Dear GNOBB members, Upon my request, one of the GNOBB co-founders, Dr. Hemayet Ullah, Associate Professor, Biology Department, Howard College, Washington DC has described the research activities  at his Department. I am posting verbatim the account given by him a short while ago, “My lab is making very good progress towards developing small compounds capable of coun

Dr. Yoshiki Sasai, a Japanese ophthalmologist at the Riken Center for developmental Biology, Kobè Japan, has successfully grown three dimensional human-eye precursor from stem cells. This remarkable feat has raised hopes enabling eye surgeons repair the damaged eyes in the clinic in the future. The news about this scientific breakthrough has been published in the 15th June is

In a paper entitled, “Hybridization between crops and wild relatives: the contribution of cultivated lettuce to the vigor of crop–wild hybrids under drought, salinity and nutrient deficiency conditions,” published in the June issue of Theoretical and Applied Genetics,Brigitte Uwimana and associates investigated the vigor of lettuce hybrids of  crosses, cu

In an article entitled, “Comparative Epigenomic Annotation of Regulatory DNA”, published in June 8, 2012, issue of Cell 149:1381–1392, the lead author Shu Xiao with twelve other associates from five research groups investigated on the evolutionary properties of the mammalian epigenome. The aim of the study was to elucidate co-evolutionary interactions within genome

While surfing through the Internet, we came across the title of an excellent Plant Physiology Textbook entitled, “A Companion to Plant Physiology,” Fifth Edition (http://5e.plantphys.net/)” by Lincoln Taiz and Eduardo Zeiger. In view of the extremely high cost of good textbooks, this free online textbook will prove invaluable to the graduate students

In an article entitled, “NPR3 and NPR4 are receptors for the immune signal salicylic acid in plants” published on the 14th June issue of Nature (486:228-232), Zheng Qing Fu and his 10 other associates reported about the hitherto undiscovered two pathogenesis-related NPR3 and NPR4 as SA receptors. They bind SA with different affinities. The complex molecule bound to SA fu

In a recent issue of Nature (13 June, 2012), Adrian Owen, a neuro-scientist has published an extremely interesting article entitled, “Neuroscience: the mind reader”. In this article he describes a novel way to use brain scans to communicate with people previously considered to be in vegetative states. At Cambridge Owen and his associates at the University of Li

In a recent article entitled, “Development of novel chloroplast microsatellite markers for the energy crop Miscanthus species (Poaceae)” published in the current issue of Am. J. Bot. (June 2012 vol. 99 (6):230-233), the six authors under the lead investigator, Jian-Xiong Jiang have reported 28 novel primers flanking (chloroplast microsatelli

GNOBB members feel very happy to offer their heartiest felicitations to Dr. Aparna Islam, Ph.D. at the Department of Mathematics & Natural Sciences, BRAC University for her promotion to the rank of Associate Professor. She teaches biotechnology at the undergraduate level under Biotechnology Program. She is also a member of the Editorial Board of the J. PTC & Biotech. We w

In an article entitled, “Efficient H2 production via Chlamydomonas reinhardtii,” published in 2011 in Trends in Biotechnology [vol.29(12):595-600], Maria G. Esquível et al. working in four different research institutes in Portugal advocate the use of molecular hydrogen (H2) derived from biological sources. According to them the production of H2 prov