Space-Age Stem Cells
His groundbreaking research already shattered the earthly view that damaged heart muscle can’t be rejuvenated. Now Joshua Hare, the Miller School of Medicine’s chief science officer and director of the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute, is expanding his research to the final frontier—outer space. The Louis Lemberg Professor of Medicine was among seven stem cell researchers around the nation to be awarded up to $300,000 each by the organization that manages research aboard the International Space Station. The grant will give Hare the opportunity to explore how zero gravity, or microgravity, affects fundamental stem cell properties. Microgravity, says Hare, “could play an important role in generating new heart muscle.” He and his team are conducting ground-based experiments in a simulated microgravity environment as they wait for NASA to certify the proposal as “flight-capable.” The goal is to determine whether a microgravity environment can enhance the ability of stem cells to become heart muscle and reverse damage from heart attack and heart failure.
The Tweet Science
David Shiffman, a Ph.D. student at the Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy, and his collaborators published a study on the scientific and scholarly use of tweeting, titled, “The role of Twitter in the life cycle of a scientific publication,” earlier this year in the journal Ideas in Ecology and Evolution. Shiffman has been named one of the top biologists to follow on Twitter (@WhySharksMatter). Read more at http://tinyurl.com/l7jlcaa.
Breakthrough for Blinding Disease
Research led by physician-scientists at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute has produced a breakthrough in retinitis pigmentosa, a blinding disease that affects about 1 in 4,000 people in the United States. Rong Wen and Byron L. Lam, professors of ophthalmology at Bascom Palmer and directors of the institute’s Adrienne Arsht Hope for Vision Center of Retinal Degeneration Research, in collaboration with biochemist Ziqiang Guan, of Duke University Medical School, discovered a key marker in blood and urine that can identify people who carry genetic mutations in a gene responsible for retinitis pigmentosa. The Journal of Lipid Research published their research paper this past September. “A simple urine test can tell who has the RP-causing mutations,” says Wen. The first mutation in this gene, named DHDDS, was identified in 2011 by scientists at the Miller School of Medicine, including Stephan Züchner, professor and interim chair of the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Department of Human Genetics, Wen, Lam, and Margaret A. Pericak-Vance, director of the John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics. Read more at http://tinyurl.com/n553fhx.
Plankton to the People
Plankton feed the oceans and pull CO2 from the air. To increase our understanding of these critically important yet tiny aquatic organisms, scientists at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science have launched www.planktonportal.org. Developed by emeritus professor of marine biology and fisheries Robert K. Cowen, along with research associate Cedric Guigand and graduate students Jessica Luo and Adam Greer, this citizen-supported science project invites volunteers to help classify the plankton pictured in millions of images that were collected by an underwater robot engineered at UM with help from Bellamare LLC and funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Science Foundation.
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