Research Integrity II

My previous entry on this subject, “Research Integrity“, was stimulated by the breaking news in October 2011 of problems surrounding publications from Prof. Melendez when he was at NUS. I have recently discovered that, following an internal investigation at the University of Liverpool, Prof. Melendez resigned from the University some months ago (late autumn or during the winter, I am not entirely sure). I am not au fait with the legal niceties, but I think the University should be proud that it has managed to resolve effectively the issue at Liverpool.

Update 3 November 2013 The links to Abnormal Science and Science Fraud are dead.

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Signalling seminar Monday March 5

Nick Leslie
College of Life Sciences, University of Dundee

PTEN, PI 3-kinase and cancer

Monday March 5
11.30
LT 2
Cellular signal transduction is the process by which cells coordinate their behaviour in response to their external surroundings including incoming signals, such as hormones and growth factors. The PI 3-kinase/PTEN signalling pathway is a key regulator of cell growth, survival and motility in many cell types and loss of control over its activity is a characteristic of most types of cancer and many other diseases, such as type 2 diabetes. Our work aims to understand in more detail the workings of the proteins that make up the core of this pathway, and the lipid signalling molecules that they synthesise and metabolise. We use a variety of approaches from enzymology, proteomics and lipid biochemistry to functional studies in cultured cells and in vivo.

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Christoph Ballestrem seminar “Vinculin, an adaptor protein regulated by mechanical forces coordinates cell adhesion and migration”

Monday 27 February
SR2 (might be LT3)
13.00
Christoph’s lab is interested in how cells sense mechanical and biochemical stimuli. Sensing of such stimuli is directed by adhesion receptors (integrins) that transduce the information of the extracellular environment via focal adhesion proteins to the actomyosin machinery. Coupling and uncoupling events between the integrins and the actin cytoskeleton and the coordinated recruitment and release of focal adhesion components are essential for polarized cell migration. In my talk I will present mostly unpublished data where we use a variety of imaging techniques and Atomic force spectroscopy to elucidate molecular mechanisms of cell adhesion and migration. I will present how the adaptor protein vinculin is involved in the transduction of forces and how it coordinates the assembly and disassembly of adhesion complexes.

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Seminar on the origins of life

Winter 2012
ORGANIC COLLOQUIA
Dept of Chemistry
Brunner Lecture Theatre
Tuesday, February 21st
4:15 pm
Professor John Sutherland
MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge
“Origins of life chemistry – reconciling the iron-sulfur and RNA worlds”

This promises to be a fascinating talk

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Biophysical Society Seminar Monday 6 February

Today, 1 pm in LT2.

Professor Tim Cross, Florida State University

The Native-Like Structure of the M2 Proton Channel of Influenza A obtained from Lipid Bilayer Preparations

Tim Cross is Professor of Chemistry at FSU, Tallahassee, and is the recipient of many honours and awards. His recent work on the M2 proton channel has appeared in Science, PNAS and JACS. He is currently touring the UK as the British Biophysical Society International Lecturer.

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