Category: Being a Scientist

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You’ve Got Questions, We’ve Got Answers: Cell Day 2016

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Students from Connecticut to Washington State and points in between peppered our experts with questions during the recent live Cell Day web chat. They fielded questions about cell structures, microscopes and other tools, life as a scientist, and whether there are still discoveries to be made in cell biology. One of the Cell Day moderators, Jessica Faupel-Badger, even gave a shout-out to the Biomedical Beat blog as a great way to keep up with new and exciting discoveries being made every day. Thanks!

The full transcript with all the questions and answers is now available. We’ve recapped some of the highlights below.

[Check out our Facebook Live post-chat video Exit icon for a bonus answer to the question “If you put lizard DNA into human cells, could humans regrow their limbs?”]

Being a Scientist

Patrick Brown
Prior to joining NIGMS in 2016 as a program director, Patrick Brown, was a high school chemistry teacher in Maryland.

What do you think is the best thing about being a biologist? Why do you love your job so much? (Assuming you do!)

Patrick Brown answered: I love that question! And, I love being a scientist. There are so many things that I like about my career choice. The answer is simple—I like learning! I like learning about different living organisms and how they may be the same or different. I also really enjoy the multi-cultural aspect of science. I get to interact with so many different people from different parts of the world who are all studying different aspects of science that are just as interesting as my own, and we are all interested in knowing more about life.

Gram stained cerebrospinal fluid with gram-positive anthrax bacilli. Credit: Wikimedia Commons, Yuval Madar.

How did you know that biology was the career for you? In other words, what motivated you to become a biologist?

Amy Kullas answered: I remember being in my high school biology class, gazing through a microscope, and seeing the mixture of beautiful purple and pink cocci after performing my first Gram stain Exit icon. It was at that moment that I got hooked on science. I majored in microbiology in college and then went on to graduate school.

What does a typical day at work look like?

Amicia Elliott answered: The truth is that every day at work is an adventure. A typical day includes some of the following things: reading scientific papers, thinking about and designing experiments (my favorite part!), carrying out those experiments, data analysis and discussing results. Scientists work long hours to accomplish all of these things, but it is mostly a labor of love!

In a 2014 Molecular Cell Exit icon paper, NIGMS Director Jon Lorsch and colleagues determined the structure of initiation complexes.

What was the most interesting experiment you have conducted?

Jon Lorsch answered: In my lab, we study how proteins are synthesized by the eukaryotic ribosome. We have learned a great deal about how the ribosome and the proteins that help it (called translation factors) find the start codon in the messenger RNA. Recently, in collaboration with a group in the UK, we used cryo-electron microscopy to determine the three-dimensional structure of various ‘initiation complexes’ – the small subunit of the ribosome bound to mRNA, tRNA and initiation factors. Being able to see how this process works in three dimensions is amazing!
Continue reading “You’ve Got Questions, We’ve Got Answers: Cell Day 2016”

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Interview With a Scientist: Laura Kiessling, Carbohydrate Scientist

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The outside of every cell on Earth—from the cells in your body to single-celled microorganisms—is blanketed with a coat of carbohydrates, or sugar molecules, that extend from the cell surface, branching off and bending as they interface with the extra-cellular space. The specific patterns in which these carbohydrates are arranged serve as an ID code that help cells recognize each other. For example, human liver cells have one pattern, while human red blood cells another. Certain diseases can even alter the pattern of surface carbohydrates, which is one way the body can recognize damaged cells. On foreign cells, including invading bacteria such as Streptococcus pneumoniae, the carbohydrate coat is even more distinct.

Laura Kiessling, a professor of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, studies how carbohydrate coats are assembled and how cells use these coats to tell friend from foe. The implications of her research suggest strategies for targeting tumors, fighting diseases of inflammation and, as she discusses in this video, developing new classes of antibiotics.

