Molecular diagnostic tests: Keeping up with mutations

Keeping up with Change

Keeping up with calcium

Our understanding of how calcium functions as a second messenger continues to increase at an incredible pace. This symposium covered most, if not all, aspects of the many roles of calcium in the regulation of cellular processes and ranged from calcium imaging through to the structure and function of calcium-binding proteins. Emphasis was placed on elucidating the involvement of these proteins i...

Molecular Diagnostic Tests for Microsporidia

The Microsporidia are a ubiquitous group of eukaryotic obligate intracellular parasites which were recognized over 100 years ago with the description of Nosema bombycis, a parasite of silkworms. It is now appreciated that these organisms are related to the Fungi. Microsporidia infect all major animal groups most often as gastrointestinal pathogens; however they have been reported from every tis...

Keeping Up With the Clock

Estimates of obesity prevalence based on the 2013 to 2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey average almost 40%, corresponding to a 7% increase from the 1999 to 2000 cycle. Similar alarming trajectories are reported worldwide, along with increasing concerns for related health risks. The traditional concept that obesity results from a mere imbalance between energy intake and energy...

Keeping up with career trends

The publication in September of a report from the US National Research Council, Trends in the Early Careers of Life Scientists, posed a question in my mind, as I’m sure it did in the minds of the many graduate students and postdocs already contemplating their futures as scientists with fearful anxiety. What is the value of a PhD in biological science if you can’t be a biologist? The report (ava...