In the previous post we looked into basics of LR asymmetry and why it is important to understand the mechanics governing it. Recent work from the lab of Nipam Patel ,University of California, Berkeley,has shown that the same genes have been responsible for establishing the left-right asymmetry of animals for 500-650 million years, originating in the last common ancestor of all animals with bilateral body organization, creatures that include everything from worms to humans.
As discussed in the first part of this post that despite humans’ superficial symmetry,we are anything but …

Full time Postdoc/Research Assistant (Basic Salary £27,466, Grade I)
The role of PDZ scaffold CASK and CaMKII signalling in synaptic plasticity and learning.
Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council Grant
Start Date: From 1 Feb 09 (Period on Project: 36 months)
The successful candidate will be engaged in full time research into molecular mechanisms of synaptic plasticity and learning using Drosophila. The project will involve:
(1) Calcium imaging and optical manipulation of activity of neural circuits underlying learning
(2) Learning assays (Olfactory-shock conditioning)
(3) Mutagenesis (P-elements and transgenes)
(4) Immunohistochemistry and various imaging techniques

Introduction Symmetry:
A major and long-standing goal of developmental biology is to understand how embryos initially know their left and right hand sides, a process known as “symmetry breaking”. If you look for symmetry in wikipedia ,you will land on an article which starts saying
” Symmetry generally conveys two primary meanings. The first is an imprecise sense of harmonious or aesthetically-pleasing proportionality and balance[citation needed]; such that it reflects beauty or perfection. The second meaning is a precise and well-defined concept of balance or “patterned self-similarity” that can be demonstrated or …

“Encyclopedia of Life Sciences”(ELS) by Wiley Interscience is an excellent resource for life sciences on web for Scientists, students and teachers. ELS consisits of 4,300 specially commissioned and peer-reviewed articles (and keeps growing) gives one an idea about the amount of information it houses making it an essential read for all aspects of life sciences and this also makes it an valuable resource for teaching. All articles for ELS are written by eminent scientists from the field ,which provides the readers comprehensive knowledge on the topic and in rather understandable …

Signal transduction pathways play a pivotal role in growth and patterning various tissues in animals and some of these pathways are very much conserved in evolution from Sponges to Humans. Wnt/Wingless (Wg) and TGFβ/BMP/dpp are perfect examples of highly conserved signaling pathways in evolution and any aberrant functioning of these vital pathways will lead to various cancers.To get more insights into aberrant development and cancers that results when regulation of signalling is disrupted, Esther M. Verheyen’s group studied the mechanism of interaction between Drosophila Wg and BMP signaling in which …

Biology classrooms are not the same anymore ,since the advent of Internet teachers are using various formats like multimedia to put their thoughts across to students.The Web allows the incorporation of animation, moving pictures, and sound into lessons, which helps the students understand the subject better and rather in quick time. Everyone will agree with me that students will take more interest in learning when they see experiments in front of their eyes, see microorganisms up close, and use a mouse to navigate images.

Technology of DNA sequencing is improving with every passing day. Modern sequencing equipment uses the principles of the Sanger dideoxynucleotide technique ,which appears to have reached its limit for technological improvements.Many companies like Applied Biosystems are offering faster and cheaper sequence information in far greater volumes than ever before.Thanks to these innovations in DNA sequencing ,which enabled research that would be impractical and too expensive using the Sanger technology.