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Weblog Professor Noteborn

January 2012 – Mathieu Noteborn provides a view into the life of a scientist and education program director through his weblog.

Week 50 – Susan Cox and colleagues reveal a faster timescale of podosome dynamics using Bayesian localization microscopy.

Week 49 - Scientists in Ohio developed a mathematical model that predicts how the protein myoferlin may effect cancer cell invasion.

Week 48 - Are electron tweezers possible?

November 2011 - The Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) funds a new research programme led by John van Noort.

Week 45 - Khalid Salaita and colleagues developed a fluorescent sensor that shows the mechanical tension experienced by receptors in the membrane of living cells.

November 2011 - By creating a live connection with the microscope 70 m from its location, deputy Liesbeth Spies officially opened the Netherlands Centre for Electron Nanoscopy (NeCEN) on October 27th.

November 2011 - Dr. Annemarie H. Meijer at the Cell Observatory will be coordinator of a new Marie Curie Initial Training Network.

October 2011 - NeCEN, a new high quality centre for electron microscopy, opens its doors in Leiden on October 27th.

Week 42 – A group of UK scientists reveals detailed information about remodeling of actin at the synapses of natural killer cells.

September 2011 - Prof. Herman P. Spaink of the Institute of Biology (IBL) received funding from the Leiden University Fund (LUF) to screen for new drugs
for treatment of tuberculosis.

Week 39 - Daniela Nicastro and colleagues resolved controversies about doublet microtubules in flagella using cryo-electron tomography.

Week 38 – David Baddely and coworkers developed a practical method for 4D super-resolution microscopy in thick samples.

Publication of the week #37

Week 37 - A research group in California developed a fluorescence microscope of 1.9 gram.

September 2011 -Mathieu Noteborn gives insight into the life of a scientist and education program director through his weblog.

Week 34 - Scientists at Yale University performed two-color STED microscopy in living cells for the first time.

Publication of the week #33

Week 33 – A research group in the US developed a new fluorescent marker that switches from orange to far-red after irradiation with blue-green light.

Week 32 – Scott Fraser and colleagues combined two-photon scanning and light-sheet microscopy in order to combine the advantages of both techniques.

Week 31 – A research group led by Gabriel Popescu developed a new optical method for measuring growth of individual cells during the cell cycle.

July 2011 - New publications on software by Pavol Skubak and Navraj Pannu have been cited over a hundred times within the first three months.

Week 30 – A US-Australian research group shows that broadband X-ray sources can be used for imaging.

July 2011 - The Cell Observatory will house the Netherlands Centre for Electron Nanoscopy NeCEN. You can find regular updates on www.necen.nl.

Publication of the week

Week 28 - Josef Lazar and colleagues studied membrane proteins using two-photon polarization microscopy. They obtained results on structure, conformation and protein-protein interactions.

July 2011- On the afternoon of Monday July 4^th, about forty students of this summer course visited the Cell Observatory

Week 27 – A US research group shows that mammalian cells exhibit specific left-right asymmetry when cultured in ring-shaped micropatterns. This asymmetry depends on their phenotype and the functionality of the actin cytoskeleton.

Week 26 - William Grover and coworkers developed a method to measure single-cell density by using a microfluidic chip.

week 25 - A research group led by Kevin Sullivan reveals dynamic assembly of a histone fold protein complex during the cell cycle.

Week 24 – A group of US researchers claims to be the first to have imaged human rod photoreceptors noninvasively.

Week 23 – Scientists from Stanford University showed that single walled carbon nanotubes can be useful fluorophores for imaging through deep tissue.

Week 22 - Scientists at the University of Twente have developed a lens that can reach a sub-100 nm resolution with visible light.

Week 21 - A group of US scientists can force tumors to secrete detectable biomarkers. This method may provide the basis for a new way of screening for cancer.

Receive updates on lectures, news and the journal club automatically by following the Cell Observatory on twitter.

John Reif chairs journal club on May 25th

May 2011 - Professor John Reif from Duke University will chair an interdisciplinary discussion on DNA nanostructures and devices.

Week 19 - A research group led by Garry Nolan measured 34 parameters simultaneously with single-cell mass cytometry.

week 18 - Christine Chaffer and colleagues demonstrate that differentiated cells can spontaneously convert to stem-like cells. The US research group reveals this plasticity for human mammary epithelial cells (HMECs).

April 2011 - The movie shows how the building that will house the Netherlands Centre for Electron Nanoscopy (NeCEN) was built.

Week 17 – Research of Marisa Müller and colleagues provides more insight into the specific localization of mRNA. They found that specific mRNA recognition takes place after transport out of the nucleus and is mediated by a cytoplasmic complex.

Week 16 - A Dutch research group experienced third-harmonic generation (THG) microscopy to be a useful tool for brain imaging without contrast agents or fluorescent dyes. This finding may bring noninvasive optical biopsy of brain tissue one step closer.

Week 15 - Scientists of the University of California and the Florida State University developed a new tool for correlated light and electron microscopy. They designed miniSOG, a small encodable protein that “may do for EM what Green Fluorescent Protein did for fluorescence microscopy”*.

Week 12 - Thomas Planchon and colleagues developed a microscope that reaches an isotropic 3D resolution down to 0,3 μm in living cells.

