WNV at NUS?

Monitoring and surveillance of WNV prevalence increasingly depends on the early detection of WNV in birds on the basis of reports of dead birds. The virus in these birds usually precedes appearance of WNV in humans and can be an early warning of potential human infection.
Ohajuruka, O.A., et al. EID 11(9):1437-1439.

Dead bird outside Biochem.
ARGHHHH!!!!!
Panic! PAnic!



I'm telling you, better go grab some N95 masks quick! Then hide in a hole till next year. Oh, and cover the hole, lest some birds drop in.

cutting edge

Whenever I tell others that I work in a lab, they always oOoOOOh and ask me:
Say, do you work at the cutting edge of science?
And my reply?

Of course!






You want cutting edge? I'll give you the cutting edge!

tea

This is what tea time a la Flavilab would look like:


A cup of 20 cents milo, a heong peng, a seaweed flavoured biscuit and a half eaten bun. Yum!

Before and after

37C incubator
Before:


After:



Aliens came down and abducted our sterile pipette tips, eppendorf tubes and conical flasks, not to forget our half-dried Nature/Science/Cell-publication quality western blots and plaque assay wells! ARGH! Lazy aliens, who don't even try to pack, seal, autoclave, dry and store thier own lab consumables.

GASP!
panic!

NaAaH....

Got them transfered to the next door lab:



See how neat they all are now? (ahemm, ahemm... who did it?)



Done under directive of the great Half-day.
And where did all the stuff in the shelves got displaced to?


Reminds me of Jengga.

fun with co2

forgot to add this pic of me playing with the dry ice:

new paper

link --> here

J Biol Chem. 2005 Nov 7; [Epub ahead of print]

Quantifying the specific binding between west nile virus envelope domain III protein and the cellular receptor alpha Vbeta 3 integrin.
Lee JW, Chu JJ, Ng ML.

Previous study has illustrated that the aVss3 integrin served as the functional receptor for West Nile virus (WNV) entry into cells. Domain III (DIII) of WNV envelope protein (E) was postulated to mediate virus binding to the cellular receptor. In this study, the specificity and affinity binding of WNV E DIII protein to aVss3 integrin was confirmed with co-immunoprecipitation and receptor competition assay. Binding of WNV E DIII protein to aVss3 integrin induced the phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase that is required to mediate ligand-receptor internalization into cells. A novel platform was then developed using the atomic force microscopy (AFM) to measure this specific binding force between WNV E DIII protein and the cellular receptor, aVss3 integrin. The single protein pair interacting force measured was in the range of 45+/-5 picoNewton (pN). This interacting force was highly specific as minimal force was measured in the WNV E DIII protein interaction with aVss5 integrin molecules and heparan sulphate. These experiments provided an insight to quantitate virus-receptor interaction. Force measurement using AFM can serve to quantitatively analyze the effect of candidate drugs that modulate virus-host receptor affinity.

box

Two totally unrelated pictures.
A box of infectious stuff. Euuuu...
Don't ask me what's inside, all i know is that I have dry ice to play with later :)

And secondly, Christmas deco are appearing all over town! Yay!

Inverted ice-cream cones good for the hot weather here.

