Historical Society of Baltimore County

The Historical Society of Baltimore County (HSBC) was founded in 1959 with the goal of preserving, interpreting, and illustrating the history of Baltimore County for the benefit of present and future generations of Marylanders, and is a resource for those interested in researching both local and family history. As the HSBC describes it, they "continually accomplish" their mission "through the production of presentations, lectures, workshops, entertaining educational publications, historical tours, and exhibits." Centrally located in Cockeysville, Maryland, the Society operates out of the Agriculture Building, the former Baltimore County Almshouse, which was built in 1872 and used to house the poor and mentally ill of Baltimore County until 1958.
A nonprofit organization, the Society maintains a library and research facility. Since 1966, the Society has published "History Trails", a county history journal which the Society defines as "semi-academic" and a "popular history publication."
From 2014 to 2018, HSBC received an annual $12,000 operating grant from the Baltimore County Executive and Baltimore County Council, which are awarded to "organizations whose programs demonstrate significant impact on the quality of life of Baltimore County residents." In 2018, an African American Heritage Preservation Program Grant workshop, for the Maryland Historical Trust, was held at the HSBC. It also partners with other museum organizations for programming.
The Almshouse Farm Site.
Located on Baltimore’s County Home Property, the Historical Society’s campus comprises several buildings of various ages and states of repair. Chief of these is the Almshouse which houses the offices and library. Other buildings are the Pest house, Smokehouse, and Barn.
The Almshouse.
Constructed of local limestone in 1872, the Almshouse was damaged by a fire in 1919 after which it was rebuilt. The building has been used in several different capacities since 1958 when modern methods of caring for the indigent dictated its closing as a poorhouse. The Historical Society and various county agencies have been located in the Almshouse since 1959. During the Cold War, the Almshouse was used as a fallout shelter; emergency supplies from that era still reside in the basement. The Almshouse was designated a Baltimore County Landmark in 1980.
The Pest House.
The Pest House (referring to pestilence) was used to isolate residents who were ill. The two-story building with a slate roof was built shortly after the Almshouse. The exterior is in reasonable condition, but the interior suffers from decades of non-use and vandalism. In 2012, Preservation Maryland placed the Pest House on its list of threatened historic properties. The same year, the Baltimore Sun reported that the 1872 Cockeysville building, "built to house poor people who had communicable diseases" was a "boarded-up structure" but
Preservation Maryland was the subject an effort to "preserve it as a center for county African-American history."
The Barn.
The Barn is a modern structure, built on the foundation of a 19th-century barn destroyed by fire in the 1970s. It now house a farm museum, named in honor of Baltimore County Veterinarian Dickinson Gorsuch (1878-1970) whose bequest enabled the establishment of the museum in 1993 .
Collections.
Artifacts.
Objects from the museum collection of over 10,000 items, some of which are not on general display but can sometimes be seen in special exhibitions. There are also hundreds of archival collections.
Maps.
The Society has a collection of over 500 maps and atlases.
Library.
The Society's library contains 4,000 volumes.
Photographs.
More than 8,000 historic photographs reside in the Society's files.
Genealogy.
The Society maintains 9,000 surname files, most of which can be found on-site, which often contain only one spelling of the surname. Also, for genealogists, maps which show the names of landowners and where they homes are located are available. Additionally, on the first Thursday of each month, the HSBC has free Genealogy classes and there are some inscriptions of gravestones.
Online database.
Part of the 33,000 records are available in a searchable database which has a "Keyword Search", "Advanced Search" and "Random Images button" along with other catalog searches.
Other resources.
The society's over 1900 vertical files on varied topics, library holdings, and photograph collection, are indexed online. Those who visit the society have to pay an entrance fee of $5.00 per visit for those who are non-members, with photocopies being 25 cents a page and a $5.00 fee for capturing images using a digital device or phone.
Activities.
The HSBC has been a recipient of an award, in 2014, from the Costume Society of America and hosting, in 2009, the friends of Friends of Texas, Maryland. They also held joint events with the Baltimore City Historical Society on [police history and Baltimore's water history. Apart from this, its volunteers have researched a "progressive little town called Warren" submerged under the "waters of Loch Raven Reservoir" and doing genealogical talks.


