, only a small percentage reach the clinic so expectations need to be tempered about the finding of a promising new biomarker. S. Pelech observes that if one considers that many common diseases such as cancer arise from particular combinations of defective proteins, then it becomes feasible to not only provide an accurate diagnosis based on monitoring of multiple biomarkers but also to develop effective strategies for therapeutic intervention. Read More...
Make Way
16/08/10 14:39 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
With the disappearance of mandatory retirement, a debate is growing as to whether younger scholars' careers are blocked by their older (and tenured) professors. S. Pelech observes that the tenure debate has been ranging long before mandatory retirement was abolished in many countries and that tenure permits university faculty to tackle riskier research that can lead to scientific breakthroughs. Read More...
Francis Collins' Funding Problem
13/08/10 15:27 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Despite possible cutbacks in the NIH's 2012 budget, its Director Francis Collins plans to launch an award in 2011 that would make it possible for promising young investigators to skip the postdoc stage and give them five years of funding to open their own labs. S. Pelech questions whether allowing these recent graduate students to skip the postdoc stage and to providing them with 5 years of funding to open their own labs is really a faster way to waste money and doom a promising young investigator to early failure. Read More...
A Waste of Time?
11/08/10 15:31 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Blogger Robert Langreth at Forbes' Treatments observed that pharmaceutical companies have been spending a lot of money on new cancer treatments, but the results have been less than stellar, perhaps because targeted cancer treatment can't work due to the active production of more mutations in tumour cell genomes than the treatments could possibly target. S. Pelech argues that the deployment of a panel of two or three specific drugs against oncoproteins that are simultaneously overactive in the same cancer should produce a nearly 100% kill rate and effectively cure the disease if these defective proteins can be succesfully identified in biopsied specimens from a patient's tumour. Read More...
Planning, Precision, and Profit Margins
11/08/10 15:01 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Blogger Holly at From Bench to Business described four issues for any scientist-entrepreneur to consider before beginning their own bio-business: potential for failure, transition from science to business interests, development and application of a comprehensive business plan, and timelines to success. S. Pelech provides further reflections on the demands and obstacles confronting a scientist trying to start and build a biotech company. Read More...
Speculating on the Significance of the Sponge Genome
05/08/10 14:42 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Blogger T. Ryan Gregory at Genomicron observed that the recent sequencing of the Amphimedon queenslandica sponge genome is being promoted in the popular media for its potential insights into life's origins, evolution and medical significance to cancer research. S. Pelech notes that the increasingly commonplace genome sequencing of diverse organisms is really just a continuation and refinement of the Victorian tradition of naming organisms, where the DNA sequence itself is its ultimate name, albeit rather long. Read More...
Taking the Conflict-of-Interest Heat
04/08/10 14:24 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
The University of Wisconsin-Madison investigated the working relationship between cancer treatment device producer TomoTherapy and one of its cancer researchers Minesh Mehta, who subsequently resigned, apparently for other reasons. S. Pelech wonders why there seems to be relatively little concern when faculty in engineering departments provide consulting to industry or clinical scientists see patients to derive extra income, but it seems to be a huge sacrilege for faculty members in life sciences departments to consult with biotech companies and large pharma for a fee. Read More...