8,304 research outputs found
A Boost for the Emerging Field of RNA Nanotechnology: Report on the First International Conference on RNA Nanotechnology
This Nano Focus article highlights recent advances in RNA nanotechnology as presented at the First International Conference of RNA Nanotechnology and Therapeutics, which took place in Cleveland, OH, USA (October 23-25, 2010) (http;//www.eng.uc.edu/nanomedidne/RNA2010/), chaired by Peixuan Guo and co-chaired by David Rueda and Scott Tenenbaum. The conference was the first of its kind to bring together more than 30 invited speakers in the frontier of RNA nanotechnology from France, Sweden, South Korea, China, and throughout the United States to discuss RNA nanotechnology and Its applications. It provided a platform for researchers from academia, government, and the pharmaceutical industry to share existing knowledge, vision, technology, and challenges in the field and promoted collaborations among researchers interested in advancing this emerging scientific discipline. The meeting covered a range of topics, including biophysical and single-molecule approaches for characterization of RNA nanostructures; structure studies on RNA nanoparticles by chemical or biochemical approaches, computation, prediction, and modeling of RNA nanoparticle structures; methods for the assembly of RNA nanoparticles; chemistry for RNA synthesis, conjugation, and labeling; and application of RNA nanoparticles in therapeutics. A special invited talk on the well-established principles of DNA nanotechnology was arranged to provide models for RNA nanotechnology. An Administrator from National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Cancer Institute (NCI) Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer discussed the current nanocancer research directions and future funding opportunities at NCl. As indicated by the feedback received from the invited speakers and the meeting participants, this meeting was extremely successful, exciting, and informative, covering many groundbreaking findings, pioneering ideas, and novel discoveries
Nurturing Breakthroughs: Lessons from Complexity Theory
A general theory of innovation and progress in human society is outlined,
based on the combat between two opposite forces (conservatism/inertia and
speculative herding "bubble" behavior). We contend that human affairs are
characterized by ubiquitous ``bubbles'', which involve huge risks which would
not otherwise be taken using standard cost/benefit analysis. Bubbles result
from self-reinforcing positive feedbacks. This leads to explore uncharted
territories and niches whose rare successes lead to extraordinary discoveries
and provide the base for the observed accelerating development of technology
and of the economy. But the returns are very heterogeneous, very risky and may
not occur. In other words, bubbles, which are characteristic definitions of
human activity, allow huge risks to get huge returns over large scales. We
outline some underlying mathematical structure and a few results involving
positive feedbacks, emergence, heavy-tailed power laws, outliers/kings/black
swans, the problem of predictability and the illusion of control, as well as
some policy implications.Comment: 14 pages, Invited talk at the workshop Trans-disciplinary Research
Agenda for Societal Dynamics (http://www.uni-lj.si/trasd in Ljubljana),
organized by J. Rogers Hollingsworth, Karl H. Mueller, Ivan Svetlik, 24 - 25
May 2007, Ljubljana, Sloveni
A semiotic analysis of the genetic information
Terms loaded with informational connotations are often employed to refer to genes and their dynamics. Indeed, genes are usually perceived by biologists as basically ‘the carriers of hereditary information.’ Nevertheless, a number of researchers consider such talk as inadequate and ‘just metaphorical,’ thus expressing a skepticism about the use of the term ‘information’ and its derivatives in biology as a natural science. First, because the meaning of that term in biology is not as precise as it is, for instance, in the mathematical theory of communication. Second, because it seems to refer to a purported semantic property of genes without theoretically clarifying if any genuinely intrinsic semantics is involved. Biosemiotics, a field that attempts to analyze biological systems as semiotic systems, makes it possible to advance in the understanding of the concept of information in biology. From the perspective of Peircean biosemiotics, we develop here an account of genes as signs, including a detailed analysis of two fundamental processes in the genetic information system (transcription and protein synthesis) that have not been made so far in this field of research. Furthermore, we propose here an account of information based on Peircean semiotics and apply it to our analysis of transcription and protein synthesis
Report on the “Trait-based approaches to ocean life” scoping workshop, October 5-8, 2015
"Trait-based Approaches to Ocean Life” Scoping Workshop, October 5-8, 2015, Waterville Valley, NH, USAFrom the introduction: Marine ecosystems are rich and biodiverse, often populated by thousands of competing and
interacting species with a vast range of behaviors, forms, and life histories. This great ecological
complexity presents a formidable challenge to understanding how marine ecosystems are
structured and controlled, but also how they respond to natural and anthropogenic changes. The
trait-based approach to ocean life is emerging as a novel framework for understanding the
complexity, structure, and dynamics of marine ecosystems, but also their broader significance.
