Innovation/Links of note/Science/Strategy/The Narrative

Chemically evolved bacteria

Posted on by charlie

“European scientists have created an Escherichia coli strain with a separate genome using chlorinated DNA. The genome should be unable to transfer back into unmodified bacteria, leading to what the researchers call a ‘genetic firewall’.”

First arsenic, now chlorine. In my grad school days, we were studying DNA-protein interactions by modifying specific atoms on the DNA. With this bacteria, it would be interesting to see how the overall biochemistry and enzymatic changes. Opens up a whole new way of studying biochemistry.

And I’d really like to know how they set up their continuous culture system.

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Links of note/Science/Strategy

Patients, Caregivers Willing To Buy Health Monitoring Devices — InformationWeek

Posted on by charlie

“Nearly 8 of out 10 Americans are willing to pay up to $100 for a medical device that monitors their vital signs, according to an IBM survey that tracks trends in the use of mobile devices in healthcare. Fewer than 10% of respondents are paying out-of-pocket charges for such devices today, but more than one-third expect to do so within the next two years.”

This is great. Trends in miniaturization of sensors, mobile connectivity, and accountable care are creating the right conditions for health sensors to boom. This article summarizes a survey done by IBM (disclaimer: my employer) with a whole slew of very interesting findings – a state of the market, so to speak.

Do you know anyone using mobile snsored devices to track health info for their health care provider?

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Announcements/Innovation/Links of note/Science

Comprendia and New England Biolabs Connect Epigenetics Scientists – PRNewsWire

Posted on by charlie

“Comprendia, leading developer of web 2.0 and social media tools for the life sciences, sponsored by molecular biology reagents provider New England Biolabs, Inc. (NEB), is introducing an online resource that will support epigenetics research. Epigenetics is a quickly growing field with important implications for oncology, neurology, metabolism and disease mechanisms. ‘Engaging Epigenetics Experts’ (E3) is an online community that will allow epigenetics researchers to more easily connect so they can leverage their collective, interdisciplinary knowledge in a way that has not been possible before.”

From the press release. I’m always interested in how social web tools are applied to science and research. I know that Comprendia is constantly pounding the drum for social web tools for scientists. It’s great to see them working with such and esteemed company like NEB.

Do you know anyone who will use, uses, or has used E3 [http://www.epiexperts.com/]?

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Links of note/The Narrative

Trillium toasts to local ingredients, tastes – BostonHerald.com

Posted on by charlie

“A Brookline home brewer cleared a major hurdle this week on the way to opening a brewery of “farmhouse”-style beer in Fort Point. “It’s not a come-and-have-pints-all-night type place, it’s a come-and-have-a-sampler type place,” said Trillium Brewing Co. owner Jean-Claude Tetrault, 34. Trillium, which will have a storefront with a small tasting bar, scored a zoning variance Tuesday that allows for the manufacturing of beer on the site. Tetrault will apply for state and federal licensing in the next few weeks.”

This is indeed a nice story. Looking forward to having a few of their beers.

[via @IDBoston]

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Links of note/Science

PLoS ONE: The Gut as Reservoir of Antibiotic Resistance: Microbial Diversity of Tetracycline Resistance in Mother and Infant

Posted on by charlie

“These findings reinforce the notion that the human GIT is currently a relevant environment for the spread of antibiotic resistances, even in the case of young infants that solely ingest maternal milk. Further analyses involving more mother-infant pairs will be required in order to establish whether the trends observed in this case study describe the general relationship between mother and infant antibiotic resistomes.”

This is really interesting. To me, mother-child form one closely tied ecosystem, so it’s not surprising that bacteria take advantage of that to move locations or capture resistance genes from other bugs. What’s good about a report like this is that it once again reinforces the need to re-evaluate the flow of organisms and information in the human-microbial ecosystem and implications for medicine and health.

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Innovation/Links of note/Strategy/The Narrative

In Massachusetts, entrepreneurs are on a mission to make a difference – The Boston Globe

Posted on by charlie

“I was knocking back a Harpoon IPA last week in an old textile warehouse in Boston, thinking about what Massachusetts will mean to the global economy in this century. The beer had been brewed by a company headquartered just a few blocks away, in the Seaport District. But it had been chilled in a giant steel vat designed by another company, Promethean Power Systems. Promethean is developing technology that uses energy from the sun to operate a refrigerator, intended to help farmers in developing countries keep milk and produce fresh longer, increasing their earnings. The sun-cooled beer was being served at a grand opening party for Greentown Labs, a grungy-but-proud-of-it workspace occupied by Promethean and eight other start-up companies developing new energy-related technologies.”

Very nice article about the new businesses cropping up in the state that are creating wold-changing products and services. Fits in well with some of my thoughts on the philanthropy of business.

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Links of note/Science

Probiotics In Future May Be Prescribed For Your Neurological Well-Being – Medical News Today

Posted on by charlie

“The study was led by Professor Mark Lyte and has been published recently in BioEssays. The researchers have proposed that neuroactive compounds if delivered via neurochemical-producing probiotics could help improve a host’s gastrointestinal and psychological health. These probiotics could be prepared for delivery of the compound using a unifying process of microbial endocrinology.”This paper proposes a new field of microbial endocrinology, where microbiology meets neuroscience,” said Lyte.”

I’ve seen a few papers talking about immunoregulation by gut bacteria. Here’s a report on neuroregulation. Pretty cool.

[via @microbeworld]

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Innovation/Links of note/Science/Strategy

Open access comes of age : Nature News

Posted on by charlie

“A study of open-access publishing — published last week in the open-access journal PLoS ONE — has found that the number of papers in freely accessible journals is growing at a steady 20% per year (M. Laakso et al. PLoS ONE 6, e20961; 2011). To many, the growth confirms the health of the free-access, author-pays model. But to a few it is a discouraging sign that open access is not about to take over the world of scholarly publishing.”

This is heartening, and I suppose 20 years is not enough to change a model that is 400 years old. Nonetheless, I saw one figure that 30% of all published science is freely available and open access. Not bad. Especially where there is some good stuff out there. PLoS has been kicking butt, and Nature and some other big groups are starting to step up as well. Let’s see how it goes!

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Links of note/Science

Navy probe descends on bacteria power | SmartPlanet

Posted on by charlie

“The U.S. Navy has enlisted some very tiny sailors to fuel their latest research vessel. Microorganisms are descending into the sea, enabling unmanned pods to gather data beneath the surface. Weeks later, (perhaps even years researchers say), the craft could emerge via power it had generated on board. No batteries required—just bacteria.”

This is cool.

[via @microbeworld]

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Links of note/Science/Strategy/The Narrative

Three Biomedical Funders to Launch Open Access Journal – ScienceInsider

Posted on by charlie

“Three heavyweight, nongovernmental funders of science announced today that they are launching a free online biology journal aimed at publishing the very best papers within a few weeks of submission. But few confirmed details are available about the journal, which doesn’t yet have a name, editor, publisher, or business model.”

These are big organizations, backing an old, but still small, area of science publishing. The good thing is that these organizations bring yet another business model for open access publication, and they have the funds to be patient before the venture funds itself.

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