Author: jlolds

Native Angeleno, professor of Neuroscience and Public Policy at George Mason University

Cox Lab Moves to Krasnow Institute

Dear Jim,



Many thanks for the opportunity to contribute to your blog. My research group and I are very excited to be moving our laboratory from the Prince William Campus to the beautiful new facilities at the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study this Fall. Prior to joining the Department of Molecular and Microbiology at George Mason in Fall 2004, I completed my PhD in the laboratory of Dr. Haifan Lin at Duke University where my research focused on the molecular mechanisms governing stem cell regulation. I next went on to complete postdoctoral training as a Jane Coffin Childs Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Yuh-Nung Jan at UCSF where my research focused on investigating the molecular and regulatory mechanisms governing class-specific dendrite morphogenesis.



Presently, my research laboratory is focused on a number of key areas of inquiry including the mechanisms by which the size, shape and complexity of dendritic arbors is achieved and subsequently regulated, how the boundaries of neuronal receptive fields are specified and refined, how dendrites function in mediating recognition between synaptic partners, and how dendritic fields are established, maintained and remodeled during development.



To investigate these questions, we use Drosophila genetics to dissect the molecular mechanisms mediating class specific dendrite morphogenesis. The Drosophila peripheral nervous system (PNS) serves as a molecular, genetic, morphological and physiological model system in which to investigate these processes. Specifically, our group is focused on the roles of transcriptional, cytoskeletal, cell surface receptor, and RNAi (siRNA/miRNA) regulatory mechanisms governing class-specific dendrite morphogenesis as they relate to dendritic field specification and dendritic tiling. We have also recently published a paper describing novel methods for the isolation and transcriptional expression profiling of class-specific neurons as a tool to investigate these processes.



Apart from my research program, I am currently the Graduate Program Director for the Biosciences PhD and M.S. Biology degree programs at Mason and am delighted to take on the role as Director for the new Confocal Imaging Core of the Krasnow Institute (C.I.C.K.I.).



I am particularly anxious to establish new collaborations with other Krasnow Investigators in the areas of high-resolution cellular imaging and neuroinformatics and look forward to interacting with all the faculty, students, and staff in the Neuroscience program.



Sincerely,



Dan Cox

Hard times for California

These are very hard times for my native state, but this Guardian piece (hat tip Slate) sees better times ahead. I hope so.

I do think that the troubles can be traced back to when the (in)famous Proposition 13 was passed. The first of several financially consequential initiatives (a result of California’s constitutional affection for direct democratic decision making), it lead to the State becoming overly dependent upon economic growth for the delivery of basic services.

Curating

So I wasn’t aware that as an institute director (and according the the NY Times), I’m a curator of scientists–but apparently I am. Here’s hoping that I have good taste in science.

Money quote:

The word “curate,” lofty and once rarely spoken outside exhibition corridors or British parishes, has become a fashionable code word among the aesthetically minded, who seem to paste it onto any activity that involves culling and selecting.

High anxiety at the Sunday Times Magazine

Robin Henig has an extensive piece in today’s Sunday New York Times Magazine focused on anxiety and the work of Harvard developmental psychologist Jerome Kagan (along with many of his students who are now independent investigators).

I found the piece to be curiously anecdotal in terms of its presentation of very extensive longitudinal data–perhaps satisfying for non-scientists, but quite frustrating for those of us who want to look at actual data to prove or disprove hypotheses.
Nevertheless, the piece raises the excellent question of the extent to which the phenomenon we call anxiety is deeply linked the the limbic brain structure called the amygdala. The latest fMRI studies are at least able to provide something beyond classic psychometric tests.

Timo Hannay’s notes on Joi Ito’s talk at Nature

Friend and colleague Timo Hannay at Nature took notes on Creative Common’s guru Joi Ito’s presentation there. Money quote:

CC licensing increases demand but cannibalises sales. So there’s a trade-off depending on the demand and sales of any given piece of work at any given time. The questions about CC licensing are therefore practical ones about what, who and when – not a religious decision. (Though for scientific and certain other types of content, CC believes in free access.)

In these situations, the communities often police themselves, enforcing social norms such as attribution and non-commercial restrictions. [Joi gave a Star Wars fan fiction example.] In some cases, fans create derivative versions (e.g., subtitled films) to encourage the publisher to release an official (paid) version, removing the amateur version when they succeed.

Academic Job Interviews in the biosciences

As some readers know, I’m co-teaching a survival-skills course for our neuroscience doctoral students this semester. Last week we talked about job talks and the crucial skills involved in flying in for the day-and-a-half interview for an assistant professor-level tenure-track job.

In thinking about the whole process, the notion of a bank stress test comes to mind. The schedule is quite grueling, it demands a very high level of constant alertness, and there are ample opportunities for making mistakes.

In my experience, the biggest tripping hazard comes at the end of the job talk on Day 1: you’ve just finished giving a spectacular talk after a long series of interviews with potential colleagues. You lower your guard and begin to relax just as you need to be at your peak performance–the dinner where your potential colleagues will attempt to ply you with drinks and food for two hours while simulating the behaviors that go with a social dinner. In actuality, they are looking for insight into your level of scientific abilities and character–all while offering you ample rope to hang yourself with.

Some rules of the road for that dinner:
1) Stay with the formal clothes that you were wearing at your job talk. This is no time to dress-down.

2) Don’t have more than one glass of wine at most. Your ability to remain focused is paramount to success and by this time on Day 1, you are probably close to exhaustion.

3) Don’t gossip. Deflect questions designed to get you to dish on current or former colleagues. Worst case scenario: your dishing goes right back to the person you were dealing the dirt on,. Best case scenario: your scientific character is impugned.

4) Keep aware of your body. Avoid nervous behavioral habits and eat carefully enough to avoid spilling disasters.

5) Ask questions–but keep the questions within the professional scope.

6) Try to focus most of your intentions on intelligent give-and-take scientific conversations, all the while, taking care not to monopolize either in quantity or amplitude. In other words, listen carefully, speak intelligently but not too loudly.

Finally, remember you are not “off-camera” until you shut your hotel room door for the night.

It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Jim

Is the FT the last serious paper?

From Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish. I’m not sure. I still really enjoy the Old Gray Lady and am partial enough to the WSJ to purchase a subscription for family members. But the Financial Times is really indispensable to me. I find it to be extremely well written. More importantly the firewall between the editorial page and the news seems to be rock solid.

Jim