Web Wednesday: GenomeRNAi

Todays Web Wednesday featuer: GenomeRNAi, an effort from the Boutros group at DKFZ that reports an update in the most recent database issue of NAR:

Gilsdorf et al. (2009) GenomeRNAi: a database for cell-based RNAi phenotypes. 2009 update. Nucleic Acids Res. doi: doi:10.1093/nar/gkp1038.

Database issue of NAR 2009 (free online access)

GenomeRNAi

And check out their "List all Screens" for what I assume is a summary of the screens that are searchable in the database. Included among the screens in Drosophila and human cells listed are many published screens based on data obtained at the DRSC. Looks like a good place to go to see what's out there from many groups.

RNAi in 30 Insect Species and Counting

On my desk today? A recently e-published review by Xavier Belles in the upcoming 2010 edition of Annual Reviews in Entomology, Beyond Drosophila: RNAi in vivo and functional genomics in insects.

Quote of the Week: Contradiction

The female germ cell embodies a most profound contradiction. It must be totipotent, containing within itself all the information needed for the development of a new individual. But it must also be highly differentiated in order to carry out the complex functions required of it.

- Anne McLaren, in Germ Cells and Soma: A New Look at an Old Problem (Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1981)

Breaking Report: Metazoan Secretory Pathway

What's on my desk to read today (besides the post-holiday pileup of emails)? A recent report based on a screen performed at the DRSC: Wendler et al. (2009) A genome-wide RNA interference screen identifies two novel components of the metzoan secretory pathway. EMBO Journal. Protocols notes: Luciferase assay readout (stable S2 cell line with the reporter construct), DRSC genome-wide library, follow up in human cells with siRNAs.

Local? Imaging Workshops

Local to HMS? Check out upcoming workshops offered by the imaging center. Training on image analysis software and more.

Web Wednesday (well, Thurs)--Pathway Projector

Just learned about Pathway Projector, which describes itself as a zoomable interface for systems biology. Kono et al. (2009) Pathway Projector: Web-Based Zoomable Pathway Browser Using KEGG Atlas and Google Maps API. PLoSOne (free on-line access).

Breaking Report: JNK & Immunity Screen

What's on my desk today?

A report from Bond & Foley (2009) A Quantitative RNAi Screen for JNK Modifiers Identifies Pvr as a Novel Regulator of Drosophila Immune Signaling. PLoS Pathogen (Open Access).

From their abstract, "Our data illuminate a poorly understood arm of a critical and evolutionarily conserved innate immune response." Protocol Notes: Screened S2 cells; library in part from OpenBio; "in-cell western" approach compared phospho-JNK to Actin levels; 15 and 60 minute timepoints.