Genome Blog

PrP New Media Follow up

Wed, 10 Mar 10 02:15:00 UT

We had a few technical problems at the New Media session today so here is some of what I promised I'd post.
Check my blog posting from earlier this week for links to what Colin Anderson, Stephane McLachlan, and Valerie Sim have been up to.
The video that did not work today is often referred to as Socialnomics or Social Media Revolution. Seems to depend on where you get the link from but here it is:

You are also free to download my presentation on slideshare at http://www.slideshare.net/mspear but here it is if you just wanted to look at it again. Check back later for some more links once I've got caught up. Enjoyed the session today and look forward to seeing what everyone has planned.

Prion Social Media Presentation

View more presentations from Genome Alberta.

Canada's Prion Research Conference

Tue, 09 Mar 10 13:30:00 UT

Ah the elusive Prion. The folded protein behind BSE, CJD, Chronic Wasting disease, and playing a role in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and ALS.
And there you have it. My entire knowledge base (well almost), though when I was the Marketing and Communications Manager for Alberta Beef Producers I was a litte more up on the latest developments. I'm a bit rusty these days, which is eactly why I'm in the Prion 101 workshop at the Prion Research Conference in Ottawa. Time to brush up.
The session is being run by Dr. Scott Napper, is an Associate Profesor at the University of Saskatchewan as well as the Program Manager of Emerging Diseases at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization. Prions lead to a novel form of infectious disease that results from the misfolding of a normal cellular protein. Dr. Napper likened it to a kind of molecular peer pressure because the proteins cause other proteins to do the same thing resulting in a cascading effect to the disease. One of the challenges is that what we do know about prions does not account for all the complexities we see and it would appear that there is a LOT that we don't know about prions and related disease.
This conference while it may have answers, will likely raise a lot of questions with the 300 attendees from around the world.
So what's the Communications Director from Genome Alberta doing hanging out with a bunch of Prion researchers?
New media, what else.

Science Fairs – Independent Project-based Learning

Sat, 06 Mar 10 23:45:00 UT

I recently participated in a Genome Alberta challenge to put forward a short video explaining Where Bio began for me. It was a lot of fun putting that little video together and it made me think about what influenced my interest in science. Many young students get their first real start in the sciences through independent project-based learning we know as Science Fair. For almost 50 years, Science Fairs have been organized across Canada. Science Fairs are held in elementary and secondary schools, outstanding projects are entered in regional fairs, and approximately 500 students meet (this year in Peterborough) at a Canada-Wide Science Fair. Past Science Fair participants and winners probably represent a Who’s Who among scientists in North America. I expect this to be documented in the next year or two.

Drum Roll Please

Tue, 02 Mar 10 01:00:00 UT

We didn't break any records for entries to our 'Where Bio Began For Me' video contest but that doesn't matter, we're happy with the exposure we did get.
We've come into contact with some interesting people over the last few weeks, raised the profile of our GenOmics application and our blog, and we have some new video content linked to us on YouTube.

And of course we have winners:
Christopher Dieni from Penn State and Mostafa Abdellateef from the Genome Canada Bioinformatics Platform.

They win the iPod Shuffle and we'll be in touch with them soon to arrange delivery of these tiny music machines.
It doesn't end there however, as we have more stuff to give away next week.

Twitter Snips - March 1, 2010

Mon, 01 Mar 10 05:15:00 UT

Twitter: a series of chirps or the high-pitched sound a bird makes.
A birds use its chirps, cheeps, and tweets to warn of danger, scare off predators, find a mate, protect its territory and to identify itself and its friends.

While the online microblogging tool version of Twitter is often dismissed as silly tweets more in line with canary chatter, perhaps we can learn a little from our feather friends. Tweety-bird let us all know when he saw the putty-cat and the online Twitter world lets us tell each other when know when we see things that interest us and cross all interest lines. No question you'll find your share of nonsense and the spammers have already started to move in, but such is the online world wherever you happen to click.

Genome Alberta can be found on Twitter as @mikesgene and we follow, or are followed by a wide range of people and organizations. There is I Am Biotech, one of the communication arms of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) in Washington D.C, Linda Avey one of the founders of 23andMe, PrionGirl who is actually Valerie Sim prion researcher, and Christopher Dieni originally from Montreal, went to school in Ottawa, and is now a postdoc in State College, at Penn State, researching cancer biochemistry.
Not a bad pedigree for a bunch of Twits and the rest of the people we keep in touch through Twitter are no less impressive. They cover the range of interests and careers from the media, to politics, to public relations, to science and medicine.
Every 2 weeks we compile some of the 140 character posting we come across and give you a sample to take you from the lab bench to the online bench. These are just the tip of the iceberg so if you really want to see what lies underneath then sign on to http://twitter.com and follow @mikesgene

Genomics at BioHackathon 2010

Mon, 01 Mar 10 03:45:00 UT

guest post from Susanne Cardwell
Administrative Coordinator
Bioinformatics Platform Applied Computational Genomics Course

Paul Gordon, bioinformatics specialist with the Sun Center of Excellence for Visual Genomics, recently attended the Hackathon 2010, at the University of Tokyo. The objective of the Hackathon 2010 was to define technologies and standards for the global life sciences community for the next generation of web technologies often call the Semantic Web.

