New life science journal eLife publishes first articles

Most journals that publish the "big news" in life science breakthroughs, such as Nature and Science, carry with them big price tags for accessing the information they contain.  Unless your institution subscribes, that leaves most A&P professors out of the loop on the information we need to update our courses.  More importantly, it leaves us out of the loop of information that helps us keep the excitement of science alive in our courses.

The Public Library of Science (PLoS) began publishing FREE online science journals a few years ago, and now a new MAJOR free online journal dedicated specifically to the life sciences and biomedicine has emerged.  See my-ap.us/SqSOJM for more information

First announced in summer 2011, eLife is a researcher-led initiative for the best in science and science communication. Backed by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society, and the Wellcome Trust, the initiative’s first aim is to launch an open-access journal for outstanding advances in life science and biomedicine, which is also a platform for experimentation and showcasing innovation in research communication.

The eLife journal Web site is set for launch by the end of 2012, but the first collection of articles was released October 15 – listed at the eLife Web site with the full content available at the online archive of the U.S. National Library of Medicine, PubMed Central (PMC), and its mirror sites including UKPMC.

According to Randy Schekman, the journal’s Editor-in-chief, “We see no reason to delay the availability of these discoveries. Our editors have identified them as important, inspiring contributions of the high caliber expected for eLife. So, while the launch of our own journal Web site isn’t expected until December, we will best serve our authors, and science, by just getting them out there.”

eLife’s initial collection of content includes these topics that may be of interest to A&P professors:

• A hormone involved in response to starvation that dramatically increases the lifespan of mice in which it is overexpressed, although further research into side effects is needed (Zhang et al.).  Information about this discovery will increase student interest in endocrine function, eh?


• A critical signaling molecule involved in the interaction between a species of single-celled organisms and bacteria – an important advance in efforts to understand the evolution of multicellularity (Alegado et al.).  I often discuss the implications of the serial endosymbiosis theory in my teaching of cell biology— I think this new information may play into that whole scenario.


• How cells cope with the stress of poorly folded proteins, and specifically how fission yeast deploys the same cellular machinery as other organisms but in an unusual and very different way (Kimmig et al.). I've mentioned the importance of understanding protein folding in A&P many times.

Links to the freely available full text for each article, plain-language summaries (the eLife digest), expert commentaries (Insights), and an editorial describing the motivations behind this move, are available at my-ap.us/U7OP25.  I think the eLife digest and the Insights are particularly useful for A&P professors and A&P students to use in expanding their understanding of human structure and function.

Want to know more?

For more information about eLife, visit my-ap.us/S5K9d3.

To sign up for free updates in the areas that interest you at my-ap.us/WToDyp

Content adapted from eLife press release 

Nature and Science to merge?

Will it be called Natural Science or Science Nature?   You can vote on it when the esteemed journals Science and Nature combine to form a new, open-access journal.

Want to know more?

Science, Nature Team Up on New Journal
John Travis
Science NOW, 1 April 2010

I hope you all have a crazy April 1!

Reprogramming cells

In a study featured on the cover of the May issue of The FASEB Journal, researchers describe how they are able to reprogram human adult skin cells into other cell types in order to decipher the elusive mechanisms underlying reprogramming.

To demonstrate their point, they transformed human skin cells into mouse muscle cells and vice versa. Their methods included fusing the different cell types, so that their nuclei could chemically communication with each other. This research shows that by understanding the regulation of cell specialization it may be possible to convert one cell type into another, eventually bypassing the use of stem cells to achieve similar goals.

"Regenerative medicine provides hope of novel and powerful treatments for many diseases, but depends on the availability of cells with specific characteristics to replace those that are lost or dysfunctional," said Helen M. Blau, Ph.D., the senior scientist involved in the study, Associate Editor of The FASEB Journal, Member of the Stem Cell Institute, and Director of the Baxter Laboratory in Genetic Pharmacology at Stanford. "We show here that mature cells can be directly reprogrammed to generate those necessary cells, providing another way besides embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells of overcoming this important bottleneck to restoring tissue function."

