
Why do we not have a vaccine against TB or HIV (yet)?
Survival of vertebrate hosts against infections depends on important natural or innate resistance mechanisms combined with adaptive immune responses of T and B cells. Infectious agents probe the limit of immune responses and help to characterize thr....
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Darwinian evolution as understood by scientists of the 21st century
After a short reminder of the historical development of evolutionary biology, elements to a molecular theory of Darwinian evolution will be presented. Biological evolution is driven by the availability of genetic variants in populations. The occasi....
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Protein Crosstalk in Cell Signaling
This talk concentrates on cellular regulation by tyrosine phosphorylation which has been directly implicated in cell growth, differentiation and transformation. Growth factor receptors transduce their signal by recruiting a multiplicity of adaptor p....
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The cell cycle and cancer
It was in 1882 that Walther Flemming published drawings of chromosomes lining up in mitosis and parting equally to the daughters of cell division, and 20 years later that Theodor Boveri explained the significance of the chromosome dance in terms of t....
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RNAi and development in C. elegans
Argonaute proteins interact with small RNAs to mediate gene silencing. C. elegans contains 27 Argonaute homologs, raising the question of what roles these genes play in RNAi and related gene-silencing pathways. Through our collaborator, Dr. Shohei....
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Nitric oxide as a messenger molecule and its role in drug development
The role of nitric oxide in cellular signaling in the past three decades has become one of the most rapidly growing areas in biology. Nitric oxide is a gas and a free radical with an unshared electron that can regulate an ever-growing list of biolog....
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Recent Advances in Olefin Metathesis Catalyzed by Molybdenum and Tungsten Alkylidene Complexes
In the process of preparing M(NR)(CHCMe2R')(OR")2 (R' = Me or Ph) species (or analogs that contain enantiomerically pure biphenolate or binaphtholate ligands) in situ by treating M(NR)(CHCMe2R')(pyrrolide)2 species with alcohols, we have discovered M....
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Building and Breeding Molecules to Spy on Cells, Tumors, and Organisms
Molecules to observe and manipulate biological systems can be devised by a variety of strategies, ranging from pure chemical design and total synthesis to genome mining and high-throughput directed evolution. Examples of both successes and failures ....
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GFP and After
Since its introduction as a biological marker, the Aequorea victoria Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) has had a strong impact in biology, being used in an ever-increasing variety of ways. I will review a bit of the history of GFP and show how having ....
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Chemistry of Bioluminescence
There are numerous kinds of luminous organism on earth. Mysterious emission of light from them inspired the curiosity of mankind ever since the ancient times. In history, Raphael Dubois discovered luciferin and luciferase from one of them, a click ....
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Canoeing in the Arctic, a Scientist’s Perspective
As scientists, our livelihoods are supported by teaching and research, but we also have the opportunity to make observations beyond our usual confines and share these with non-scientific citizens. Growing up in my native state of Minnesota, I have al....
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An Earth Powered Predominantly by Solar and Wind Energy
I shall present and explain the thesis that mankind is on the threshold of a dramatic transition: From an earth, predominantly powered by oil and other fossil fuels, with unsustainable global warming, to a new earth predominantly powered by "clean" s....
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