DMC Developmental Biology Teaching Workshop

I'm in the gorgeous woods of Maine right now, hanging out with my good friend Rhian at the Darling Marine Center.  I'm here for a workshop in teaching Developmental Biology.  Its a 12 hour a day workshop... and we've done some crazy things during our time already - two headed planaria, mini sea urchin larvae, a chick embryo with two hearts, and hopefully by tomorrow a twinned frog.  We've still got a day and a half and flies and worms to go!  I'm a bit 'knackered' so I'll fill you in on all of the details with day by day highlights and pictures when I get back.  In the meantime, here's a picture of the rocky shores of Maine.

Fellowship

In all things in life, you should have a plan B (and if you're a super anal-retentive control freak, a plan C and D).  I'm in the midst of writing an application for a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Queensland, Australia.  I'm admittedly not super excited about another post-doc... but if I've got to do one, Australia and this lab in particular is looking pretty good! I could do worse. The lab fully integrates molecular biology, genomics and larval ecology... the closest thing I've ever seen to my own research interests.

Interestingly, joining this lab was my plan A coming out of graduate school, but I didn't get the NSF International Postdoctoral Fellowship that I applied for.  So no money = no Australia.  I have no complaints though.  I've enjoyed my time and been productive at NIH.  Its interesting that this opportunity came up again.  I got an email out of the blue congratulating me on the Science paper and asking me if I was still interested.  Well here I am editing the fellowship application and pointing to Australia on the world map for my daughter.  I could still magically get a faculty position... or I could be bouncing with kangaroos on the beach... you never know whats next.

BlueMind

Earlier this month marine scientists, real estate agents, neuroscientists, meditation practitioners, physicologists, surf shop owners and many others convened for the first BlueMind Summit.  These people may seem like an odd grouping but they all share the common lure of the ocean's sounds and sights.  BlueMind was a first step to understanding why people are drawn to and comforted by the ocean.  Instead of asking questions about how the ocean works, the summit pondered questions like:  Why do people pay a high premium for ocean views?  Why is the sound of the ocean so soothing - the most common sound in calming machines and sleep aids?  Why do we flock to the ocean for vacations?

Not surprisingly, I have always been inexplicably drawn to the ocean. Throughout my teens and twenties, the first place I would go when I was stressed or sought to be alone was the ocean.  The sound of the waves calmed me, the blue ripples soothed me, the vast horizon reminded me how small I and my troubles really were.  Interestingly though, the Pacific Ocean has a far more powerful pull on me than any other ocean.  But why?

Interesting theories came out of the summit from the chemical composition of the brain (saltwater) to evolution to perceived societal value.  Since all living things evolved from life in the ocean, it makes sense that we would have a connection.  But this doesn't explain the nature of the connection.  Others suggest that the ocean represents a safe place where vision is not obstructed - a perfect horizon from which any threats could be easily seen.  Thus our connection to the ocean would boil down to a behavioral choice to reduce predation risk.  This was probably my least favorite explanation having seen the threats, risks, and unknown lurking in the ocean.  I would instead argue that the ocean hides and conceals rather than provides uncluttered sight.

My favorite hypothesis from the summit that I've read about thus far came from a real estate agent.  The expanse of the ocean represents limitless opportunity.  Maybe I prefer this because my chosen profession is studying the process of the ocean but either way, I like it.  Because the ocean conceals its mysteries, one is open to imagine the adventures and treasures below.  Because the ocean is nearly 3/4 of the planet, it has control over the Earth - power- and we can't even comprehend the expanse - limitless, though we know there are limits. The power, mystery, and adventure of the smooth horizon can invoke fear, imagination, creativity, calm... pretty much any emotion... but it always invokes some feeling...

Though I hope we can come to understand humanity's draw to the ocean, I am currently satisfied with knowing that I always will be drawn to the ocean.

Scientific American stirs the pot

An online article in Scientific American showcases our work recently published in Science. 
Massive Ocean Eddies Stir Up Life around Deep-sea Vents

My favorite line: "It's not Kansas down there, but the new research suggests that powerful deep-sea cyclones—the whirling underbellies of eddies—sweep through these communities on a seasonal basis, transporting vent products to far-off waters."

Sea Urchin XX

I'm on the Peter Pan bus heading up to Boston after a long but very good and productive Developmental Biology of the Sea Urchin Meeting XX.  Its always nice to be in Woods Hole - see old friends, the ocean, my old home.  But this was better than usual.  The conference was wonderful.  It had a much broader representation of what you can do with a sea urchin than usual.  There was the usual hardcore developmental biology, but there was also more integration outside of the norm -- immunology, circadian rhythms, 3 sessions of evolution & development -- even the field's fearless leader incorporated and acknowledged the world outside of cis-regulation of development.  This was especially rewarding for me -- since my interests are how the environment and development interact.

This new tone, or may be just coincidence, meant that there were numerous opportunities for collaboration that arose during the meeting.  Of course, that means I've got a long To Do list for when I get home.

Half of the new, larger personnel sphere being made.  (c) WHOI

The trip was also fruitful outside of the meeting.  It started with a fortuitous meeting with the head of the submersible Alvin retrofit and my old friend, who, as always, told great stories over dinner and a few beers. Then I got a tour of the Alvin mock up - full sized and with 2 more windows than before.  It should be nice!  I just hope I can get out to sea to take the real one for a test spin sooner than later!  A couple lunches at the Fishmonger and trips the Captain Kidd allowed me to catch up with great friends and also develop new project ideas.  I may have said something stupid and landed myself on a cruise in the near future as well.

