《生物信息学》课程教学模式探讨

在教学实践的基础上,结合生物信息学课程的学科特点,以及现代教育技术,就开设生物信息学课程的必要性及构建最合适的复合型教育模式展开了初步的探讨,为我国生物信息学课程的教学实施提供指导。随着时代的不断进步和发展,生物信息学的内涵也在不断扩大,包括生物信息学所涉及到的计算机基础知识、生物学基础知识、生物信息学研究领域、生物信息学应用领域等等。在生物信息学的教学实施过程中,将多个基础学科交叉融合是必备的,这不仅有助于增强学生对生物信息学科的了解,也对于学生在后续的生物信息学研究中起到了基石的作用。因此,如何将这些涉及范围广、涉及内容深的生物信息学基础课程恰当的传授给学生是教师们最需要考虑的问题,从而形成一套独特的教学体系,使生物信息学的教学工作更顺利,完整的进行下去。     

国家人勇担国家责，积极推动中国生物经济与生物产业发展

作为国家级研究机构,中国科学院各级研究所一直以来的重要使命就是心系国家事、肩扛国家责、永做国家人,站在国际科学发展前沿的高度,紧抓国家社会发展中重大需求的科学与技术问题,布局研究所及其项目和吸引人才。本文以个人视角,回顾了2004年回国接任微生物研究所所长后,开始思考工业生物技术的发展,布局天津研发中心,经过多年努力,在院党组的领导与支持下,中国科学院天津工业生物技术研究所建成,已经取得了重要成果;还回顾了建所初衷和早期成长发展历程以及与微生物研究所的关系。通过思考科学、技术、工程(医学)之间的关系,提出从事基础科学研究的科研人员进行转化应用的路径,即“想法-假说-实验-概念-论文-技术-样品-产品-商品”的9层逻辑关系,希望科学家能够做出解决实际问题的实用工作,并展望了未来工业生物技术的远景。     

Assessing overmedication: biology,philosophy and common sense

Overmedication is nowadays a serious problem in health care due to influences from the pharmaceutical industry and agencies responsible for regulation. The situation has indeed become appalling in psychiatry, where both theories and treatments have deteriorated under the impact of the industry. The overmedication problem is associated with biased biology in medicine. Adequate biological approaches would indicate that drug therapies must yield to diet therapies, particularly treatments involving omega-3 fatty acids, in many cases. To the extent that philosophy of science adapts to mainstream medicine in analyses of the current situation, it may reinforce the existing bias. To redress imbalances in health care, we ultimately have to rely on common sense.     

A divergent synthesis of [1-14C]-mono-E isomers of fatty acids

A convenient synthesis of [1-14C]-mono-trans fatty acid using olefin inversion as a key-step is described. This methodology allows for a facile synthesis of [1-14C]-labelled mono-trans analogues of oleic, linoleic and linolenic acids. As an example, only eleven steps were necessary to obtain the [1-14C]-mono-E isomers of linolenic acid from its commercial all-Z form. In the first step, Barton's decarboxylation procedure yielded a bromo intermediate. Epoxidation of this compound resulted in the formation of three monoepoxides, which could be separated by HPLC. After identification by 1H NMR and MS, the pure monoepoxides were then subjected to inversion consisting of a stereospecific deoxygenation followed by a beta-elimination step. Finally, the labelling was introduced by substitution of the bromine by a [14C]-cyano group followed by hydrolysis.     

Marshall Barber and the century of microinjection: from cloning of bacteria to cloning of everything

A hundred years ago, Dr. Marshall A. Barber proposed a new technique - the microinjection technique. He developed this method initially to clone bacteria and to confirm the germ theory of Koch and Pasteur. Later on, he refined his approach and was able to manipulate nuclei in protozoa and to implant bacteria into plant cells. Continuous improvement and adaptation of this method to new applications dramatically changed experimental embryology and cytology and led to the formation of several new scientific disciplines including animal cloning as one of its latest applications. Interestingly, microinjection originated as a method at the crossroad of bacteriology and plant biology, demonstrating once again the unforeseen impact that basic research in an unrelated field can have on the development of entirely different disciplines.     

Mitochondrial nitric oxide localization in H9c2 cells revealed by confocal microscopy.