There were approximately 40-50 participants, and Paul was representing the Genome Canada Bioinformatics Platform. Several Canadians in attendance were some of the pioneers in Semantic Web Technologies for the Life Sciences.

Bio Hackathon 2010 was about creating a critical mass of data providers providing the same format of information for the purpose of standardization. Standardization allows for people to ask queries or questions that require information from multiple databases. A major aim of the meeting was to educate the developers on some of the semantic web technologies, which include RDF, Sparql, and Semantic Web Services. Paul Gordon and others enlightened the participants about these technologies, how to create queries using these technologies, and use case development.

Another major aim of the meeting was the writing of computer code. Gordon focused on making it easier to use these technologies over existing databases.

Where Bio Began – How I did my first video

Thu, 25 Feb 10 20:00:00 UT

There are still 2 days left to enter a short video and get a chance to win iPod Shuffle. Yes, Genome Alberta is giving away 2 iPod Shuffles and all you have to do to have a chance at winning is submit a less than 2 minute video telling Where Bio Began for you or your friends.

Here is my example.

Read more to see the simple rules and my amateur tips.

What Canadian Biotech Can Learn from Where Bio Began

Thu, 25 Feb 10 18:30:00 UT

It began in early February with a Tweet pointing to wherebiobegins.com which turned out to be a site with a large countdown clock and not much more. From there we began to see more tweets, a Facebook page, a YouTube channel and eventually a blog. There were videos posted from people about how bio began and we even shared in some of the fun by holding our own mini contest. Deadline is Saturday midnight by the way so there is still time to enter. Details and rules on our home page at www.genomealberta.ca and you can win an iPOD Shuffle so it is worth your time to enter.

But no one knew who was behind the site and the catch phrase.
I was let in on the secret of the company behind the mystery early on, and today Sigma Aldrich unveiled its full Where Bio Begins website and the rest of the campaign. It appears to be a well thought out plan and on the social media side I'd call it a pretty good success in the biotech field. The United States has many examples of good social media success. Check out I Am Biotech, What Can Biotech Do for You, Comprendia's San Diego network or the Research Blogging site, or the DNA Network which we feature on our GenOmics application.

What about Canada?

PR and Journalism - Where the Twain Shall Meet

Wed, 24 Feb 10 16:00:00 UT

This posting is not about biotech or science communication, genomics, genetics or even about social media but every once in a while I need to step outside the intent of Mikenomics a bit. For this posting I will put my journalist's badge back on and dedicate it to journalists who are strong enough to stay in the profession or brave enough to apply their skills elsewhere.
It started while I was preparing my notes and slides to speak to a student PR group at the University of Calgary and got a note on Twitter from @jgombita pointing me to several blog postings from Craig Pearce:

Ex-journalists should not be the boss of PR
PR people should not head the PR function
Journalists for PR boss? Don’t ask; its discrimination!

These are the most recent missives in an ongoing the debate about whether journalists are qualified to hold a PR or Communications job but they are the among the more well thought out postings. As an ex-journalist now up to my neck in communication and PR, I just HAVE to respond. I also have some genetic proof that I lean towards stubborness so maybe that comes into play.

A few of the comments to Craig Pearce's postings were spot on, much like this one from Craig Badings : "it all depends on the person. There are some PR people not fit to head a PR function as there are ex journalists. Likewise if you look around there is a good mix of very able people from both backgrounds doing a great job".

What is common to Craig Pearce's original posts and many of the comments however, seems to be an over-simplification of what journalists actually do. It would appear from some of the discussion that our role as a journalist is to push information on an unsuspecting public from the cozy comfort of a desk. While a journalist starting out writing copy may have that role, so to does a shiney new PR graduate. Different push, different desk, same role.

From Soccer to Genetics

Fri, 19 Feb 10 21:45:00 UT

When I walked into the Heart and Crown Irish Pub in Ottawa's Byward Market area earlier this week my first thought was what had I gotten myself into. I was there to moderate a panel discussion on the "The Human Genome Project a Decade Later: Has the Promise Been Realized?"
What I was greeted with in the pub however, was a room full of soccer fans wildly cheering a game on the big screen TV. Not surprisingly it was accompanied by lots of beer and good looking food and I think if I had said I was a Manchester United fan I would have been shown the door. The only discussion about genetics this crowd was likely to entertain was going to be about how to build a bigger, better, fullback.
But I panicked too soon.
The match was almost over, the room soon cleared, Mark Weir from the University of Ottawa arrived for the set up, and the room started to fill up with gene junkies (or should that be gene gunkies? ).

The panelists also showed up and shortly after 5:30p Dr. Ahmed El-Sohemy , Canada Research Chair in Nutrigenomics, Dr. David Castle, Canada Research Chair in Science and Society, and Professor David Secko, Journalism Professor at Concordia were seated under the lights. I was playing Phil Donahue and wandering the room with a wireless microphone so the audience could talk to the panel and asking a few questions of my own to the panel and the crowd. Close to a hundred people had sent an RSVP and I'd say that 3/4 of them were actually there. And with the exception of the couple making out in the corner everyone was listening closely and actively engaged in the discussion.