On Genes, Brains & Beer

by Nicolas Descostes

In recent years, big data is a term that invaded the media and that the public has been exposed to. From finance to social networks, data are collected to infer trends and sometimes to manipulate opinions as it has been observed during recent elections. However, the public is less aware of the big data revolution that is occurring in biology. In this post, I would like to begin by explaining how big data is used in biology, and more specifically in genomics, and end by sharing some thoughts on how big data is currently shaping research.

In the early 2000’s, a battle opposed J. Craig Venter and the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium to publish the first sequencing data of the human genome. The race produced two articles published in Science and Nature but more importantly, opened an intellectual revolution giving new possibilities to explore the 3 billion base-pair DNA sequence of the human genome in its entirety. Even if sequencing was used a long time before, sequencing the human genome opened the door to sequencing the genome of many other species.

Continue reading “On big data in biology”

By Santiago Rompani

Biological research has never been more vibrant and interesting, but the flipside is an ever-increasing number of studies to keep track of. Gone are the days when the ponderous intellectual could leaf through the latest journals while twirling a goblet of brandy or smouldering pipe. Therefore, I had to come up with other ways to keep up with the scientific literature.

The first is to spend a few minutes to learn how pubmed searches work, watch a tutorial here. Then register for “My NCBI”, which is free and allows you to setup automated pubmed searches and have the website output any new results every day via email. I have searches setup for specific scientists I wish follow, like “gross cornelius[Author]” (use without the quotation marks). I also have more complex searches for keywords in particular journals such as “(Lateral Geniculate) AND (“Nature”[Journal] OR “Science (New York, N.Y.)”[Journal] OR “elife”[Journal])” (the list of journals in my actual search is very long, again, don’t include the quotation marks, but keep the square brackets).

Continue reading “Staying up to date and organised with scientific literature”

We recently had out first Beer 101 course for staff members. International beer judge and Head of our Genetic and Viral Engineering Facility, Jim Sawitzke, first challenged us to a blind tasting and then a tour of major beer varieties. Take home messages were: “if you like it, it’s a good beer” and “if it doesn’t come in a brown bottle, it’s skunked!” – which left me wondering why I kind of like Heineken. Apparently Heineken tried to change their green bottle color at some point, but were forced to relent by popular demand. Find a scientific explanation for the skunk effect here. The tour ended with us sipping beers with names like ‘Arrogant Bastard Ale’ and ‘Rauchbier’ (trans. Smoke Beer) – both dreadful! Unless of course you’re at the higher levels of beer appreciation. Can’t wait for the advanced course.

An intern in my lab recently asked me why I became a neuroscientist – he had read this piece about how it’s all just luck. I’m not so sure. I am convinced there are explicit and hidden environmental (and a few genetic) influences that restrict and channel our behaviours during our lifetime. It’s only the fiercely independent that escape these influences – and then that is usually itself a reaction to them.

Continue reading “Here’s why I became a neuroscientist”

By Sara Formichetti

When I was asked to write a post about the last Science & Society talk we had at our EMBL site in Rome I was particularly excited. Science & Society lectures are all about the impact of science on society and the speakers work in fields that are of utmost relevance to the public – but often misunderstood.

Most recently, Giuseppe Testa spoke at EMBL Rome. Testa works on epigenetic regulation, cell reprogramming and disease models. His talk dealt with the impact of epigenetics on society, which is a concern for all of us working at EMBL Rome, considering that we recently chose to rename our unit “Epigenetics and Neurobiology” to focus the interests of new group leaders in these two fields.

Continue reading “Why is Epigenetics so sexy? And other related questions.”

The days are so balmy now that I can’t help thinking back to our recent freak snowstorm. Do you remember this – February 26, 2018?!

Daniel won kudos as the only staff member to ski to work that day. Here he is getting ready to ski home – skins strapped to his touring skis in what ended up turning into a night-time hike under headlamp illumination back up the hill to Monterotondo. You learn useful things growing up in Switzerland.