This study shows the presence of all three nitric oxide synthases (NOSs) and NOS activity in H9c2 cells cultured under non-stimulated conditions. By using the 4,5 diaminofluoresceindiacetate (DAF-2DA) fluorimetric nitric oxide (NO(*)) detection system we observed NO(*) production in H9c2 cells. As revealed by confocal microscopy, NO(*) fluorescence colocalizes in mitochondria labeled with Mito-Tracker Red CM-H(2)Xros. Upon stimulation with acetylcholine (Ach), which increased NOS activity by 75%, the colocalization coefficient C(green) value, calculated as Pearson's correlation, increased from 0.07 to 0.10, demonstrating an augmented presence of NO(*) in mitochondria. Conversely, the presence of NO(*) in mitochondria decreased following cells pretreatment with l-MonoMethylArginine (L-NMMA), a competitive inhibitor of NOS activity, as indicated by the reduction of the C(green) value to 0.02. This work confirms that the presence of NO(*) in mitochondria can be modulated in response to different fluxes of NO(*).     

Synthesis of (20S)-[7,7,21,21-2H4]-3beta-(tert-butyldimethylsilanyloxy)-20-methyl-pregn-5-en-21-ol,a useful intermediate for the preparation of deuterated isotopomers of sterols

(20S)-[7,7,21,21-2H(4)]-3beta-(tert-Butyldimethylsilanyloxy)-20-methyl-pregn-5-en-21-ol, an intermediate for the preparation of deuterated isotopomers of sterols to be used as standards for biomedical studies, was prepared by reduction with dichloroaluminum deuteride of ethyl (20S)-3beta-(tert-butyldimethylsilanyloxy)-7-oxo-pregn-5-en-20-carboxylate. Using controlled experimental conditions, it has also been shown that the dichloroaluminum hydride reduction of a 7-keto steroid affords the corresponding 7beta-hydroxy derivative in a highly stereoselective manner.     

Erinnerungen an Ornithologen, die ich kannte (2. Teil)

Zusammenfassung Der Aufsatz stellt eine Fortsetzung der Niederschrift eines Vortrages des Autors dar, die im Heft 3/1998 des Journals veröffentlicht wurde. Die hier wiedergegebenen Informationen wurden am 23. September 1999 vor der 132. Jahresversammlung der DO-G in Bayreuth vorgetragen. Erneut berichtete der Autor aus Biographien mehrerer ornithologisch interessierter Naturkundler und schenkt der Untersuchung des Einflusses politisch-gesell-schaftlicher Verhältnisse auf deren wissenschaftliche Tätigkeit und persönliche Schicksale besonderes Interesse. Auch wirkliche und potentielle Nobelpreisträger sind unter den geschilderten Persönlichkeiten. Der Autor geht auch zurück in die Geschichte des vorigen Jahrhunderts, um zu belegen, dass die Verhältnisse in den Diktaturen der jüngeren Zeit kein Einzelphänomen waren. Auch diesmal basiert die Schilderung auf persönlichen Erfahrungen, die oft durch Informationen aus Archiven, diversen Publikationen und Berichten noch lebender Zeitzeugen überprüft und ergänzt wurden.

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Reflections on ornithologists I have known (part 2)

Summary The content of this paper was presented at the 1999 Annual General Meeting of the German Ornithologists Society held in Bayreuth as a sequel of the presentation given in 1997, which has been published (J. Ornithol. 139: 325–348, 1998). Basing his work on some further 15 personal histories of naturalists, the author is again investigating the impact of socio-political relationships on their scientific activities and the involvement ofsome of the scientists in politics. In addition to famous personalities from the middle of the 20th century, such as the Nobel Prize winner Konrad Lorenz, analyses were also made in respect of some nineteenth century personalities and some from the last decade of the twentieth. The author is of the opinion that a knowledge of history is important not only for future development in general, but also for science, i. a. for ornithology.

     

Last judgment: the visionary biology of J.B.S. Haldane

This paper seeks to reinterpret the life and work of J. B. S. Haldane by focusing on an illuminating but largely ignored essay he published in1927, “The Last Judgment” – the sequel to his better known work, Daedalus (1924). This astonishing essay expresses a vision of the human future over the next 40,000,000 years, one that revises and updates Wellsian futurism with the long range implications of the “new biology” for human destiny. That vision served as a kind of lifelong credo, one that infused and informed his diverse scientific work, political activities, and popular writing, and that gave unity and coherence to his remarkable career. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.