Sept. 22 RBJC - cancelled

Our fearless presenter has flu-like symptoms, and the edict is stay home until you're symptom-free for 24 hr. Protecting health, saving lives, millions at a time (or at least the couple dozen he would have exposed at journal club). Stay tuned for details on our October 6 journal club!

RBJC fall 2009 location - Room W2303 in the School of Public Health

See map for the approximate location of Room W2303.

Please be forewarned that there is another group in the room up until 12:30. Given this, whomever is presenting will only be able to get in the room to get set up with the projector right at 12:30, so presentations will probably start ~12.35. But come early and socialize!

September 22, 2009 journal club

And we're off! We will meet Tuesday, Sept. 22 at 12:30 in Room W2303 in the School of Public Health.

Matt Beattie from the Zirkin lab will be presenting:

Zona Occludens-2 Is Critical for Blood-Testis Barrier Integrity and Male Fertility
Xu et al., Mol. Biol. Cell
published as MBC in Press, 10.1091/mbc.E08-12-1236 on August 19, 2009

This isn't really related to Matt's thesis project, but heck, the blood-testis barrier is cool.

Tentative schedule for fall 2009!

Room reservation is still pending -- but here's a "save the date" notice for the following Tuesdays at 12:30 ...

Sept. 22 - Matt Beattie (Zirkin lab)
Oct. 6 - TBD
Oct. 20 - Rachel Stine (Matunis lab)
[paper to be presented Lange et al., 2009, Cell, 138:855]
Nov. 3 - Becca Sheng (Matunis lab)
Nov. 17 - TBD
Dec. 1 - TBD
Dec. 15 - TBD

(And thanks to Matt, Rachel, and Becca for volunteering to go early and help get things rolling!)

Getting set for fall kick-off

I'm in the process of recruiting/arm-twisting for presentations for September and beyond. If you are willing and able [please!], do contact me --> jpevans@jhsph.edu

Also, please join me in welcoming the lab of Daniela Drummond-Barbosa to our group!

We are planning to continue with every other Tuesday at 12:30 for our meetings, for the time being at least -- although we might to some re-adjusting as the year goes on, to accommodate different schedules, to include some additional labs, etc.

May 26 journal club

After a few postponements, Matt Beattie from the Zirkin lab will present on May 26 (!).
He will have a hard act to follow, after Chris added some zip to his April 14 presentation with highlights of Han Solo being frozen (and how about a few bonus points for the wookie imitator?) ... but Matt works on the aging male, so at least that has Harrison Ford as a common theme.

Matt will present:

Evidence that age-related changes in p38 MAP kinase contribute to the decreased steroid production by the adrenocortical cells from old rats, Aging Cell 7:168

Oxidative stress-induced inhibition of adrenal steroidogenesis requires participation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathway, Journal of Endocrinology 198:193

April 14 journal club

NOTE: We will be back in Room W2303 on April 14.
Chris from the Matunis lab will be leading a discussion of:

Plzf is required in adult male germ cells for stem cell self-renewal (Buass et al., Nature Genetics, 2004)

and a bit on the follow-up paper:
Histone lysine trimethylation exhibits a distinct perinuclear distribution in in Plzf-expressing spermatogonia (Payne and Braun, Dev. Biol. 2006)

Why these? ... Chris says:
"I chose this paper because it is one of very few reports that I am aware of demonstrating the role of an epigenetic regulator in the maintenance of mammalian germline stem cells. Although much work has been done regarding epigenetic modifications in differentiated germ cells, less is known about the role of epigenetic and chromatin modification in germline stem cell function. In our lab I am study the role of a chromatin remodeling complex, NURF, in the maintenance of Drosophila testis stem cells. Specifically, we are interested in understanding how chromatin remodeling factors contribute to the maintenance of stem cells within their endogenous niche including the role of the epigenetic state of a stem cell in its ability to interpret niche signals."