These things take time ...

Things in my lab are a mess right now .... well maybe its not that bad, but I think they could be better. But its going to take a lot of hard work. I keep reading this quote from Kurt Warner:

“Most times when you do something great, it’s not overnight,” he said. “It’s not something that comes easy. It comes with a lot of hard work, a lot of time, a lot of commitment.” - Kurt Warner, on leading the Cardinals to their first Super Bowl in franchise history

Academic Freedom at BC

Since I'm a graduate student, I might as well live in a cave. I'm not not in tune on what's going on at this campus,but this caught my attention. Last month Bill Ayers was supposed to give a talk at BC. At the last minute, the talk was canceled. The Boston Phoenix has a good recap of the events . From the article

When they invited Ayers to speak earlier in the year, student organizers had anticipated a controversy — not because of his proposed urban-education reform lecture, but because of his "domestic terrorist" label, fueled by the 2008 presidential campaign. To play it safe, they sought administrative approval for his appearance weeks in advance. BC officials told students that beefed-up security — including undercover cops — would be necessary, but that the show could go forward.

That all changed on Friday, March 27, just three days before Ayers's scheduled appearance, when administrators dropped the ax.

The brouhaha began when WTKK-FM (96.9) radio host Michael Graham — Boston's maestro of conservative controversies — slammed BC for hosting this "friend of the cop killers."

BC spokesman Jack Dunn, in a March 27 interview with Graham, said: "We hope the students who invited him will make the right decision, but if they don't, the administration will allow the [Ayers speech] to take place." Graham posted this quote, as well as the contact information for BC's president, directors of student affairs, and campus ministry, on his Web site.

What happened next is widely disputed, but one fact is certain: hours after Dunn's interview on WTKK, the event was canceled.

Some students and faculty suggest that wealthy BC alumni, spurred by Graham's rhetoric, threatened to withdraw donations — a claim that BC vehemently denies. Dunn told the Phoenix that the sole motivating factor was to ensure student safety "in light of an emotionally charged protest from the community." (Attempts by the Phoenix to contact decision-making administrators directly were ignored.)

This is total B.S. from the BC administration. It all comes down to $$$. What probably happened is a bunch of donors complained to BC and threatened to take away their donations. Unfortunately, the administration capitulated. Read the article for more details. But BC did a disservice to universities everywhere by not extending academic freedom to its students.

Recreational Genomics

Going along with the theme of genomics from yesterday's post , over at Gene Expression links to a couple of papers on genomics published in New England Journal of Medicine . Nicholas Wade summarizes them in the NY Times . David Goldstein, geneticist at Duke University and a thoughtful critic of genomewide association studies, has a funny quote as to what he things current personal genomics companies like 23AndMe are actually doing:

“With only a few exceptions, what the genomics companies are doing right now is recreational genomics,” Dr. Goldstein said in an interview. “The information has little or in many cases no clinical relevance.”

Doctors and genomics

A long time ago I thought I wanted to go to medical school. Then I discovered genetics was pretty cool and decided basic research was what I wanted to do. I don't regret the decision (most days), but over at Genetic Future there is a great blog post on preparing physicians to face the coming on-slaught of personal genomics data .

A doctor friend told me once they only spend maybe 2 to 3 weeks on genetics during their basic science curriculum. But if genomic medicine is going to advance, this is going to have to change. Maybe I should get together with some of my friends to start a continuing medical education class on genomics!

Viticulture

Any person, any study .

Homology is like being pregnant

From the Wikipedia article on homology

The phrase "percent homology" is sometimes used but is incorrect. "Percent identity" or "percent similarity" should be used to quantify the similarity between the biomolecule sequences. For two naturally occurring sequences, percent identity is a factual measurement, whereas homology is a hypothesis supported by evidence. One can, however, refer to partial homology where a fraction of the sequences compared (are presumed to) share descent, while the rest does not. For example, partial homology may result from a gene fusion event.

From the 5th edition of Lodish et. al. Molecular Cell Biology referring to ABC transport proteins

The sequences of the A domains are 30-40% homologous in all members of this superfamily, indicating a common evolutionary origin.

I miss Ithaca

There I said it.

Three years there and it grew on me. I miss running into my friends at Wegmans. I miss The Chapter House. I miss The Statler. I miss Taughanock Falls. . I miss bike rides on roads with no traffic. I miss running around the Cornell campus at lunch time. I miss striking up conversations with TCAT bus drivers (at least the friendly ones). I miss the cherry blossoms on the Slope. I miss a lot of things. Who knew a city in the middle of nowhere could grow on you?