Journal of Cell Science

The Journal of Cell Science (formerly the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science) is a peer-reviewed scientific journal in the field of cell biology. The journal is published by The Company of Biologists. The journal is partnered with Publons, is part of the Review Commons initiative and has two-way integration with bioRxiv. "Journal of Cell Science" is a hybrid journal and publishes 24 issues a year. Content over 6 months old is free to read.
History.
Foundation and early years.
The journal was established in 1853 as the "Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science" ("Q. J. Microsc. Sci.", ). The founding editors were Edwin Lankester and George Busk. The publisher of the early issues was Samuel Highley of Fleet Street, London, with John Churchill and Sons (later J. & A. Churchill) taking over from 1856. The journal's original aims, as described in a preface to the first issue, were not limited to biology, but encompassed all branches of science related to the microscope:
Contributors to the first issue include Thomas Henry Huxley, Joseph Lister, William Crawford Williamson, and George Shadbolt. The contents of the early issues are diverse, and include original research articles, translations of papers published in other languages, transactions of the meetings of the Microscopical Society of London (later the Royal Microscopical Society), and book reviews. The journal also published short notes and memoranda, aimed "to gather up fragments of information, which singly might appear to be useless but together are of great importance to science"; the editors encouraged non-specialist submissions to this section, considering that "there are few possessors of a Microscope who have not met with some stray fact or facts which, published in this way, may not lead to important results." The editors also intended "to relieve the graver and more strictly scientific matter of the Journal by lighter contributions, such as will be found useful to the beginner, not uninteresting to the advanced observer, and of interest perhaps to the general reader."
Lankester and Busk co-edited the journal until the end of 1868. Lankester continued to edit the journal with his son, Ray Lankester until the end of 1871.
Under Ray Lankester and Edwin Goodrich.
After Edwin Lankester's retirement, Ray Lankester remained an editor, with co-editors including E. Klein, William Archer, Joseph Frank Payne, and W. T. Thiselton Dyer. From 1878 until 1920, he served as the sole editor, amassing a total of over fifty years as an editor of the journal. The journal flourished under his guidance, becoming one of the leading British science journals. His successor, Edwin Stephen Goodrich, served as editor for twenty-five years, from 1920 until his death in 1946. Oxford University Press took over as publishers in 1920.
The Company of Biologists and relaunch.
In 1946 or 1947, George Parker Bidder, then the owner, gave the journal to The Company of Biologists, a company he had founded in 1925 in a successful bid to rescue the failing "British Journal of Experimental Biology". Initially, Oxford University Press remained the publishers on behalf of the Company of Biologists, but production was later transferred to Cambridge University Press. In 1952, The Company of Biologists became a registered charity, and full editorial control passed to the journal's editor-in-chief.
From 1946, the journal was edited jointly by Carl Pantin, an experimental zoologist and physiologist, and John Baker, a cytologist. Under the latter's influence, the journal accepted a growing number of papers in the relatively new discipline of cytology, now usually termed cell biology. After Pantin's retirement in 1960, the scope of the journal was refocused on the field of cytology, which the editors defined as "Everything that relates directly to the structure, chemical composition, physical nature, and functions of animal and plant cells, or to the techniques that are used in cytological investigations". Subsequent editors include H. G. Callan and A. V. Grimstone.
In 1966, the journal was redesigned and relaunched under the new title "Journal of Cell Science", reflecting its altered scope. It continued to be published broadly quarterly until 1969, when the frequency increased to between six and nine issues per year. In the mid-to-late 1980s, to reduce publication lead times and compete more effectively with "Cell" (which had been launched in 1974), The Company of Biologists moved away from Cambridge University Press and set up its own in-house typesetting and printing for its journals, by then three in number, becoming pioneers in using disks from authors. Publication frequency also increased, at first to ten issues in 1987, then monthly between 1988 and 1995, finally becoming fortnightly in December 1996.
Issues from 1853 are available online via the journal website and HighWire Press as PDFs, with a text version additionally available from 2000. Content over 6 months old is freely available, and all articles are available to readers in developing countries via the Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative. Since 2004, authors have retained copyright of their material, licensing their contributions to the journal.
Scope and content.
"Journal of Cell Sciences" publishes original research articles and reports, techniques and resources, reviews, and primers across the full range of topics in cell biology.
In addition to research papers and reviews, "Journal of Cell Science" includes critical commentaries and an occasional column, "Sticky Wickets", offering "controversial views of life-science research".
When appropriate, some articles are grouped into subject collections. Collection topics covered include:
The journal operates on a continuous publication model. The final version of record is released online as soon as it is ready.
Abstracting and indexing.
"Journal of Cell Science" is abstracted and/or indexed by:
"Journal of Cell Science" is a signatory of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA).
Journal management.
Michael Way (Francis Crick Institute, UK) has been the Editor-in-Chief since 2012, when he took over from Fiona Watt.