This is a useful bit of new information that might make our next discussion of cell differentiation . . . or the next stem cell use debate . . . a bit more interesting. Not that our discussions and debates are anything but interesting!

For the rest of the story, see the full press release:

Stanford scientists turn adult skin cells into muscle and vice versa
Contact: Cody Mooneyhan
cmooneyhan@faseb.org
301-634-7104
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
Public release date: 30 Apr 2009

For the original research article, see:

Nuclear reprogramming in heterokaryons is rapid, extensive, and bidirectional
Adam Palermo, et al.
FASEB J. 2009 23: 1431-1440; published online as doi:10.1096/fj.08-122903

[Some contents of the above material are adapted from the press release.]

Meanwhile, on a similar investigative front, researchers recently showed that cells can be reprogrammed in a way that induces them to become pluripotent stem cells by treating them with a combination of proteins. The resulting induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells can produce a variety of different cell types in the body (but not embryonic tissue).

This work gives even more weight to the concept that adult cells can perhaps be reprogrammed at will, for therapeutic purposes, using chemical signals rather than direct genetic manipulation.

Check out these resources:

Purely protein pluripotency
Elie Dolgin
The Scientist 23 April 2009
[Summary article of the original research; has a great image of iPS cells]

Metastable Pluripotent States in NOD-Mouse-Derived ESCs

Jacob Hanna, et al.
Cell Stem Cell 7 May 2009
doi:10.1016/j.stem.2009.04.015
[Original research article outlining the method used to induce pluripotency in adult cells.]

Brain Research 2009 Progress Report

I just received my copy of the print version of the FREE annual journal The 2009 Progress Report on Brain Research published by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives.

As I told you in an earlier article about The 2008 Progress Report on Brain Research this is an interesting book that each year summarizes breakthrough research and conceptualizing in the fascinating area of brain research. I especially appreciate that it's written in an easily accessible style . . . I don't have to pretend to be a neuroscientist and get out my science dictionary to wade through layers of jargon. Nope. Instead, it's written in plain English and a clean style.

Every year, an essay by a prominent neuroscientist is featured. This year there is an essay from Floyd E. Bloom on recent advances in substance abuse research--advances that help us understand the normal pathways and receptors involved in everyday brain function.

This essay is of particular interest to me because it helps me consolidate and focus some of these recent advances that were revealed to us at a recent HAPS Annual Conference and explored in a related HAPS Institute course.

There are also interesting and timely updates in other areas of neuroscience, as you can see in this list:

• Substance Abuse: Mapping the Pathway of Addiction
• New Directions for Alzheimer's Disease Research
• The Quest for Better Schizophrenia Treatment
• Brain-machine Interfaces
• The Obesity Problem
• Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury

You can access the contents FREE online at The 2009 Progress Report on Brain Research. You can also register to get a FREE copy of the print version of next year's issue.

Check out my list of free journals at The A&P Professor website for more FREE journals related to human anatomy and physiology.

Feedback system protects ear against damage

A new discovery summarized in the current edition of PLoS Biology reveals an interesting mechanism that helps to protect the spiral organ of the ear against damage from exposure to loud sounds.

According to the article, the cilia of the outer hair cells in the spiral organ (of Corti) change their ability to lengthen when triggered by acetylcholine released in a feedback response to loud noises. This mechanism thus reduces vibrations in the inner ear and thereby protects the sensitive structures from further damage.

Find out more in this brief and well-written summary:

Feedback System Protects Inner Ear
Richard Robinson
PLoS Biology Volume 7(1) January 2009
doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000012

If your inner ear is undamaged by loud sounds, you may want to try clicking the Talkr icon at the end of this message to hear this article.

For more FREE journals like PLoS Biology, see my growing listing at The A&P Professor website.

More than one type of itch

I've been itching to tell you about this . . .

Science News has a great feature article (with a nice diagram) on the different senses of itch, a rapidly expanding area of physiology these days.

An added bonus is a set of links to relevant journal and magazine articles.

Itch
By Laura Sanders
Science News November 22nd, 2008; Vol.174 #11(p. 16)
[Feature article available online]

Is the scientific method working?

