Author: jlolds

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

Nadine Kabbani

Dear Jim,

Thank you for inviting me to this blog. I am enthusiastic to be joining the faculty of the Department of Molecular Neuroscience at the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study during the Fall semester. I come to Mason after several years of postdoctoral training at the Institute Pasteur in the lab of Dr. Jean Pierre Changeux, eager to establish a research program in the area of proteomic and functional analysis of nicotinic receptors in the brain. The proteome, now recognized as the next major post-genomic domain of molecular organization in cells, is an increasingly exciting place for neuroscience research! My niche of the neuroproteome encompasses molecular interactions of nicotinic receptors expressed in the cortex and striatum of the mammalian brain. Recently we have published findings on the discovery of novel nicotinic receptor interacting proteins from the mouse brain. In my lab at the Krasnow Institute, we will examine the role of these interactions in the function of nicotinic receptors using various cellular and molecular methods as well as mass spectrometry and bioinformatic techniques. We will also define additional proteomic interactions of central nicotinic receptors, and examine proteomic adaptations in key brain regions of nicotine addiction.
I look forward to valuable collaborations with experimental and theoretical scientists and interactions with students and other faculty in the Neuroscience program.

On a less scientific note, I am just beginning to prepare for my move back to the Washington DC area set for next month. A little sad to be leaving Paris, I have booked a return flight for Thanksgiving!

Best wishes for your summer plans and I look forward to seeing you in August.

Sincerely,

Nadine Kabbani

Back to the grid

Later this afternoon, I’m headed back to DC from Wintergreen. It’s been an incredibly relaxing week (I finished Obama’s book “Dreams from my Father”) and greatly enjoyed the fact that Ken DeJong, our Associate Director, was running the Institute for Advanced Study with a fine steady hand.

I’m pleased to report that there were no bear sightings this time around, just lots of deer and of course the diversity of warblers that makes the Blue Ridge famous.
In the coming week, I’ll be thinking a lot about the Decade of the Mind initiative in the context of what’s now being called Science 2.0–analogous to Web 2.0. What might “mind sciences” accomplish through greater collaborations, better data-sharing and some powerful databases (like NeuroMorpho.org).
Jim

Doctoring images in journal articles

Here’s news of a disturbing trend: scientists are apparently taking to photoshopping their images.

Money quote:

One new check on science images, though, is the blogosphere. As more papers are published in open-access journals, an informal group of watchdogs has emerged online.

“There’s a lot of folks who in their idle moments just take a good look at some figures randomly,” says John E. Dahlberg, director of the division of investigative oversight at the Office of Research Integrity. “We get allegations almost weekly involving people picking up problems with figures in grant applications or papers.”

Such online watchdogs were among those who first identified problems with images and other data in a cloning paper published in Science by Woo Suk Hwang, a South Korean researcher. The research was eventually found to be fraudulent, and the journal retracted the paper.

Katrina L. Kelner, deputy editor of life sciences at Science, argues that the level of fabrication in the Hwang paper was so pervasive that it would not have been detected even if the journal had used the latest image-checking tools.

Since that instance, however, the journal has started spot-checking images in every paper before publication.

Jim

Agent-based models of HIV in Uganda


We’re into the afternoon now. This a very interesting presentation from Krasnow’s Center for Social Complexity. Maction Komwa is a graduate student under Professor Dawn Parker who is working with collaborators in Uganda to model HIV-AIDS transmission using agent-based models.

It’s fascinating to learn about the breadth of scientific activities that go on at the Institute.

Live blogging from the Institute’s annual science retreat

Once again, it’s time for the annual science retreat at the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study. During my introductory remarks, looking out at the assembled group, it’s clear how rapidly we are growing. First lab up is Ted Dumas’ lab. Ted’s group focuses on plasticity and learning in juvenile animals using molecular biology, electrophysiology and very sophisticated behavioral designs.

Jim

Summer at Krasnow

Academic summer is here. I’m off to Providence tomorrow for a quick meeting, then back to focus on the two construction projects that are now getting off the ground here. In the meantime we still are in the middle of three separate faculty recruitment efforts and I hope to have news on that front soon.

Jim

Brooks on Neural Buddhism

David Brooks on the revolution going on within the neuroscience revolution–the notion that something mysterious emerges out of functional brain activity….

Money quote:

Over the past several years, the momentum has shifted away from hard-core materialism. The brain seems less like a cold machine. It does not operate like a computer. Instead, meaning, belief and consciousness seem to emerge mysteriously from idiosyncratic networks of neural firings. Those squishy things called emotions play a gigantic role in all forms of thinking. Love is vital to brain development.

Researchers now spend a lot of time trying to understand universal moral intuitions. Genes are not merely selfish, it appears. Instead, people seem to have deep instincts for fairness, empathy and attachment.

I have a collaborator in India (we share a graduate student) who thinks along these lines. It’s quite exciting.

Jim