More Bacon, Please

Now I really know why I am thin.
hahha

As any chef at a greasy spoon can attest, humans have a taste for fatty foods. Now, scientists may know why. Researchers have found a new receptor on mice and rat tongues that detects fat and helps prepare the body to digest it. The results may help explain why some people crave fat more than others and could help researchers uncover new ways to fight obesity.
It's long been clear that humans and rodents taste sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and protein-rich foods, but researchers thought we sensed the fat in food by its smell and creamy texture. Over the past decade or so, however, results have dribbled in suggesting we--or at least mice and rats--taste fats. In one study, applying a chemical to the tongue that blocks a fat-digesting enzyme prevented rats and mice from tasting fats and fatty acids, a breakdown product of fats.Intrigued, physiologist Philippe Besnard of the University of Bourgogne in Dijon, France, and colleagues focused on a fatty-acid receptor called CD36 that's found in fat and other tissues. After chemically linking a red fluorescent dye to antibodies that bound CD36, the researchers showed that taste buds glowed red, indicating that CD36 was in the right place to do the job.
To see if animals use CD36 to taste fats, the team bred a line of mice that lacked the receptor. When given a choice between their standard fare and fat-enriched treats, normal mice consumed 3 times as much of the junk food, but mutant mice showed no preference, presumably because they couldn't taste the difference.
The taste bud receptors send a signal when they sense fat. The researchers learned this by applying fatty acids to the tongues of mice that had their digestive tracts tied off to prevent ingestion. Normal mice--but not those lacking the CD36 receptors-- immediately cranked up their production of bile, which breaks down fats, the researchers report in the November issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The results indicate that CD36 helps relay a signal to the digestive system, telling it to get ready to digest fats; receptors that taste sweetness relay similar signals.
Because genetic variants of CD36 exist in humans, studies of the receptor in humans could help explain why some people crave fat more than others do. Scientists could potentially uncover compounds that block CD36, which could cut fat cravings and combat obesity, says biochemist Nada Abumrad at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. That's still in the future, but the research is a good start, she says. "The work was very well done."
--DAN FERBER
ScienceNow 2nd November 2005
Copyright © 2005 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Pen is blue

Combined Science Meeting 2005. Very clinical stuff and pretty decent food, but this giveaway momento gets me standing stright up.

What, trying to start us young? I ain't got no problem in that area. Worse, the smiley people there were giving it out to ladies, not just the pens but the brochures. Maybe their husbands or boyfriends need it...


In case you didn't notice, they suggest you take the blue pill.

And oh yeah, forgive my puns in the title and entry.

Air-con gone mad

This morning, which is actually a public holiday, I came to the lab and got called over to the common room by Littlefroggie. Lo and behold, the aged wall unit air cond was vomiting out little pieces of black and white styrofoam. It was also mumbling loudly, rattling and shaking. I confidently diagnose it to be suffering from indigestion and severe stress, having to work 24/7 for the past few years since it was born. There is sadly however, no cure. I say, let it RIP: rust in pieces.


Bravely, I decided to cut of its supply of electrons and ficked the switch off. Still, it worries me. The air cond is supposed to cool down the equiptment found in that area but if I shut it off, will the room overheat and cause a worse disaster to befall upon the labs?


Peering into the guts of the machine, all one sees is a dark cavern. No light at the end of this one.

Why so like that one?

Medium, small, and big trash bags in the lab. But it's not actually. Rather, it's the new-big-trash-bag, the new-small-trash-bag, and the old-big-trash-bag. The new big one is smaller than the old big one while the new small bag is bigger than the old small one. And it's almost only 2/3 the size, doubt it can fit into the trash bin now. Instead of throwing two old-big-bags of trash, we will now have to throw three-new-big bags of trash. Department people very funny. Why so like that one ah? And the new-small-trash-bag, it's about half the size of the old-big-trash-bag. Can't they leave the big bags as big bags and not make them medium bags. Can't they leave the small bags as small bags and not make them medium bags? The lines between bags are bluring in this ever globalizing world. Bags must stand up for their rights! Such disgraceful deterioration of complex bag sizes to a median range cannot be tolerated. The ever demanding neo-economic quasi-capitalism regieme has caused bags to undergo convergent evolution, as we are witnessing this very instant. What is the world comming to???

box

New boxes. Supposed to keep all our tips, boxes and other stuff inside them. The department undergoing some physical changes with the new HOD (head of department). Got to reduce the number of fridges you use to 4 per lab (we have like 7 now I think), get rid of old unwanted stuff and no more personal lab stuff in common areas. Oh yeah, and you should try and fit all your lab's stuff in the lab room areas, which I personally think is impossible at the moment for us. There will also be new desks and cubicles at the 'second-half part" of the corridor. The present tables will go and no more students or staff tables in the wet lab. So everybody sits outside. Thus, we have to clear all the fridge space we are using at the moment so the new cubicles can come in. Pitty the students at the first lab right in front; they have to soon walk all the way to the back where we are to get to their table. And above that, 2 honours students have to share a table between themselves, no more individual table thing. Staff and post-grads still get their personal space - phew...