Many of you know that the big push in K-12 science education for a long time has been to stress "the scientific method" at the expense of the actual discoveries that have been made and that inform the development of new hypotheses. And of course we know that a lot of these ideas "trickle up" to college-level education as well.

OK, I guess my bias is showing here. I think this movement is a natural outgrowth of the reaction to earlier practices of focusing on content only at the expense of a good understanding of how science works. In addressing that earlier problem, I think we've gone a little overboard in at least two ways:

1. I think we have swung the pendulum to the opposite imbalance between "how science is done" and "what science has discovered." I think we are now seeing some movement back to the center (hopefully for a more stable balance).

2. In trying to find a way to teach "how science is done" we've distilled it to a rigid formulaic summary that does not reflect the reality of "how science is really done." Again, I think we are seeing some movement to expand beyond a simple definition of "the scientific method" toward more discussion of the variety of methods, some of them sloppy yet productive, used in modern science.

In the first chapter of our textbook Anatomy and Physiology we've addressed "the scientific method" in a way that provides the standard formula for how science is done while also sufficiently explaining that it's flexible and dynamic . . . and that methods and approaches evolve. Then throughout the book, we often bring up examples of how scientists, using the process of science, have made some core discoveries.

[NOTE: See my previous article on Nobel Prize winners to see how I use this award to illustrate the process of science.]

Occasionally, reviewers chide us for including this "unnecessary" information. I guess they are looking for a "just the answers, ma'am" when we are more interested in telling a story. Often, the story includes how we know what we know. And why what we know now is different from what we thought we knew a few years ago. It's our attempt to achieve a balance between "what we know" and "how we know it."

We also sometimes get a note from a reviewer or copyeditor who wants to "tighten up" the language in our text by changing vague statements like "some scientists believe that . . . " to "scientists believe that . . . " --or simply dropping the reference to scientists and stating something as a simple fact. But usually those passages are intentionally vague, to imply a significant level of uncertainty or disagreement about the fact that is stated. We believe that this helps inform students regarding how science really works. This approach would not work for every concept . . . it would muddy up the clarity of the narrative . . . but a few indications here and there of the dynamic, slippery nature of human science is useful.

Then throughout my course, I bring in more recent stories of discoveries . . . or even failures . . . in science so that students deepen their understanding of where all the concepts crammed into their A&P course comes from. And by doing so, I hope they won't be too surprised when breakthroughs are "taken back" or a new muscle is discovered (or maybe not) after all these years of human dissections.

[NOTE: One of the main reasons I produce The A&P Professor blog, newsletter, and website is to share what I'm learning as I scan the recent literature for these stories.]

One of the issues that really dogs scientists . . . and by extension students of science, too . . . is how scientific information is disseminated. In journals, of course. But there are SO MANY stories of good science that could really spark a new line of discoveries being blocked from publication by factors (power struggles, politics, etc.) that have nothing to do with the quality of the research.

A new essay in the online journal PLoS Medicine talks about a disturbing pattern in scientific publication that may adversely affect what we can learn from science . . . and how the scientific story will continue to unfold . . . .

Why Current Publication Practices May Distort Science.
Young NS, Ioannidis JPA, Al-Ubaydli O
(2008) PLoS Med 5(10): e201 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050201

This article explains in a straitforward way how "the current system of publication
in biomedical research provides a distorted view of the reality of scientific data that are generated in the laboratory and clinic."

If you want to deepen your own understanding of the modern process of science . . . so that you can pass it along to your students . . . I highly recommend this article.

Lipokines--a new class of hormones

And it continues . . .

. . . yet another hormone has been identified in the mammalian system.

[FYI, I announced this last Saturday by way of a voice mail message at The A&P Professor sample drop at drop.io . . . of which you would have been notified if you are subscribed to the drop. Click here for the how-to.]

When we begin our study of the endocrine system, I always tell my students, "there is coming a day when we'll have to include every tissue in the body as part of the endocrine system." Then a moment later, "and we'll soon see a time when a new hormone will be discovered every day [except perhaps major holidays!]."

