Charles Plessy @charles_plessy@mastodon.technology

Quoted from the #NIH Extramural Nexus newsletter: https://nexus.od.nih.gov/all/2019/05/13/the-dos-donts-of-hyperlinks-in-grant-applications/

" * Do include #hyperlinks when explicitly requested in application guide, funding opportunity, or NIH Guide notice instructions

* Do use hyperlinks in relevant citations and publications included in biosketches and publication list attachments

* Don’t use hyperlinks anywhere else in your application"

Biological textbook drawings describing what is inside a #cell, to color by #children: https://www.cell.com/comics

We are #hiring a #bioinformatician in the research unit where I am working, at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (#OIST). We are studying the genetic variations of a small animal #plankton called #Oikopleura dioica. Its exceptionally compact (70 Mbp) #genome may help us understand how to design a genome from scratch. OIST is an incredible #research place, diverse, pluridisciplinary and #inclusive, inserted in a fantastic natural environment. https://www.oist.jp/careers/postdoctoral-researcher-plankton-genomics

A single-chain #antibody was developed to bind and stabilise #nucleosomes (histone proteins with #DNA wrapped on) by Zhou, collaborators and Zhang (Nature Communications, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10247-4). This allowed them make beautiful images of centromeric nucleosomes by cryo-electronic #microscopy. (Screenshot from the paper licensed CC-BY 4.0)

I just discovered with horror in #Nature that the industrialised agriculture that produces #olive oil kills millions of birds per year. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01456-4

After 9 months at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, I still find a sense of pride every time I start my day walking though its impressive tunnel gallery. OIST is growing and will soon reach a thousand employees. Still, it may have been a surprise to some that a labour #union was formed. From my point of view, this is consubstantial with growth. One of the union's founders had his contract not renewed. Please join me in supporting him by asking OIST to reinstate him. https://t.co/Ppm38utPVE

A special issue on #tunicate biology in the journal Developmental Biology, including articles on #Oikopleura dioica: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/developmental-biology/vol/448/issue/2

The 13th International Workshop on Advanced #Genomics (#13AGW) taking place in #Tokyo in June 25th~27th (this year 2019) has an interesting program covering genomic medicine, genome regulation, cancer genomics, chromatin structure, single cells, new technologies and genome editing. Don't be scared by the news message in Japanese on the front page, the whole meeting is in English. http://gt164.jpn.org/13agw/

Freezing cells using #inkjet printing to encapsulate them in #microdroplets, which are then deposited on a glass slide cooled by liquid nitrogen: a recent article in #PNAS by Akiyama, …, and Kanda: “Cryoprotectant-free cryopreservation of mammalian cells by superflash freezing”, PNAS April 16, 2019 116 (16) 7738-7743; first published April 1, 2019 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1808645116

Attending next week the BDR symposium 2019: “Control and Design of #Biosystems”, hosted by #RIKEN in #Kobe, #Japan. https://www2.bdr.riken.jp/sympo/2019/index.html

#OIST praised for its multidisciplinarity in #Nature Index Japan 2019: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00830-6

Astonished by the speed and quality of the #dnafriend #DNA testing company. They really made my day. The only thing they are clearly doing wrong is to be on Twitter instead of Mastodon.

https://dnafriend.com/

More seriously, just make sure to use a disposable email address, etc., just in case, as their privacy policy mentions the possibility of collecting this data.

To everybody who writes a #CV: please to not use #antispam tricks in your #email address; this is the best way to lose opportunities.

"Beyond disciplines", a report of the Japanese Science and Technology agency (JST)'s Center for Research and Development Strategy has just been translated in English. It outlines 12 #transdisciplinary #research themes, and is an important tool to understand #Japan's scientific directions. https://www.jst.go.jp/crds/en/publications/CRDS-FY2018-RR-02_EN.html

The first #EMBO workshop in #Tokyo will be about #singlecell #biology and organised by my former colleagues from #RIKEN. 20 – 22 May 2019. More details at http://meetings.embo.org/event/19-single-cell-biology

Our manuscript describing the "C1 CAGE" method that we developed at #RIKEN to analyse gene expression (#transcriptome) of single cells on the #Fluidigm platform is finally published in Nature Communications (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-08126-5). The protocol itself has been already available for a couple of years directly on Fluidigm's website. Another method, not visible from the title, is also published in our manuscript: "color multiplexing" of single cells using live stains.

In “Programmable design of orthogonal #protein heterodimers”, Chen, ..., and Baker (University of Washington and others) have calculated and produced entirely artificial protein domains that make exclusive (”orthogonal”) pairs. In comparison, our #DNA has only two pairs, A:T and C:G. This is another big breakthrough in #synthetic biology Published this month in #Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0802-y

I am very excited to see the R's %>% pipe operator becoming first class in #Bioconductor thanks to the new plyrange package! See the paper of Lee, Cook and Lawrence (Genome Biology, 2019) for details. https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13059-018-1597-8