Blogs

New features!

We have added some new features to the web site that you might enjoy.

1. Program locations . The Degree and Certificate pages now display program locations.

2. Program logos . We've... Read more

The Community College Career tour with Dr. Jill Biden and U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis stopped at Bluegrass Community and Technical College (BCTC) the other day.

Biden and Solis are visiting succesful education programs in a five state region with as stop planned at BioOhio as well. During the five state tour, they plan to spotlight innovative partnerships between industry and community colleges.

During her BCTC visit, Dr. Jill Biden met biotechnology student Darah Johnson and Eric Ostertag (CEO, Transposagen Biopharmaceuticals). Darah is currently an intern at Transposan and will be working there full-time in May after... Read more

If you haven't discovered some of the free educational seminars hosted by companies and magazines who are selling equipment, you should consider them for yourself and your students.

Yes, the companies are trying to sell you a piece of equipment BUT they are also providing information how the equipment can be used, the best way to use the equipment, and what are some of the most important applications in relationship to the biotech market. Some of my favorite webinars sources are Illuminia (sequencing), LC-GC (GC and HPLC), and BioTechniques.

What are some of your favorites? Please share them... Read more

Dear Bio-Link community,

We're going to be doing a couple of experiments at the Bio-Link Summer Fellows Forum this year.

1. Poster / Sharing / Meet & Greet Session

The information... Read more

The Institute for Food Safety, an NSF ATE project, is hosting a workshop on analytical methods used for detecting food pathogens on March 14, 2 p.m. The FSCJ Biotech program will present on their new laboratory initiatives, and our supporters at Thermo-Fisher, Waters, and Agilent will present on their labs and how they interact with the public and educational community. Read more

Do you use scientific papers in your classroom? Speak up or open access may go away.

Three seemly unrelated items related to the use of primary literature appeared in my Twitter feed and email these past few days.

The C.R.E.A.T.E. strategy includes using primary literature in teaching undergraduates, a practice that's long been employed by Bio-Link instructors.

Tuesday night, Jan 10th, at 8 pm Central (6 pm Pacific) there will be a Twitter chat between scientists / science bloggers and a group of high school students.

If you're interested in seeing how Twitter can work in this case, drop on by and check it out.

In fact, you don't even have to wait until Tuesday. You can get a glimpse of the beginning discussion right now!

All you have to do is click this link: ... Read more

I know many Bio-Link instructors already use scientific papers in the classroom, but if you would like to learn more about ways other instructors use these resources, as well as learn more about the C.R.E.A.T.E strategy for transforming undergraduate biology education, there are two interesting workshops this summer at Hobart and William Smith colleges in Geneva, NY.

Session 1 will be held June 11-15th

Session 2 will be June 18-22.

Each workshop... Read more

Do you use hot-start PCR in your courses? Qiagen columns? or RT-PCR? or teach quality control? If so, you need to read this.

In December 2011, Science retracted a 2009 article on an association between chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and the presence of a virus (XMRV). XMRV stands for Xenotropic Murine Leukemia Virus. Normally this virus infects mice but it's been found in human samples as well.

The paper was retracted because of difficulties in replicating the results. One of the scientists even spent time in jail because of the... Read more

GaBioscience looks forward to a blogging new year in 2012! Read more