OK, that's hyperbole. A commonly used teaching technique.

Now I'm wondering how "hyper" this particular hyperbole is!

We've known for some time that adipose tissue produces hormones. Last Friday, the journal Cell reported the discovery of yet another adipose hormone. What's unusual about this one is that it is a lipokine . . . a new class of lipid hormone that is not a steroid or protein. It is a fatty acid.

The newly discovered liopkine is called C16:1n7-palmitoleate. Oh my, if this turns out to be a central hormone that should be discussed in A&P class, can you just imagine the spelling errors that we are going to see! Let's hope they find a snappier name for it before we have to start using it regularly!

The new lipokine (notice how I'm avoiding use of its specific name!) was discovered in mice but is expected to behave similarly in humans. It's a fatty acid not commonly found circulating in high quantities in the blood. But it was found in high concentration in genetically altered super-healthy mice.

The new lipokine apparently has several actions that promote health, including:

• increases the response of muscle tissue to insulin
  
• regulates the liver's handling of fats, reducing buildup of harmful fats
  
• reduces the inflammation mediators normally produced by adipose tissue (possibly reducing the inflammation associated with diabetes, heart disease, and other health problems)

At this early stage of discovery, the hope is that more investigation of the new hormone will lead to more effective treatments of obesity or health problems associated with obesity.

Want to learn more?

Identification of a Lipokine, a Lipid Hormone Linking Adipose Tissue to Systemic Metabolism
Cao, et al. Cell, Vol 134, 933-944, 19 September 2008
doi:10.1016/j.cell.2008.07.048
This is the original article (abstract is FREE; full article requires subscription or per-article payment)

First Lipid Hormone Discovered
Science News (web edition, September18, 2008)
Summarizes the discovery.

There's more in an expanded version of this article at The A&P Professor website!
There, you'll find a diagram of the molecule, pronunciation guides, additional references, and more.

We'll have to wait and see whether the discovery holds true for humans and what implications it really has for understanding human metabolism. But when I discuss "the two major categories" of hormones in my course I will now probably qualify that statement with a mention of this discovery.

Did you get the signal?

The journal Science Signaling from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), publishers of the blockbuster journal Science and many other fine journals, produced its first "original research" online last week.

It's not exactly a new journal, it's more of a refocus of an older venture, but this is exciting news nonetheless. (It grew out of STKE, signal transduction knowledge environment, which changed its name to Science Signaling at the start of this year.)

Science Signaling is all about signal transduction, the complex set of mechanisms in which biological signals are received and processed to produce a response.

You'll need a paid subscription to the journal to view the full text or PDF files of articles from Science Signaling. However, with a FREE registration you can view all the current abstracts and editor's summaries (which is usually enough to get the gist of breakthroughs described in the articles), access to discussion forums, and FREE teaching resources. PLUS you get FREE access to all the full text and PDFs of articles since 1991 up to 1 year after the article has been published.

You don't need to register at all to gain access to just the abstracts and editor's summaries.

Click here for details about accessing the journal.

When you look at the table of contents of the Sep 2, 2008 issue, you'll notice a some interesting tidbits of information that will deepen your understanding and appreciation for the key roles played by signal transduction in human A&P. For example:

• There's an article on how microglia modulate neurogenesis
• This one may end up helping students learn better . . . memory formation is affected by circadian rhythms
• During early development, calcium detected by the extracellular calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR) helps promote normal skeletal development

Our textbooks (Thibodeau, Patton series) were among the first introductory A&P textbooks to emphasize signal transduction as a central principle of human structure and function. We saw the trend . . . look at the graph to see how the whole concept of signal transduction has erupted in the last couple of decades (as measured by appearance of the term in journal titles and abstracts). We first introduced the term to our readers in the late 1990s, just as the term--and the concept it represents-- became safety established in the lexicon of human biology.
For a FREE PowerPoint slide that animates the basic concept of signal transduction click here.

For all kinds of FREE slides click here.

For my (slowly) growing list of FREE journals click here.

If you think signal transduction is stupid click here.

Brain Research

It's here!