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Get Your Cell Biology Questions Ready for Cell Day

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What do you get when you mix a room full of scientists with a classroom full of students who have questions about cells? Cell Day 2016! During this free web chat, middle and high school students will have the opportunity to ask our scientists at NIGMS about cell biology, biochemistry, research careers and more. Join us on Thursday, November 3 anytime from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. EDT. Registration (no longer available).

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The Science of Size: Rebecca Heald Explores Size Control in Amphibians

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Rebecca Heald
Credit: Mark Hanson.
Rebecca Heald
Grew up in: Greenville, Pennsylvania
Studied at: Hamilton College, Rice University, Harvard Medical School
Job site: University of California, Berkeley
Favorite hobby: Cycling

A 50-pound frog isn’t some freak of nature or a creepy Halloween prank. It’s a thought experiment conceived by Rebecca Heald, a cell biologist at the University of California, Berkeley Exit icon, who is studying the factors that control size in animals.

Heald’s “50-pound frog project” speaks to the power of evolution and to scientists’ ability to modify the physical characteristics of an organism by altering its genome. The project also incorporates many of Heald’s fascinating discoveries studying amphibian eggs and embryos.

In amphibians, unlike in mammals, there are striking correlations among the size of the animals’ genomes (an organism’s complete set of genes) and several aspects of the animals’ size. For example, amphibians with large genomes tend to be bigger than those with smaller genomes. Larger genomes also correspond to larger cells and larger organelles (specialized cellular structures such as the nucleus). Heald has also demonstrated that these seemingly fixed parameters can be tweaked in the lab. Continue reading “The Science of Size: Rebecca Heald Explores Size Control in Amphibians”

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Interview With a Scientist: Janet Iwasa, Molecular Animator

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The world beneath our skin is full of movement. Hemoglobin in our blood grabs oxygen and delivers it throughout the body. Molecular motors in cells chug along tiny tubes, hauling cargo with them. Biological invaders like viruses enter our bodies, hijack our cells and reproduce wildly before bursting out to infect other cells.

To make sense of the subcutaneous world, Janet Iwasa, a molecular animator at the University of Utah, creates “visual hypotheses”—detailed animations that convey the latest thinking of how biological molecules interact.

“It’s really building the animated model that brings insights,” Iwasa told Biomedical Beat in 2014. “When you’re creating an animation, you’re really grappling with a lot of issues that don’t necessarily come up by any other means. In some cases, it might raise more questions, and make people go back and do some more experiments when they realize there might be something missing.”

Iwasa has collaborated with numerous scientists to develop animations of a range of biological processes and structures Exit icon. Recently, she’s undertaken an ambitious, multi-year project to animate HIV reproduction Exit icon.

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Protein Paradox: Enrique De La Cruz Aims to Understand Actin

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Enrique M. De La Cruz
Credit: Jeff Foley, American Heart Association.
Enrique M. De La Cruz
Grew up in: Newark and Kearny, New Jersey
Job site: Yale University
Favorite food: His mom’s Spanish-style polenta (harina de maíz)
Alternative career: Managing a vinyl record shop
Favorite song: “Do Anything You Wanna Do” by Eddie & The Hot Rods

Enrique De La Cruz stood off to the side in a packed room. As he waited for his turn to speak, he stroked the beads of a necklace. Was he nervous? Quietly praying? When he took center stage, the purpose of the strand became clear.

Like a magician—and dressed all in black—De La Cruz held up the necklace with two hands so everyone, even those sitting in the back, could see it. It was made of snap-together beads. De La Cruz waved the strand. It wiggled in different directions. Then, with no sleight of hand, he popped off one of the beads. The necklace broke into two.