Week 11 - Is it a model or a tool? Hazel Sive proposes new definitions to distinguish biological systems that recapitulate human disorders from systems without this precise correspondence.

February 2011 - On February 24^th, forty-seven members of the Netherlands Academy of Technology and Innovation (AcTI) visited Leiden.

Week 10 – A group of Chinese and US scientists claims to have found a new role for tumour suppressor p53.

March 2011 - The building for NeCEN will be delivered before Pentecost, long before the official opening in late October. The housing for the centre is built right next to the Cell Observatory.

Week 9 - Scientists from the University of Illinois developed a method for measuring displacements of fluorophores with single molecule sensitivity.

February 2011 - Ralph Carvalho, Jan de Sonneville and other colleagues from the Cell Observatory published this new method in PloS ONE on February 16th.

Week 8 - This paper will be discussed in the journal club on Thursday. The authors describe how they use spin-images to characterize protein surfaces and how similar regions can be discovered using this method.

February 24th 12:30-14:00
Location: Cell Observatory lecture room
Chair: Joris Slob, LIACS
Subject: Discovering similar regions on protein surfaces

Week 7 – A group of scientists from Belgium, Switzerland and The Netherlands has made a 3D reconstruction of a nanoparticle at atomic resolution.

Week 6 - Henry Chapman and colleagues have developed a method for protein structure determination with femtosecond X-ray laser pulses.

Week 5 - Scientists at EMBL have developed software that is able to identify cells of interest and collect detailed information automatically.

January 2011 - SV LIFE recommended Nora Goosen because she is able to provide the foundation for difficult subject matter with her creative, enthusiastic and clear way of teaching.

Week 4 - Scientists of the University of North Carolina have identified the first mammalian micro RNA that inhibits neuronal apoptosis.

January 2011 – Marin van Heel from Imperial College London chaired the first Cell Observatory Journal Club session on January 14th. He helped PhD and MSc students discuss two articles about “4D cryo-EM: biological complexes in action”.

Week 3 – A group of scientists from Tenessee has developed a faster method for identifying ligands that may bind to protein targets. They developed a new version of the program Autodock 4, ran it on a supercomputer and concluded that in 1 day “about 300,000 compounds can be docked in a flexible ligand fashion or about 11 million compounds docked rigidly.”*

January 2011 - During the New Year's reception on January 10th, the results of the "Discoverer of the Year 2010" contest were announced.

Week 2 - This paper will be discussed during the journal club on Friday. The article describes research of Niels Fischer and his colleagues on tRNA movement through the ribosome. They use cryo electron microscopy to obtain about 2,000,000 images. Computational sorting of these images resulted in 50 distinct three dimensional reconstructions that provide insight in the translocation step of protein synthesis.

Week 51 - The axial resolution of a confocal microscope can be improved, by simply shaping the incident beam and placing a mirror behind the sample. Scientists of the Fresnel Institute in France published this finding in Physical Review Letters on November 12th.

Publication of the week

Week 50 - A research team of the University of Michigan has designed a new bifunctional molecule: it can bind Zn²⁺ and Cu2+ and interact with A-beta peptides at the same time. Accumulation of these metal ions and A-beta aggregates may be involved in Alzheimer's disease and therefore this molecule may be useful for further Alzheimer's disease research and therapeutic use.

November 2010 - By cutting a huge DNA string, Jan Pieter Abrahams officially opened the Cell Observatory on November 29^th.

June 2010, two very powerful electron microscopes of the Netherlands Centre for Electron Nanoscopy will be housed by the Cell Observatory. Jan Pieter tells more about this first national facility for electron microscopy and explains what makes it special (in Dutch).

Publication of the week

Cells may have simpler modes of gene expression than generally thought. According to the group of Robert Singer, transcription of constitutive genes in yeast is not coordinated, not even if genes are functionally related.

October 2010 - The Cell Observatory will house the Netherlands Centre for Electron Nanoscopy (NeCEN) from april 2011. Two new cryo-transmission electron microscopes will be placed in a temporary expansion of the building. The first microscope has arrived and funds for the second are secured.

May 20, 2010, U.S. Scientist Craig Venter announced his team had succeeded in producing bacterial DNA in their laboratory and introducing this DNA into a bacteria whose own DNA had been removed. The next day, reporters from RTL4 asked Mathieu to explain this new discovery.

May 2010:NWO (Nederlandse organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek) has agreed to finance the first microscope of NeCEN (Nederlands Centrum voor Elektronen Nanoscopie). This microscope will be placed in the Cell Observatory.

In what could be described as a coherent superposition of science and media art, this documentary contributes to the public debate about genetic modification for advanced biosolar cells with a non-normative approach. It exposes straight into mass media public space the aesthetics of modern life science as it develops in the minds of scientists and the ethical dilemma's that arise, while leaving it to the observer to take a moral position on the issues raised.

A group of six PhD and master students has been set up, in order to start up cross-institutional journal clubs. All institutes involved in the Cell Observatory are represented in this 'hot group'.

Professor Ten Cate has been appointed Scientific Director of the Institute of Biology Leiden for a period of four years with effect from September 1, 2010.