The Structural Biology Membrane Proteins Group is part of the Biomolecular Research Laboratory and this belongs to the Life Sciences Department of the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI).

The PSI operates the Swiss Light Source (SLS) which offers excellent conditions for macromolecular X-ray crystallography.

Our research program which addresses a number of biological themes has a major focus in the study of membrane proteins involved in transport and signaling across cellular membranes. We aim to provide detailed structural insights into the molecular interactions and mechanisms that are essential for the biological function of the proteins and macromolecular complexes under study. For more information, please consult the individual research projects.

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The report, “Synthetic Biology: Social and Ethical Challenges“, highlights concerns about the accidental release of synthetic organisms into the environment.
Andrew Balmer and Professor Paul Martin, the report’s authors, suggest a threat from “garage biology”, with people experimenting at home. They also emphasise that there is no policy on the impact of synthetic biology on international bioweapons conventions.

For decades, scientists have been making claims about the genetic roots of mental illness, ranging from schizophrenia and depression, to bipolar disorder and attention deficit disorder (ADHD). And for decades, they’ve largely been chasing ghosts.

Eric Kandel, writing for Newsweek, makes the at-least-annual appeal that scientists are making “certain advances in genetics” which give “us new reasons for optimism” in understanding the biological basis for mental illness. As someone who’s been tracking the progress of such genetic advances over the past two decades, I have to say, I remain squarely skeptical.

It doesn’t help that Kandel’s own arguments are exercises in circular logic:

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University of Adelaide geneticist, Dr Frank Grutzner says DNA mapping of the platypus has uncovered an interesting relationship between their sex chromosomes and DNA sequences found in human ovarian cancer.
“We’ve identified DNA on the sex chromosomes of the platypus that is similar to the DNA that is affected in ovarian cancer and other diseases of reproduction like male infertility,” Dr Grutzner says.
“Cancers often show a large number of DNA changes and it is difficult to decide which ones are important for the development of the disease. The comparison with distantly related species like platypus helps us in identifying important DNA sequences that have been conserved by evolution over millions of years.

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Understanding the molecular signals that guide early cells in the embryo to develop into different organs provides insight into ways that tissues regenerate and how stem cells can be used for new therapies. With regenerated cells, researchers hope to one day fill the acute shortage in pancreatic and liver tissue available for transplantation in cases of type I diabetes and acute liver failure.

Previous studies on pancreas and liver development have focused on individual molecular signals that induce these tissues to mature from a common precursor cell population. In a new study, published this week in Science, researchers investigated a trio of cell-signaling pathways that work simultaneously, converging to direct pancreas and liver progenitor cells to mature into their final state. They looked at how BMP, TGF-beta, and FGF signaling pathways turn on genes that guide cells to ultimately become pancreas or liver tissue.
The structure of the cell-signaling network provides insight into the basis of tissue development and how it can be manipulated to facilitate pancreas and liver-cell regeneration and development from embryonic stem cells.

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The left hemisphere of the human brain controls language, arguably our greatest mental attribute. It also controls the remarkable dexterity of the human right hand. The right hemisphere is dominant in the control of, among other things, our sense of how objects interrelate in space. Forty years ago the broad scientific consensus held that, in addition to language, right-handedness and the specialization of just one side of the brain for processing spatial relations occur in humans alone. Other animals, it was thought, have no hemispheric specializations of any kind.
Those beliefs fit well with the view that people have a special evolutionary status.The left hemisphere of the human brain controls language, arguably our greatest mental attribute. It also controls the remarkable dexterity of the human right hand. The right hemisphere is dominant in the control of, among other things, our sense of how objects interrelate in space. Forty years ago the broad scientific consensus held that, in addition to language, right-handedness and the specialization of just one side of the brain for processing spatial relations occur in humans alone. Other animals, it was thought, have no hemispheric specializations of any kind.

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Robert Bruce Thompson, author of MAKE:Books' Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments, spoke at the 2008 Bay Area Maker Faire on the demise of the chemistry set. He traces the history from the good old days when chemistry sets were full of possibilities to the present day where they are very hard to obtain.

Check out the book to learn how to roll your own home chemistry lab! Video linkIllustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments. For students, DIY hobbyists, and science buffs, who can no longer get real chemistry sets, this one-of-a-kind guide explains how to set up and use a home chemistry lab, with step-by-step instructions for conducting experiments in basic chemistry.

Learn how to smelt copper, purify alcohol, synthesize rayon, test for drugs and poisons, and much more. The book includes lessons on how to equip your home chemistry lab, master laboratory skills, and work safely in your lab, along with 17 hands-on chapters that include multiple laboratory sessions.

The substantive debate on the healthcare reform is in full swing and one of the center themes is the public option. President Obama wrote recently, "I strongly believe that Americans should have the choice of a public health insurance option operating alongside private plans. This will give them a better range of choices, make the health care market more competitive, and keep insurance companies honest." The latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows strong, 76%, public support for public option (1). This is about essential choices and competition for accessible, affordable, and quality care; this is also about improving transparency, efficiency, value, and outcome. As a crucial component of the ongoing reform, sound Healthcare Information Technology (HIT) can be instrumental in realizing these objectives in a timely manner as the new healthcare system is been defined and will soon be implemented.The new national healthcare system with the public option will facilitate the coordination and standardization of HIT, clear lacking of which at the present is delaying and denying the broader benefits of myriad of well established information technologies from the majority of payers, doctors and patients alike. Among the exciting new derived capabilities, HIT will become interoperable, and serve as the platform for reliable comparative effectiveness study to lower cost and achieve better outcome, much more effective than relying on the existing dysfunctional silo based approaches.

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This is a bit old, so forgive me if you’ve heard of this ridiculous story already.

But— it seems like one dude, after suffering from a distorted “pimp sense” and chronic inferiority syndrome, decided to fix up his life and boost his self esteem…..by plating his BMW M5 in gold, complete with a chrome (platinum?) racing stripe.

There are several parts I don’t understand about his decision. First off, why? Second, if your self esteem was truly that low, why plate a M5? I assume that he is not short of money, with gold hovering at around 1000 dollars an ounce, so why not plate your Ferrrari? Or Bentley? Or Rolls? And third, if you get clipped, scratched, dented, or impacted in any way, it’s gonna be GOLD that falls off your car, instead of paint. Not to mention the problem of thieves trying to shave off your handles.

This course includes a complete set of lecture notes, plus problem sets, exams, and a term paper.Principles of Applied Mathematics is a study of illustrative topics in discrete applied mathematics including sorting algorithms, information theory, coding theory, secret codes, generating functions, linear programming, game theory. There is an emphasis on topics that have direct application in the real world.