Bio! News
October, 2011 - A
The European Regional Jamboree took place on October 1 and 2 in Amsterdam. Twenty teams out of fifty made it to the World Championship, which is to be held in Boston, on November 5-7. The Imperial College team was awarded as the Regional Winner. The Paris Bettencourt team, as well as the University of Witwatersrand, were the two other finalists.
The Americas Regional Jamboree took place from October 8 through 10 in Indianapolis. Twenty-six teams out of sixty-four made it to the World Championship. The Washington University team was awarded as the Regional Winner. The other finalists were team Brown-Stanford, team Lethbridge and team Yale.
Scientists at Caltech have developed a new lenseless microscopy device capable of imaging samples of image samples of area 6 mm × 4 mm at 660-nm resolution. The device can be used for building smart Petri dish platforms, or ePetri, which offer a solution for continuous monitoring of cell cultures, avoiding contamination and variation due to human handling.
Stem cells produced by oocyte genome exchange
Previous attempts to reprogram human differentiated cells using oocytes have been unfruitful because they were based on removing completely the oocyte's genome. These attempts commonly resulted on the cell division arrest of the genome-transfered oocyte during the 6-10 cell stage. Now, a group led by Dr. Dieter Egli from The New York Stem Cell Foundation Laboratory, reported the successful reprogramming of human differentiated cells onto the blastocyst stage. Two triploid cell lines were derived from these blastocysts.
The PhD Movie
The existential troubles of grade students are reflected on a film co-produced by Caltech and based on the famous comic strip by Jorge Cham. Follow Cecilia, Mike, Tajel and the “Nameless Grad Student” through their journey in the academia life.
