Health NewsI'm Mike's Genes
As I've been learning more about genomics and genetics since I started here at Genome Alberta, I've also found there is certainly a growing community of non-researchers interested in the subject as well. When we decided to have my own personal genome tested and I started to write about it, I soon realised there was also some significant interest in personal genome services. Companies such as 23andMe, Navigenics, or deCODE don't release a lot of information about how many people are using their services or what kind of demographic they have, but even those that haven't had the testing done seem to be interested in the issues and the science. In fact today I'm on Alec Saunder's 'Squawk Box' podcast to talk about my experience so far.
Working together - mountain pine beetles and their fungal associates
As a biologist, I find the interaction between the blue stain fungi and the mountain pine beetle really quite amazing. We have a mutualistic symbiosis between two completely different organisms which happen to have the same host, the pine tree. As I have an inquisitive mind, I took a slightly deeper look into this relationship. What I found is that there are still aspects of the beetle-fungal relationship currently being debated. Here are some paradigms being suggested.
Experiences with a Sophisticated Project
By Tanielle Johnson and introduced by Gerry Ward
At this year’s Canada Wide Science Fair in Ottawa, I met Taneille Johnson. Not only is she an outstanding science student, she is also BC Assistant Provincial SMARTS Coordinator and the Science Education Expert for the Youth Advisory Group to the Canadian Commission to UNESCO. I am so impressed with the quality of Taneille’s research project, and in awe of her level of dedication and involvement in the greater scientific community. I was very pleased that she sent me an accounting of her experiences with Science Fair, and an abstract of her project: Amplification of hTERT cDNA for Transient Transfection With Mammalian Cells. Tanielle's project was the well deserving winner of The University of Western Ontario Scholarship.
For my project I studied at the University of Northern BritishColumbia, and worked there for 17 days with a professor. During my time in the labs I was able to learn more about biochemistry and genetics, while exploring different scientific processes. Living up in the north does not limit the amount of research that one can strive for.
Mountain Pine Beetle Project goes to Canada Wide Science Fair
By: Nicole Goldring, introduced by Gerry Ward
As I indicated in a previous blog, I invited some of Canada’s top science students to be guest bloggers. Today’s contribution comes from Nicole Goldring. I was not a judge at the CWSF: Ottawa 2008 so I cannot comment on the competitiveness of this or any other of the finalists, I will say that Nicole’s work ethic, knowledge and enthusiasm explaining her research made this project a definite stop at the fair. I also believe that Nicole’s project is an excellent example of meta-analysis showing how students can extremely carefully comb over existing data and come up with meaningful original research. Nicole was awarded the prestigious Australian National Youth Science Forum Award at the fair.
The following is a summary of Nicole’s work.
Nearly 1 Million Dollars Handed Out Here!
Over the next couple of hours, prizes and scholarship in the amount of $931,125 were bestowed on the finalists.
Thanks to Genome Alberta, I spent a week in this super charged atmosphere meeting with delegates and finalists from all of the science fair regions in the country from coast to coast to coast.
Genomics at Quinpool
The auditorium in the Quinpool Education Centre where the Youth Forum on Personal Genomics was held this morning is in need of some TLC, but it really must have been impressive in its prime. If the designers, builders, public funding bodies, and maintenance teams could have seen into the future to today's event and seen the state it was in, would they have done anything differently? Designed for obsolesence, used cheaper contstruction material, or beefed up the maintenance.
Now consider a personal genome scan.
Mikenomics Goes on the Road
The rest of the results are in.
The DNA Ancestry Project simply slipped the results into my online account without letting me know. Either a cheap way to have me checking their site regularly or poor marketing. Either way it doesn't work.
Blue stain fungi – an important part of the mountain pine beetle epidemic
Searching for images of the MPB infestation yields a plethora of pictures of dying trees with their characteristic red needles, or those of the beetles themselves which are as small as a grain of rice. We cannot, however, forget the importance of our other player, the blue stain fungi. Though we don’t see them at work, fungi play a crucial role in the epidemic. Therefore, knowing the biology of the fungi is another key component to understanding the epidemic itself.
Genomics – A New Revolution in Science Revisited.
When the Genome Alberta web site moved, some of the download programs were lost. I have had a few calls and requests to have this program available again, so I am making it available in this blog.
Click here to download Genomics – A New Revolution in Science, a primer from genetics to genomics. It is useful for teachers at the high school level for use with students studying molecular genetics. It can be used as a stand alone, or a review. It can be useful with an entire class, a small group or even individual review. There are embedded notes to go along with the power point presentation.
Do Mountain Pine Beetles Get Claustrophobic?
Field crew blog – installment #2
By Brad Jones
The first step in collecting mountain pine beetle samples is finding a tree infested with beetles! In areas where surveys have been conducted, this is a relatively easy task. Representatives from Alberta (Sustainable Resource Development) and British Columbia (Ministry of Forests) have been integral in pinpointing infected areas. However, the project also requires sampling in areas that are not surveyed. We then get the fun of finding attacked trees to sample. The most obvious sign of beetle attack is the orange-red crown of a pine tree in death throes. But when in a pine stand, faded crowns are near impossible to see without standing right under the tree. The next most obvious cue is exposed wood caused by woodpeckers pecking the bark off infested trees. Woodpeckers can be very efficient and remove almost every bit of bark from a tree while pecking a feast of mountain pine beetles. And a de-barked tree is quite obvious in a stand. The sound of woodpecker drumming drifting through the pines is like music to a beetler’s ears. But there is a problem when the woodpeckers are too efficient: there are no beetles left to sample!