Mineotaur: a tool for high-content microscopy screen sharing and visual analytics

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Dynamics of cell shape inheritance in fission yeast.

Every cell has a characteristic shape key to its fate and function. That shape is not only the product of genetic design and of the physical and biochemical environment, but it is also subject to inheritance. However, the nature and contribution of cell shape inheritance to morphogenetic control is mostly ignored. Here, we investigate morphogenetic inheritance in the cylindrically-shaped fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Focusing on sixteen different 'curved' mutants--a class of mutants which often fail to grow axially straight--we quantitatively characterize their dynamics of cell shape inheritance throughout generations. We show that mutants of similar machineries display similar dynamics of cell shape inheritance, and exploit this feature to show that persistent axial cell growth in S. pombe is secured by multiple, separable molecular pathways. Finally, we find that one of those pathways corresponds to the swc2-swr1-vps71 SWR1/SRCAP chromatin remodelling complex, which acts additively to the known mal3-tip1-mto1-mto2 microtubule and tea1-tea2-tea4-pom1 polarity machineries.This is the published manuscript. It has been published by PLoS in PLoS ONE and is available online here: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0106959

Graphic Classes in the Worldwide Classroom: A Comparison of Two MOOC Experiences

Graphics are present in the day-to-day professional practice of architects and engineers, not only to receive and transmit information, but also to design and create. Students who are accepted on university courses have varied curriculum vitae, and some may initially lack skills. Consequently, engineering schools have developed a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) entitled “The Language of Engineering” (ELI), which reviews basic geometry concepts and develops spatial intelligence, among others. The Barcelona School of Architecture has produced “From reality to design. From design to augmented reality” (RA), which covers topics including traditional architectural representation and the latest techniques. The goal of this study was to explain and analyse the main characteristics and learning strategies of these two MOOC (strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for improvement). The results show that although strategies vary depending on the subjects, the contents and exercises should be practical and adapted to students (interests, level, time availability and aesthetics), always considering motivation as a key point (gamification). These topics have been found to have a considerable influence on the success of a MOOC. Therefore, the conclusions should be considered in subsequent versions of these courses and other MOOCs.Postprint (author's final draft

Hábitos alimenticios y frecuencia de consumo de alimentos en adolescentes escolarizados

The aim of this study is to know the alimentary habits (including like and dislike foods) of adolescent students of a district of the province of Granada (Spain) between 14 and 17 year olf. The results shows that girls have breakfast less frecuently that the boys. There is a low intake of fiber and vitamins rich foods (vegatables and legumes) and a high intake of saturated fats from animal foods (sausages and meats). The teenagers, especialy the boys, begining the intake of alcohol. The knowledge of the alimentary behavior of adolescents is important of the development of nutrition education programs specific for this ages.El objeto de este trabajo ha sido conocer los hábitos alimenticios y frecuencia de consumo de alimentos de adolescentes escolarizados en un centro de Enseñanza Media de la Provincia de Granada. Los resultados más destacables son el alto porcentaje de hembras que no desayunan, el consumo bajo de alimentos ricos en fibra y vitaminas (verduras, hortalizas, legumbres) y alto de alimentos que aportan proteína animal y grasa saturada (embutidos y carnes), junto con el inicio en el consumo de alcohol y la disminución, con la edad, en el consumo de leche en hembras. Se han analizado los alimentos que más gustan y menos gustan. El conocimiento del comportamiento alimenticio de los adolescentes es importante en el desarrollo de programas de Educación Nutricional específicos para estas edades

Hábitos alimenticios y frecuencia de consumo de alimentos en adolescentes escolarizados

El objeto de este trabajo ha sido conocer los hábitos alimenticios y frecuencia de consumo de alimentos de adolescentes escolarizados en un centro de Enseñanza Media de la Provincia de Granada. Los resultados más destacables son el alto porcentaje de hembras que no desayunan, el consumo bajo de alimentos ricos en fibra y vitaminas (verduras, hortalizas, legumbres) y alto de alimentos que aportan proteína animal y grasa saturada (embutidos y carnes), junto con el inicio en el consumo de alcohol y la disminución, con la edad, en el consumo de leche en hembras. Se han analizado los alimentos que más gustan y menos gustan. El conocimiento del comportamiento alimenticio de los adolescentes es importante en el desarrollo de programas de Educación Nutricional específicos para estas edades.The aim of this study is to know the alimentary habits (including like and dislike foods) of adolescent students of a district of the province of Granada (Spain) between 14 and 17 year olf. The results shows that girls have breakfast less frecuently that the boys. There is a low intake of fiber and vitamins rich foods (vegatables and legumes) and a high intake of saturated fats from animal foods (sausages and meats). The teenagers, especialy the boys, begining the intake of alcohol. The knowledge of the alimentary behavior of adolescents is important of the development of nutrition education programs specific for this ages