Lab wildlife

Cockroach I found outside the lab. Lame and maimed, struggling across the path. Why did the cockroach cross the path? To escape the ants that were chasing it. Probably the roach was dying and the ants wanted to make a quick end to its miserable life. One of its legs and feelers was broken so it was limping across sideways, much like a crab.

Laser printer dots

Nature News
Published online: 19 October 2005; doi:10.1038/news051017-9
Laser printer dot code revealed Yellow marks on documents can identify when and where they were printed.
Roxanne Khamsi

You may want to think twice about printing this article. Many colour laser printers mark the pages they produce with tiny yellow dots that, according to technology watchdogs, can reveal information about you and your computer.The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), based in San Francisco, California, announced this week that it had cracked the code of dots on documents made by Xerox DocuColor printers. "We've discovered exactly what information is there and how you can read it," explains EFF technologist Seth Schoen.
Other people had noticed the yellow dots, but Schoen says the meaning of the markings had been unclear. So EFF researchers collected pages from various copy centres in California this summer and analysed them, using blue light to highlight the dots, which are barely visible under normal light. It took just a week to crack the code.EFF and its partners report that the dots contains information about the date and time that a page was made, as well as the serial number of the printer used. These are encoded in a simple grid, in which the eight rows represent different values that are added up to reveal 5 kinds of information held in 15 columns. The final column, which is often blank, codes for something that is still a mystery to EFF researchers.They think the information is probably used in police inquiries about counterfeiting and to track down the source of printed documents in crime cases. Their findings are published in a Dot Decoding Guide on the EFF website.
Colour codedBut which part of the machine generates these dots? "It's definitely the hardware. The dots show up regardless of what operating system and what kind of document you have," says Schoen.Bill McKee, a spokesman for Xerox, which is based in Stamford, Connecticut, told news@nature.com that he "can confirm there is a coding system" on pages printed by DocuColor machines. But he says that "because of security we cannot disclose any details". He adds that Xerox does not routinely hand out customer information but "will assist an investigating agency when asked".EFF submitted a request this summer using the Freedom of Information Act to find out whether the US Secret Service has used the dots to track down the source of documents. "We're not happy that this code is there," says Schoen. A covert code of dots raises grave privacy concerns, he claims. "We first and foremost want to let people know what their printers are doing."
EFF has also collected pages from volunteers in countries ranging from Australia to Israel in order to catalogue the printers from a variety of manufacturers that mark pages. The group states that many of the printers from other companies also seem to produce pages with anomalous dots.Schoen notes that the absence of dots does not necessarily prove that there's no tracking technology. But he hopes that they will find a machine that does not mark the pages it prints: "If there is a printer that doesn't do this we'd like to see that product derive a competitive advantage in the market."

link: http://www.eff.org/Privacy/printers/docucolor/

lab on fire!

COFM lab level 6, med students having lab. Prof was the main person in charge and this smart aleck burnt a hole in the pastic of the table's second tier. The lab was a microbio one but the MD4 lab was booked already. They were doing some streaking and antibiotic resistant tests.


The smart aleck lit up the bunsen burner, and as directed by the teaching assistants, moved the flame 'as far away from you as possible' i.e. right under the shelf, which houses the table's fluorescent lights.


The plastic caught fire and started to melt, bringing along panic. The class was supposed to be over by then but the mad, erm, med students were slow...no...they were, ... careful, yes, careful. So they took extra time.


