Co-creating Change

The open, flexible workplace modeled after best practices from Silicon Valley is hailed for promoting better communication, collaboration, and increased productivity. IT is known as a university change agent, but at IU Bloomington the future move into the new Cyberinfrastructure Building meant change on a radical scale, in every aspect of the workplace: physical space, business practices, and social and cultural environment. Many IT staff anticipated loss of privacy, personal space, and individuality. The challenge facing the executive project lead was to help staff begin to embrace the new culture while still occupying their old offices, a challenge not amenable to executive mandate or the change management process customary in IT. The solution was an experiment. Teams of staff led their co-workers in an organic process of articulating and addressing the issues, believing that socializing the change would encourage buy-in and investment and restore some sense of control. The experiment broke many models: Self-governing teams lead the initiative; teams crossed hierarchies and divisional boundaries. Team leads were sometimes junior staff. The book discusses the experiment and the many small and large decisions and strategies that helped make it a success: The process of creating teams, language and communication, situational leadership, the role of humor, team strategies for engaging staff, and team interactions with architects and planners. Teamwork was challenging — the organic process provided no steps to follow — but the team experience provided another benefit beyond socializing change: that of building leadership in the trenches. This experience involves a building, but the principles of change it confirms can apply to any kind of change, from altering the structure of a business to changing a culture. The discussion may be of interest to those in human resources, industrial psychology, sociology, business, academe, and architectur

Cell and molecular transitions during efficient dedifferentiation

Dedifferentiation is a critical response to tissue damage, yet is not well understood, even at a basic phenomenological level. Developing Dictyostelium cells undergo highly efficient dedifferentiation, completed by most cells within 24 hr. We use this rapid response to investigate the control features of dedifferentiation, combining single cell imaging with high temporal resolution transcriptomics. Gene expression during dedifferentiation was predominantly a simple reversal of developmental changes, with expression changes not following this pattern primarily associated with ribosome biogenesis. Mutation of genes induced early in dedifferentiation did not strongly perturb the reversal of development. This apparent robustness may arise from adaptability of cells: the relative temporal ordering of cell and molecular events was not absolute, suggesting cell programmes reach the same end using different mechanisms. In addition, although cells start from different fates, they rapidly converged on a single expression trajectory. These regulatory features may contribute to dedifferentiation responses during regeneration

Smart-aggregation imaging for single molecule localisation with SPAD cameras

Single molecule localisation microscopy (SMLM) has become an essential part of the super-resolution toolbox for probing cellular structure and function. The rapid evolution of these techniques has outstripped detector development and faster, more sensitive cameras are required to further improve localisation certainty. Single-photon avalanche photodiode (SPAD) array cameras offer single-photon sensitivity, very high frame rates and zero readout noise, making them a potentially ideal detector for ultra-fast imaging and SMLM experiments. However, performance traditionally falls behind that of emCCD and sCMOS devices due to lower photon detection efficiency. Here we demonstrate, both experimentally and through simulations, that the sensitivity of a binary SPAD camera in SMLM experiments can be improved significantly by aggregating only frames containing signal, and that this leads to smaller datasets and competitive performance with that of existing detectors. The simulations also indicate that with predicted future advances in SPAD camera technology, SPAD devices will outperform existing scientific cameras when capturing fast temporal dynamics

Cell-type specific RNA-Seq reveals novel roles and regulatory programs for terminally differentiated Dictyostelium cells

Abstract Background A major hallmark of multicellular evolution is increasing complexity by the evolution of new specialized cell types. During Dictyostelid evolution novel specialization occurred within taxon group 4. We here aim to retrace the nature and ancestry of the novel “cup” cells by comparing their transcriptome to that of other cell types. Results RNA-Seq was performed on purified mature spore, stalk and cup cells and on vegetative amoebas. Clustering and phylogenetic analyses showed that cup cells were most similar to stalk cells, suggesting that they share a common ancestor. The affinity between cup and stalk cells was also evident from promoter-reporter studies of newly identified cell-type genes, which revealed late expression in cups of many stalk genes. However, GO enrichment analysis reveal the unexpected prominence of GTPase mediated signalling in cup cells, in contrast to enrichment of autophagy and cell wall synthesis related transcripts in stalk cells. Combining the cell type RNA-Seq data with developmental expression profiles revealed complex expression dynamics in each cell type as well as genes exclusively expressed during terminal differentiation. Most notable were nine related hssA-like genes that were highly and exclusively expressed in cup cells. Conclusions This study reveals the unique transcriptomes of the mature cup, stalk and spore cells of D. discoideum and provides insight into the ancestry of cup cells and roles in signalling that were not previously realized. The data presented in this study will serve as an important resource for future studies into the regulation and evolution of cell type specialization

Ouabain Stimulates a Na+/K+-ATPase-Mediated SFK-Activated Signalling Pathway That Regulates Tight Junction Function in the Mouse Blastocyst

The Na+/K+-ATPase plays a pivotal role during preimplantation development; it establishes a trans-epithelial ionic gradient that facilitates the formation of the fluid-filled blastocyst cavity, crucial for implantation and successful pregnancy. The Na+/K+-ATPase is also implicated in regulating tight junctions and cardiotonic steroid (CTS)-induced signal transduction via SRC. We investigated the expression of SRC family kinase (SFK) members, Src and Yes, during preimplantation development and determined whether SFK activity is required for blastocyst formation. Embryos were collected following super-ovulation of CD1 or MF1 female mice. RT-PCR was used to detect SFK mRNAs encoding Src and Yes throughout preimplantation development. SRC and YES protein were localized throughout preimplantation development. Treatment of mouse morulae with the SFK inhibitors PP2 and SU6656 for 18 hours resulted in a reversible blockade of progression to the blastocyst stage. Blastocysts treated with 10−3 M ouabain for 2 or 10 minutes and immediately immunostained for phosphorylation at SRC tyr418 displayed reduced phosphorylation while in contrast blastocysts treated with 10−4 M displayed increased tyr418 fluorescence. SFK inhibition increased and SFK activation reduced trophectoderm tight junction permeability in blastocysts. The results demonstrate that SFKs are expressed during preimplantation development and that SFK activity is required for blastocyst formation and is an important mediator of trophectoderm tight junction permeability