For the next hour, De La Cruz pulled out one prop after another: a piece of rope from his pocket, a pencil tucked behind his ear and even a fresh spear of asparagus stuffed in his backpack. At one point, De La Cruz assembled a conga line with people in the front row. Continue reading “Protein Paradox: Enrique De La Cruz Aims to Understand Actin”

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Ticks, Mice and Microbes—Studying Disease Spread

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Maria Diuk-Wasser
Credit: Oscar Gonzalez (Diuk-Wasser’s husband)
Maria Diuk-Wasser
Hometown: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Childhood dream job: Veterinarian
Hobbies: Hiking and gardening with her son (age 10) and daughter (age 7)
Favorite music: Salsa
Worksite: Lab at Columbia University and forests in coastal New England

Maria Diuk-Wasser grew up on the 10th floor of an apartment building in the middle of a bustling city. With no forests or meadows nearby, she read book after book about the natural world and surrounded herself with houseplants.

“I yearned for nature,” Diuk-Wasser says. “But my parents couldn’t provide it. They’re city people. They didn’t know anything about hiking or camping.”

These days, Diuk-Wasser still spends a lot of time in a city—she’s a professor at Columbia University in New York, the most populous city in the U.S.—but she also gets plenty of time in the woods. She hikes for hours through coastal New England forests, some of the loveliest in the country, searching for what many consider less-than-lovely inhabitants: mice and ticks. Continue reading “Ticks, Mice and Microbes—Studying Disease Spread”

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Finding Adventure: Blake Wiedenheft’s Path to Gene Editing

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Blake Wiedenheft
Blake Wiedenheft
Grew up in: Fort Peck, Montana
Fields: Microbiology, biochemistry, structural biology
Job site: Montana State University
Secret talent: Being a generalist; enjoying many different subjects and activities
When not in the lab, he’s: Running, biking, skiing or playing scrabble with his grandmother

Scientific discoveries are often stories of adventure. This is the realization that set Blake Wiedenheft on a path toward one of the hottest areas in biology.

His story begins in Montana, where he grew up and now lives. Always exploring different interests, Wiedenheft decided in his final semester at Montana State University (MSU) in Bozeman to volunteer for Mark Young, a scientist who studies plant viruses. Even though he majored in biology, Wiedenheft had spent little time in a lab and hadn’t even considered research as a career option. Continue reading “Finding Adventure: Blake Wiedenheft’s Path to Gene Editing”

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Meet a Globe-Trotting Chemist and Builder of “Smart Molecules”

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Janarthanan Jayawickramarajah
Jayawickramarajah taking a “selfie” with “The Bean,”
a large, highly reflective sculpture in Chicago
Credit: Janarthanan Jayawickramarajah
Janarthanan Jayawickramarajah
Born in: Kandy, Sri Lanka
Job site: Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana
Alternate career choice: Anthropologist
Favorite sports teams: Sri Lanka national cricket team, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Tar Heels basketball, New Orleans Saints football
Favorite weekend activity: Strolling through parks with his wife and two kids and stopping for coffee and beignets (a New Orleans treat, a lot like a doughnut covered in powdered sugar)

In a way, Janarthanan Jayawickramarajah is like an architect. But rather than sketching plans for homes or buildings, he creates molecules designed to detect and destroy cancer cells. Continue reading “Meet a Globe-Trotting Chemist and Builder of “Smart Molecules””

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Sharing ‘Behind the Scene’ Stories About Scientific Discoveries

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If a picture is worth a thousand words, what’s a video worth? For cell biologist Ron Vale, it’s priceless.

Screen shot from the video
In this iBiology Exit icon “discovery talk,” Ron Vale describes the twists and turns that led him to unexpected findings, including a motor protein involved in important cellular processes.

In 2006, Vale started a video-based science outreach project called iBiology Exit icon to give people around the world broader access to research seminars. The free online videos, which cover a range of biomedical fields and career-related topics, take viewers behind the scenes of scientific findings and convey the excitement of the discovery process.

While geared mostly for undergraduate students, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, the videos are also a rich resource for anyone who wants a better understanding of many biomedical areas, including those we cover on this blog. Continue reading “Sharing ‘Behind the Scene’ Stories About Scientific Discoveries”