I began writing about my science travel adventures “Seeking Science” when I visited London in 2013. Since then, my purpose has been to tell you about some of the lesser-known places that may not be in guidebooks or top ten lists. On my most recent trip to London, I visited the Wellcome Collection. It self-describes as ‘a free visitor destination for the incurably curious exploring the connections between medicine, life…

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Chronic Wasting Disease comes in different shapes and sizes and there are significant implications to these variations in strains and isolates. The variants can infect different hosts and raises the possibility of the disease jumping species.  Debbie McKenize and Judd Aiken are part of the our LSARP project on the Systems biology and molecular ecology of Chronic Wasting Disease and have recently published a paper that shows how the strains infect different hosts and what…

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Chronic Wasting Disease comes in different shapes and sizes and there are significant implications to these variations in strains and isolates. The variants can infect different hosts and raises the possibility of the disease jumping species.  Debbie McKenize and Judd Aiken are part of the our LSARP project on the Systems biology and molecular ecology of Chronic Wasting Disease and have recently published a paper that shows how the strains infect different hosts and what…

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When it comes to marketing a product or service, ensuring quality is like showering before a job interview: It won’t guarantee success, but it’s a pretty good start. It seems that many researchers agree, which is why enhancing meat quality – along with feed efficiency - forms the basis of a Genome Alberta project involving genomics and the beef cattle industry. And if quality is the end goal, gEPDs are the starting point. “As the…

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When it comes to marketing a product or service, ensuring quality is like showering before a job interview: It won’t guarantee success, but it’s a pretty good start. It seems that many researchers agree, which is why enhancing meat quality – along with feed efficiency - forms the basis of a Genome Alberta project involving genomics and the beef cattle industry. And if quality is the end goal, gEPDs are the starting point. “As the…

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Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) is inviting proposals for a new $10 million Dream Team of top scientific investigators searching for new strategies to prevent or treat cancer, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), SU2C’s Scientific Partner, announced recently. Unlike other Dream Team grants offered by SU2C in recent years that focused on specific types of cancer, such as colorectal cancer or lung cancer, the new $10 million grant is open to any type…

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                                                  Kat Arney calls herself “The Nigella of Science” on her Twitter profile. I don’t spend a lot of time on the Food Channel, but I do like science. And Kat Arney’s book Herding Hemingway’s Cats, subtitled Understanding How Our Genes Work promised to be an interesting read when I spotted it. Genes: how they work and how they are regulated? Is it methyl groups? What role…

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I couldn't attend the annual BIO convention this year, but as I was looking through the massive agenda for the show in San Diego, one presentation that caught my eye was from Oxitec, a U.K. based biotech company. What usually makes the headlines are new ways to treat disease, but Oxitec is using genomics tools to combat the disease-carrying Aedes aegypti, or yellow fever mosquito, before it can do any harm. And they are doing…

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For the last 9 years I have travelled to the Biotechnology Innovation Organization's annual conference in the United States and for most of those years I have presented a series of audio podcasts featuring some of the interesting people and organizations that were in attendance. I couldn't make it to San Diego this year but I have still managed to line up a few guests for phone interviews and here is the first of those…

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                      I know from experience there isn’t much that is as scary as coming face to face with a grizzly bear on the trail. Over the years I have been confident while hiking in the mountains that I was cautious and knew what to do in the event of encountering a bear. That confidence was shattered in August 2015 when, on a very steep and…

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