Archive for September, 2009

Journal club on 9/25

Sunday, September 20th, 2009

We will all read two short articles about Cystic Fibrosis:

  • Couzin-Frankel J. The promise of a cure: 20 years and counting. Science. 2009 Jun 19;324(5934):1504-7.
  • Pearson H. One gene, twenty years. Nature. 2009 Jul 9;460(7252):164-9.

Each one of us will then pick one of the following topics, elaborate the discussion by reading an additional latest reference of your choice and present the major ideas in the lab meeting.  (Liyun, as a physician for years, should pick up a more research-based topic).

The format will be a 10-min presentation followed by 5-min discussion. If you are discussing a research paper, the breakdown should be as follows: 5-min for background+experimental design, 5-min for 1-2 major findings. For a review paper, the breakdown should be approximately 3 mins for each major idea. The presentation should have no more than 4 slides, preferably 3, you can also use the board. We will also bring a timer.

I suggest the following six topics:

  1. Pathophysiology
  2. Etiology and epidemiology
  3. General therapeutic approaches excluding gene therapy
  4. Functional characterization of CFTR
  5. Animal models, challenges and prospects
  6. Gene therapy, challenges and prospects

Please reply and this thread to select your topic, and upload both your presentation and the reference article to the appropriate lab meeting folder.  I look forward to discussing these ideas with you!

Biotechnology Mobile Laboratory Education Program in Hong Kong

Saturday, September 12th, 2009

Dr. William Mak, a good friend and a great role model, has been devoting his career to improving the biotechnology education for primary and secondary students and teachers over the years. He has established the Hong Kong Biotechnology Education Resource center with Sik Sik Yuen Ho Yu College and built a university-level research laboratory to facilitate the process. He has been working on another interesting project recently – a custom-built coach bus that serves as a mobile laboratory for the community. He made me feel proud to be a Hong Kong scientist.

More information can be found here:
http://www.hkberc.org.hk/
http://biotechmobilelab.hkberc.org.hk/

Here are a few pictures of my visit…