From the Military to the Lab

May 25, 2012

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Working in a clinical lab may be a good career choice for some veterans transitioning to civilian life, writes Steve Eichmann at Advance Laboratory. Eichmann recounts the experience of Wendell Jones, who joined the Air Force after receiving a college degree in medical technology. Jones served in military hospitals or labs, and the Air Force gave him the opportunity to pursue a master's degree in the field as well. Jones then specialized in blood banking, and after he left the military, he found a job at a blood center in Louisiana. "Jones says that, provided they have education or background and training in the field, the medical laboratory is a good option for veterans. He notes that most laboratories recognize the leadership and management skills that veteran medical technicians bring with them as they transition from military to civilian life," Eichmann adds.

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Data presented in this webinar illustrates the value of live cell analysis at the single-cell level to identify differences in expression levels across populations of cells. The cells remain intact for downstream analysis. Our experts also discuss the use of SmartFlare RNA detection probes for the direct quantification of circulating miRNAs with rapid processing of blood plasma/serum, which is done without the use of enzymes. Using circulating miRNAs with established roles in cancer and quality control, we can accurately detect these miRNAs in plasma using a microplate fluorometer within an hour after plasma preparation.

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Andrew Johnson

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There can be a bit of a chasm between dry lab work and wet lab work. But NHLBI's Andrew Johnson aims to close that gap. "A lot of things that I attempt in terms of projects try to bridge those barriers between the dry lab, computational side of things and wet lab experiments that are two different worlds," he says.

Currently, Johnson's work focuses on developing tools. During the early days of genome-wide association studies, he noticed that it was difficult for researchers to compare results generated across various array platforms. In conjunction with scientists at the Broad Institute, he developed a tool called SNAP to do just that. "[It] was pretty successful in terms of allowing people to rapidly query for proxy markers, but also just to do basic annotation of SNPs, like chromosome position, gene, and also to do plotting for regional genetic association plots," he says.
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Mosaic genome structure of the barley powdery mildew pathogen and conservation of transcriptional programs in divergent hosts
Hacquard, Kracher, et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

The barley powdery mildew (Blumeria graminis f. sp. hordei) pathogen genome is comprised of chunks of sequence that are particularly rich or replete in polymorphisms, according to a study by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research. The team sequenced the genomes of two Bgh isolates from Europe, comparing each to the barley powdery mildew reference genome. The newly sequenced isolates each contained distinct combinations of sequence blocks with high or low SNP concentrations — isolate-specific mosaic genomes that point to "exceptionally large standing genetic variation in the Bgh population," study authors say. Meanwhile, their transcriptome sequencing experiments offered a look at genes used by Bgh during attempted infiltration of barley or immunocompromised Arabidopsis.
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Garrett currently is an operating partner with Water Street Healthcare Partners, a private equity firm. Garrett spent 10 years at Beckman Coulter, where he was chairman, president, and CEO.

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An international team has sequenced the genome of the carnivorous bladderwort plant, Utricularia gibba. Their findings suggest that the carnivorous plant has ditched virtually all its non-coding DNA, retaining a set of sequences that's almost exclusively genic. "What that says is that you can have a perfectly good multicellular plant with lots of different cells, organs, tissue types and flowers, and you can do it without the ['junk' DNA]," said co-corresponding author Victor Albert.
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GenomeWeb and EMD Millipore invite you to view an archived webinar discussing new approaches to detect RNA at the single-cell level as well as new probes for the direct quantification of circulating miRNAs. In this free online seminar, recorded April 25, 2013, our expert panel shares protocols for improved RNA and miRNA detection.

On-demand recording available here.

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