The teaching assistants, having never seen a fire in the lab before, also joined in the panicking students who were shouting in chorus "find a fire extinguisher" to the tune of "chariots of fire". They finally found one and one of the students ran with it and seeing the pin was tied with a safety plastic ring, asked around "do I need scissors for this?" Hmmm... why not you pull it and then tell us if you need a pair? Sometimes you really do wonder where these supposedly smart people keep their brains.


Anyway, they put out the flame and made a mess while at it, bringing forward Christmas celebrations by a good 2 months. The whole area around it was in thick white stuff. I got called to the scene to take pictures of the vandal.. I meant accident that happened for the safety officer's report.
What first hand eye witness told me was the plastic was ablaze and seemed to be spreading. Pieces of molten boiling burning plastic fell off the top onto the bench and were smouldering next to the bunsen burner's gas tube. And the burner was still on. They almost thought the burning plastic would burn through the tubing and cause an explosion.
Obviously, New Year's Day Fireworks did not come early this year.

Lunch with Will

Creepy restaurant, scary...oOooOoOO...
It was raining on the way there, so got a cab. The cabby was this idiot that just had to go against everything you asked. Haiz, forget it.


Amazing acar! good stuff. Probably the best thing around here.


The boy.


We were sitting near the tanks and this waiter guy came out of nowhere with a bucket and a net, got one out and it started flapping inside the bucket. Sad life, these fish.


Supposedly shark's fin soup. Got real crab meat inside. Yummy sticky stuff.


The cold plate, but with all that fried stuff, looks more like a hot plate. The jelly loooking out-of-this-world, alien-egg-looking thing was interesting.


Flied lice. Normal.


The fish, dead and delicious. They call it Patin. Best served steamed. The stomach area is the best part, because of the smooth textured meat. I ate both stomach areas up, because no one else wanted it. Dr Li said the head was the best part but failed to touch it.


Reconstituted chicken meat. Supposedly, they took out the chicken meat, minced it, made cake like pieces, and fried it with a little piece of real chicken skin. However, the taste seems more like fish cake, dissapointing. Teren the chicken lover had to do with the chicken wing, which is real meat.


Fish paste fried with tofu, not bad, especially when eaten with the sweet-sour sauce provided.


Dessert; fried yam paste in crispy coating. Not bad, not too sweet, and the yam paste is very thick.


Conclusion: stomachs got filled.

the coke guide

Behold! the 20cents coke machine. Bow in awe everybody!
I kid you not, it is 20 cents for one cup of drink.


Located in NUH, funny thing is, why do they sell cheap coke to the doctors when the doctors are earning tons of money, it should be like $1 for a cup there.
Below is my steaming hot cup of Milo. Its supposed to be full, but I obviously drank some up so that it wouldnt spill when i carry it around. Almost burnt my tongue, though...


After the 20 cents experience, I wanted to know how much everybody else were charging. Frist stop, the coke machine outside med library level 2.


80cents for a can of coke. 90cents for green tea.



Second stop, vending machines outside med library level 1.


Cup drinks! But 50 cents each, and its the same size as the one I just got for 20 cents. What a rip off. Do the companies really think that students are richer than doctors?

Still, the one here offers far more choices; milo with ice, horlics hot and cold, orange juice, etc.
So you gotta pay for choice.


Last stop, the new machine outside lab. Qoo is $1 per can. The most expensive drink around. Coke is still 80 cents- kinda like a standard price everywhere.

My conclusion? You can't find your cup of tea anywhere, the freedom to choose will cost you, and Coke is always the frist drink on the machine - scroll back up to spot the 'coke' all over the place, especially at the first spot. Pah, monopoly.

machine

What's this? A new tantalizing temptation outside the lab? Productivity will decrease!

Modeling

Department gimmic to entice the young naive ones to commit their entire life to the cause of science. Here's the set up. Flaviboy got enslaved, no, recruited for the glory of this goal. Had to pretend I was joyfully using the centrifuge. The rotor weighed a ton. The other lablings were smart enough to siam when the cameraman came in. Don't have any shots of the real picture, supposedly it will come late next week.