I just received my copy of the print version of the FREE annual journal The 2008 Progress Report on Brain Research published by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives.

This is an interesting book that each year summarizes breakthrough research and conceptualizing in the fascinating area of brain research. I especially appreciate that it's written in an easily accessible style . . . I don't have to pretend to be a neuroscientist and get out my science dictionary to wade through layers of jargon. Nope. Instead, it's written in plain English and a clean style.

Every year, an essay by a prominent neuroscientist is featured. This year there is an essay from Michael S. Gazzaniga on the strong links between the arts and cognition.

There are also interesting updates in neuroimmunology, senses. neuroethics, movement disorders, stem cells and neurogenesis, and much more.

There's also a piece on Thinking and Remembering. I think. Can't remember for sure.

You can access the contents FREE online at The 2008 Progress Report on Brain Research. You can also register to get a copy of the print version of next year's issue.

Check out my list of free journals at The A&P Professor website for more FREE journals related to human anatomy and physiology.

Body Painting

Introduce body painting into your A&P class?!

I don't know . . . I'm not so sure this would be a big hit in my rather conservative community if word got out that our students were doing body painting in class!

But an article in the current issue of Anatomical Sciences Education (ASE) titled Body painting as a tool in clinical anatomy teaching has me thinking that maybe it's a good idea. The author, Paul G. McMenamin used body painting in his anatomy class to help his students learn about muscles, nerves, dermatomes, joints, bone markings, and surface projections of various internal organs by using this method of instruction.

McMenamin allowed students to work in single- or mixed-gender groups and gave them the option of working behind a screen. He found that gender and cultural issues never seemed to be an issue with his students.

He found that these exercises were very effective, and were perceived by students as being effective, in learning anatomical concepts. McMenamin cited the multimodal and interactive aspect of this method as probable reasons for the demonstrated success of body painting as a learning tool.

Click this link Body painting as a tool in clinical anatomy teaching to access the abstract of this article FREE of charge. (See note below for access to full article.)

Have any of you tried a similar method? Share your experiences with the rest of us by clicking the Comments link at the end of this article. (Or send it to me and I'll post it here or on The A&P Professor website if appropriate.)

[NOTE: Wiley InterScience, publisher of ASE, offers the journal FREE to institutions for a limited time during the journal's inaugural year. Click here for information to pass on to your college library to get the journal FREE!]

More on Doping

Those dopes!

Just two weeks ago, I ran an article on Doping here in The A&P Professor blog. As we run up to the 2008 Olympic games we're seeing more and more in the news about doping in Olympic athletes.

I told ya so! And here's my next amazing prediction: there will be more!

For example of the recent coverage, see:

The Starting Line: Today's Cavalcade of Doping in The New York Times

Science News ran a great feature article in their August 2, 2008 issue on genetic doping called Finding the Golden Genes. I've just added a link to this article in my own expanded Doping article at The A&P Professor website. And there, you'll find a link to a cool Flash animation of one potential type of gene doping--a great resource for a discussion in your course.

Science News is a great resource for science teachers and although they are a print magazine, much of their content is FREE on the web. See my previous post or go here in The A&P Professor website for more free sources.

Free Journals?

Yes! FREE journals you can use to supplement your teaching of A&P . . . or simply keep up to date.

I mentioned in my previous post that I would come back to the idea of free journals. I want to bring up the fact that as A&P teachers, updates we glean from the journals not only increases our own understanding of human biology but also gives us something to bring to the classroom. When we can say that we "just read an article that" questions, disputes, or further clarifies what is the textbook then we bring active science into the classroom. We demonstrate that scientific understanding is dynamic and not static . . . that it evolves through dialog, debate, and continuous experimentation and observation.

Another way to bring the latest publications to the classroom is to provide links to students. Such links could be used simply as a way for students with an interest--or a question--in a course topic to easily find more to chew on. Or they could be used as optional or required assigned readings. Or could be used in conjunction with case study activities.

If you have other ideas for using links to free science journal or magazine articles in an A&P class, then hit the "Comments" button and let's here them!

I'm building a list of free journals related to A&P on The A&P Professor website, so now you have a place to start!