Local? Assay Technology Seminar

If you are local to HMS you might want to check out the assay technology series seminar hosted by the ICCB-Longwood on Wed. Feb. 1. Details online.

New version of Genome RNAi

The Boutros group has launched a version 6 of GenomeRNAi. According to their announcement, the database now contains data from about 100 human cell-based RNAi screens, about 100 fly cell-based RNAi screens (including DRSC screen data), and about 50 in vivo fly RNAi screens. They also now offer the option to input your own data. Check it out!

Breaking Report: Moesin Dephosphorylation

On my desk to read today? A report of an RNAi screen focused on phosphatases.

Kunda et al. 2012 PP1-Mediated Moesin Dephosphorylation Couples Polar Relaxation to Mitotic Exit. Curr Biol. ePubed 2011 Dec 28. PubMed ID: 22209527

DIOPT & DIOPT-DIST Updated

We recently updated the underlying data sets in DIOPT and DIOPT-DIST. There will be some new relationships (for example, new human gene-fly gene relationships). So if you've searched before it's worth repeating the search. For details feel free to contact the DRSC bioinformatics staff.

Annual Arthropod Meeting Announcement

I recently saw an announcement for the Sixth Annual Arthropod Genomics Symposium. May 31, 2012 to June 2, 2012 in Kansas City (i5K workshop May 30-31). Details on their website.

NIH Funding Opportunities

The NIH has announced new funding opportunities for small molecule screening at established academic screening centers like the DRSC.

From the FAO purpose statement: "This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages investigators to form collaborations with an established academic, nonprofit, or commercial high throughput screening (HTS) facility that has the requisite expertise and experience to implement HTS-ready assays for the discovery and development of small molecule chemical probes."

Check out these announcements at NIH for more information and please feel free to get in touch if you'd like to collaborate on a small molecule screening project.

PAR-12-058 Solicitation of Assays for High Throughput Screening (HTS) to Discover Chemical Probes (R01)
PAR-12-059 Solicitation of Assays for High Throughput Screening (HTS) to Discover Chemical Probes (R21)
PAR-12-060 Solicitation of Validated Hits for the Discovery of in vivo Chemical Probes (R01)

Breaking Report: Public Engagement in Fly Research

On my desk to read today? A bit of a departure from RNAi. This paper on engaging the public in Drosophila research caught my eye.

Pulver et al. (2011) Why flies? Inexpensive public engagement exercises to explain the value of basic biomedical research on Drosophila melanogaster. Adv Physiol Educ. 35(4):384-92. PubMed ID: 22139775.