Rather than considering species individually, organisms are characterized by essential traits that
capture key aspects of diversity. Trait distributions in the ocean emerge through evolution and
natural selection, and are mediated by the environment, biological interactions, anthropogenic
drivers, and organism behavior. Because trait variations within and across communities lead to
variation in the rates of crucial ecosystem functions such as carbon export, this mechanistic
approach sheds light on how variability in the environment, including climate change, impacts
marine ecosystems, biogeochemical cycles, and associated feedbacks to climate and society.Funding from
the National Science Foundation and National Aeronautics and Space Administration), the Simons
Foundation, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
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Cnidofest 2018: the future is bright for cnidarian research.
The 2018 Cnidarian Model Systems Meeting (Cnidofest) was held September 6-9th at the University of Florida Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience in St. Augustine, FL. Cnidofest 2018, which built upon the momentum of Hydroidfest 2016, brought together research communities working on a broad spectrum of cnidarian organisms from North America and around the world. Meeting talks covered diverse aspects of cnidarian biology, with sessions focused on genomics, development, neurobiology, immunology, symbiosis, ecology, and evolution. In addition to interesting biology, Cnidofest also emphasized the advancement of modern research techniques. Invited technology speakers showcased the power of microfluidics and single-cell transcriptomics and demonstrated their application in cnidarian models. In this report, we provide an overview of the exciting research that was presented at the meeting and discuss opportunities for future research
The International Virus Bioinformatics Meeting 2020.
The International Virus Bioinformatics Meeting 2020 was originally planned to take place in Bern, Switzerland, in March 2020. However, the COVID-19 pandemic put a spoke in the wheel of almost all conferences to be held in 2020. After moving the conference to 8-9 October 2020, we got hit by the second wave and finally decided at short notice to go fully online. On the other hand, the pandemic has made us even more aware of the importance of accelerating research in viral bioinformatics. Advances in bioinformatics have led to improved approaches to investigate viral infections and outbreaks. The International Virus Bioinformatics Meeting 2020 has attracted approximately 120 experts in virology and bioinformatics from all over the world to join the two-day virtual meeting. Despite concerns being raised that virtual meetings lack possibilities for face-to-face discussion, the participants from this small community created a highly interactive scientific environment, engaging in lively and inspiring discussions and suggesting new research directions and questions. The meeting featured five invited and twelve contributed talks, on the four main topics: (1) proteome and RNAome of RNA viruses, (2) viral metagenomics and ecology, (3) virus evolution and classification and (4) viral infections and immunology. Further, the meeting featured 20 oral poster presentations, all of which focused on specific areas of virus bioinformatics. This report summarizes the main research findings and highlights presented at the meeting
The Evolution of Diversity
Since the beginning of time, the pre-biological and the biological world have seen a steady increase in complexity of form and function based on a process of combination and re-combination.
The current modern synthesis of evolution known as the neo-Darwinian theory emphasises population genetics and does not explain satisfactorily all other occurrences of evolutionary novelty.
The authors suggest that symbiosis and hybridisation and the more obscure processes such as polyploidy, chimerism and lateral transfer are mostly overlooked and not featured sufficiently within evolutionary theory. They suggest, therefore, a revision of the existing theory including its language, to accommodate the scientific findings of recent decades
Highlights from the Student Council Symposium 2011 at the International Conference on Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology and European Conference on Computational Biology
The Student Council (SC) of the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) organized their annual symposium in conjunction with the Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB) conference
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