All and all, a great trip.  I miss the Hole already... though admittedly, I don't miss the wooden chairs in Lillie Auditorium.

Science!!

After a whirlwind of phone calls with reporters, traveling, and anticipation, the Science paper came out today!  Check it out.  (If you don't have access to Science, you can get the article from the pdf link found here.) There was also some pretty good press associated with the article.  There are too many to include here, but they can be found by clicking the tab "In the news" above.

Thank you to all of you for your emails and facebook messages of congrats!  I must say that its strange spending days working with the press and Science Magazine to promote your work.  I know a lot more people, oceanographers, scientists and non-scientists, will learn about this work.  I hope they and you like it.... or if you don't, I hope it makes you think of another experiment to test the work and push the field forward.

Shot of life

I received a shot of life yesterday... well actually I'm living pretty well, it was more my science career that might have been heading for trouble.  Science accepted my paper!  Wohoo!!

Admittedly, I have joked with my colleagues about the science tabloids - Science, Nature and Cell - when another manuscript got flat out rejected.  But when it comes down to it, I read those journals as much and sometimes more than other specialty journals; the quality of the research is generally higher though the interpretations are sometimes more tenacious; and its really good for an early career researcher to have those names on your CV.  So the joking was out of envy.  I'm ecstatic that my paper got in!  Last night we broke open a bottle of wine that we've been saving for a special occasion to celebrate.

... now, waiting on Current Biology to hear about another submission and time to start working on a new manuscript.  It never ends.  Publish or perish - true at any stage of your career.  At least, now I'm enjoying writing and telling stories.

Flies in Heat Part 1: Hot vs Cold

One of the themes of my research interests is understanding how organisms sense and adaptively respond to their environment.  While I am mainly interested in marine larvae, because their responses can have effects on dispersal and thus population connectivity and dynamics, these are not model organisms where the bulk of the progress is occurring.  So it is useful to keep up with some of the fascinating research that is being done on animals like flies, plants (see previous post) and worms (sorry Palin).

Two recent articles uncover some of the secrets of how flies sense temperature.  I'll comment on one article in this post and the second article in Part 2.

Zuker and colleages show that flies have separate neurons in their antennae to sense hot or cold.  The hot neurons and cold neurons project onto distinct but neighboring regions in the fly 'brain' to process this information.  So while hot and cold sensation are related, both use TRP channel receptors and project onto the same part of the brain, they have dedicated machinery (neurons) and processing areas.


While this work on the adult flies is fascinating and provides new mechanistic insight into the neural processing of temperature, it also leaves room for thought on how changes in ambient temperature (e.g. climate change) affect thermosensation.  Before learning anything on the subject, I would have guessed that temperature was sensed as a continuous variable - one set of one neuron type that sensed all temperatures (from hot to cold).  With a division of the work between hot neurons and cold neurons, I can't help but to wonder how the two temperature regimes are divided.  One organism's hot could be another's cold.  Ambient or optimal temperature should lie, I would hope, between the two temperature regimes.

What happens when ambient temperature shifts?  How is ambient temperature sensed? (Part 2 may have some clues to this second question.) Logic would then assume that there are then three types of neurons for temperature sensation - Hot, Cold, and Ambient.  Hot and Cold may be detected like pain stimuli (TRP channels are also involved in pain sensation), whereas Ambient may be more similar to my naive idea of a detecting a continuous gradient.  This would mean that now THREE sensory pathways must be selected upon to adapt to new environmental temperature regimes (climate change).  A tall order indeed.

Gallio, M., T.A. Ofstad, L.J. Macpherson, J.W. Wang, and C.S. Zuker. (2011) The Coding of Temperature in the Drosophila Brain. Cell. 144(4): 614-624.DOI 10.1016/j.cell.2011.01.028

Power of the Ocean

Once again we're reminded of the dangers that lie beneath and the power of the ocean.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of our friends, colleagues, and everyone in Japan. 

Feeling the Heat - climate change and development

Climate change or no climate change, organisms respond to changes in temperature on a regular basis.  Heat shock proteins are notorious for being up-regulated during periods of temperature shock.  Plants and animals time their reproduction to seasonal variation in temperatures.  We determine our wardrobe choices (at least partially) based on the temperature outside.   Internal clocks are partially set by daily changes in temperature.  But how is temperature sensed?  There isn't a photon or chemical odor to be received. 

Kumar and Wigge have uncovered that chromatin changes mediated by the alternative histone H2A.Z are responsible for sensing temperature in Arabidopsis (a member of the cabbage or mustard family).  Plants without H2A.Z mimic plants grown in warm temperatures - e.g. faster development, fewer leaves and shorter time to flowering.  The idea is that H2A.Z histones are incorporated into the DNA in the promoters of temperature sensitive genes (such as heat shock proteins). The H2A.Z histones change the way the DNA is wrapped to prevent transcription or interfere with repressors.  As the temperature increases, H2A.Z releases the DNA allowing for activator or repressor transcription factors to bind and/or work to rapidly change gene expression. 

With the threat of global warming looming in the not so distant future, understanding the mechanisms by which organisms sense and respond to temperature is increasingly important.  Kumar and Wigge (2010) found that yeast also use H2A.Z to sense temperature.  It will be interesting to see if animals also use H2A.Z in this fashion.  H2A.Z is highly conserved across metazoa, however there could be small changes in the protein that shed light on differential responses to temperature.  When do H2A.Z leave the DNA? 1 degree change, 10 degree change?  Also, perturbation of H2A.Z would reveal the species-specific molecular consequences of increasing temperature.  How does this pathway feed into developmental gene regulatory networks?