Hoxful Monsters

The research training program Graduiertenkolleg 1104 (From Cells to Organs: Molecular Mechanisms of Organogenesis) is a DFG-funded research program joining developmental biologists in the Faculty of Biology, the Faculty of Medicine,and the Max-Planck- Institute of Immunobiology in Freiburg with the aim to create an innovative training program for graduate students.

Heard about the exhibition of paintings by Apes? I thought it could be some brush strokes here and there on canvas but i was shocked to see the skill of these great Apes,which are on display in Iowa.

Yesterday I stumbled upon a beautiful website ,displaying some breathtaking Drosophila images. Drosophila Image Award Website is supported by Genetics society of America, has initiated an annual award to recognize the importance of images in the field of Drosophila research. By doing this they encourage the continued generation of compelling images that communicate important biological results relevant to Drosophila.

Brian Switek who writes an excellent blog Laelaps needs our help to win 2008 Blogging Scholarships. He made it into top 20 and now the winner will be chosen by voting.The winner will win 10000 dollars and might help Switek to pay his fees for final semester.Please help and support Brian by voting for him ,(and if possible pass on this message to your friends)as i did just now.
Good luck Brian !!!

Apologies for not updating the blog for past few days ,being in final year of p.hd it gets sometimes very difficult to get some time out for blog. Need to finish many experiments in order to get my project in some good shape. Lot of genetic experiments and also invitro stuff are keeping me busy.But will try to write some updates as many interesting things are coming up in the field of evolution and developmental biology. Today we will check some interesting articles and reviews which appeared last week …

A post-doctoral position is available in the laboratory of Marie-Anne Felix, Institut Jacques Monod, CNRS- University Paris 7, Paris, France, starting in the spring of 2009. Possible projects include quantitative studies of the inter cellular signalling network involved in C. elegans vulva development and evolutionary studies of vulva development in the Caenorhabditis genus. For interested candidates, please send a letter of motivation, a Curriculum Vitae and a list of three referees.
Marie-Anne Felix e-mail:felix@ijm.jussieu.fr

Its really heartening to read an article which has neatly designed genetic experiments because its not very often you come across such great genetic work.It surprised me a bit initially not see any biochemical evidence but I personally like this way, may be being a geneticist at heart.Latest issue of development contains an article from the group of Ernesto Sanchez herrero ( an exceptional geneticist) dealing with autoregulation of Hox gene Ultrabithorax (Ubx). Infact autoregulation of Ubx was known since early 90’s but not much was known about mechanism involved …