From observing to predicting single-cell structure and function with high-throughput/high-content microscopy

Abstract In the past 15 years, cell-based microscopy has evolved its focus from observing cell function to aiming to predict it. In particular—powered by breakthroughs in computer vision, large-scale image analysis and machine learning—high-throughput and high-content microscopy imaging have enabled to uniquely harness single-cell information to systematically discover and annotate genes and regulatory pathways, uncover systems-level interactions and causal links between cellular processes, and begin to clarify and predict causal cellular behaviour and decision making. Here we review these developments, discuss emerging trends in the field, and describe how single-cell ‘omics and single-cell microscopy are imminently in an intersecting trajectory. The marriage of these two fields will make possible an unprecedented understanding of cell and tissue behaviour and function

Mineotaur:a tool for high-content microscopy screen sharing and visual analytics

High-throughput/high-content microscopy-based screens are powerful tools for functional genomics, yielding intracellular information down to the level of single-cells for thousands of genotypic conditions. However, accessing their data requires specialized knowledge and most often that data is no longer analyzed after initial publication. We describe Mineotaur (http://www.mineotaur.org), a open-source, downloadable web application that allows easy online sharing and interactive visualisation of large screen datasets, facilitating their dissemination and further analysis, and enhancing their impact. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13059-015-0836-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Molecular Insights into Division of Single Human Cancer Cells in On-Chip Transparent Microtubes.

In vivo, mammalian cells proliferate within 3D environments consisting of numerous microcavities and channels, which contain a variety of chemical and physical cues. External environments often differ between normal and pathological states, such as the unique spatial constraints that metastasizing cancer cells experience as they circulate the vasculature through arterioles and narrow capillaries, where they can divide and acquire elongated cylindrical shapes. While metastatic tumors cause most cancer deaths, factors impacting early cancer cell proliferation inside the vasculature and those that can promote the formation of secondary tumors remain largely unknown. Prior studies investigating confined mitosis have mainly used 2D cell culture systems. Here, we mimic aspects of metastasizing tumor cells dividing inside blood capillaries by investigating single-cell divisions of living human cancer cells, trapped inside 3D rolled-up, transparent nanomembranes. We assess the molecular effects of tubular confinement on key mitotic features, using optical high- and super-resolution microscopy. Our experiments show that tubular confinement affects the morphology and dynamics of the mitotic spindle, chromosome arrangements, and the organization of the cell cortex. Moreover, we reveal that membrane blebbing and/or associated processes act as a potential genome-safety mechanism, limiting the extent of genomic instability caused by mitosis in confined circumstances, especially in tubular 3D microenvironments. Collectively, our study demonstrates the potential of rolled-up nanomembranes for gaining molecular insights into key cellular events occurring in tubular 3D microenvironments in vivo.The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC grant agreement no. 311529 (S.S.) and the Volkswagen Foundation no. 86 362 (S.S. and W.X.), a FEBS Return-to-Europe fellowship (C.K.S.), the Wellcome Trust (092096/Z/10/Z for N.L.; 094587/Z/10/Z for R.B.), and a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Researcher Grant (R.E.C.-S.; SYSGRO). O.G.S. acknowledges financial support from the DFG Research Unit 1713 “Sensorische Mikro und Nanosysteme”. D.H.G. acknowledges funding from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the U.S. National Science Foundation (Grants: CMMI 1200241 and CBET-1442014). Research in the S.P.J. laboratory is funded by Cancer Research U.K., the ERC, and the European Community Seventh Framework Programme (DDResponse), with core infrastructure provided by Cancer Research U.K. and the Wellcome Trust.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from the American Chemical Society via http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.6b0046