Gelesis

Gelesis is a privately held biotechnology company located in Boston, Massachusetts. It was founded in 2006 to develop medical devices and treatments for obesity. The company developed hydrogel capsules that are intended to expand in the stomach and create a feeling of fullness faster, helping people reduce the amount of food they eat.
History.
Gelesis was founded by PureTech Ventures, a life sciences venture firm based in Boston, and ExoTech Bio, an Israel-based research and development company. The company operates as an affiliate of PureTech Health. Former PureTech Ventures partner Yishai Zohar co-founded the company and served as CEO.
The company's technology was co-invented by Alessandro Sannino, a professor of engineering at the University of Salento, who had been researching the idea prior to the launch of Gelesis.
In January 2008, the company raised $16 million in its first financing round, led by OrbiMed Advisors and Queensland BioCapital Funds.
In 2010, the company passed the first human trials of its treatment. The company’s product was originally called Attiva, but was later renamed Gelesis100.
In 2014, Gelesis raised $12 million in its fifth funding round, bringing its total funding to $42 million.
In March 2015, the company closed a $22 million funding round. In April 2015, the company announced an initial public offering (IPO) for $60 million, but pulled out later that year. In December 2015, Gelesis raised $31.5 million shortly after cancelling its IPO.
In 2018, Gelesis raised $30 million in preparation for regulatory submissions in the U.S. and Europe and initial marketing of Gelesis100.


Marasmius

Marasmius is a genus of mushroom-forming fungi in the family Marasmiaceae. It contains about 500 species of agarics, of which a few, such as "Marasmius oreades", are edible. However, most members of this genus are small, unimpressive brown mushrooms. Their humble appearance contributes to their not being readily distinguishable to non-specialists, and they are therefore seldom collected by mushroom hunters. Several of the species are known to grow in the characteristic fairy ring pattern.
The author of the genus was Elias Magnus Fries, who in 1838 classified white-spored agarics having a tough central stipe in this taxon if they were marcescent, i.e. they could dry out but later revive when moistened. For Fries, marcescence — by contrast with the "putrescent" (decomposing) nature of most mushrooms — was an important character for classification, which he used to separate this group from genus "Collybia" (which has now been split into many newer genera). The name "Marasmius" itself comes from the Greek word "marasmos", meaning "drying out". Modern mycologists no longer consider the marcescence/putrescence distinction a reliable criterion for taxonomy, but Fries's definition of the genus is still roughly applicable.
Species.
Below is a list of more prominent species (for a complete list see List of "Marasmius" species). Note that some well-known former members of "Marasmius," such as "M. alliaceus", have been moved into the new genus "Mycetinis"; a few others have been reclassified as "Rhizomarasmius" or "Gloiocephala". Former "M. androsaceus" is now considered to belong to genus "Gymnopus".


Banwari Lal (biotechnologist)

thumb
Banwari Lal (born 1 July 1960) is an Indian environmental and industrial biotechnologist and the director of the Environmental and Industrial Biotechnology Division at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). Known for the development of "oilzapper" technology, Dr. Lal is the Chief Executive Officer of ONGC-TERI Biotech Limited, a collaborative venture between TERI and the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation since 2008. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences in 2004. He have many indian and international joint patents with ONGC, DBT, IOCL, OIL INDIA and TERI.
Biography.
Banwari Lal, born on 1 July 1960 in the Indian state of Rajasthan, completed his undergraduate studies at The University of Rajasthan in 1981 and continued at the university to earn an MSc in microbiology in 1983. His doctoral studies were also at the same university and after securing a PhD in microbial biotechnology in 1987, he joined the TERI School of Advanced Studies as a member of faculty. He has served The Energy and Resources Institute in various capacities and
is the director of the Environmental and Industrial Biotechnology. In 1996, when the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and TERI formed ONGC TERI Biotech Limited (OTBL) for exploiting the commercial prospects of technologies developed by Lal, he became the chief operating officer of the newly formed company. He is associated with Glori Energy, a Houston-based energy firm, as the chief scientist and is a member of scientific panels of the Food Authority of India and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, both government agencies working under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Legacy.
Banwari Lal's research interests covered the fields of bioresources as well as environmental and industrial biotechnology. He is known to have made contributions in the areas of clean technology development, bioremediation of oil contaminated sites, oil recovery using microbes, and preventive protocol development for blocking paraffin deposition in oil well flow lines. The team led by him developed an "oilzapper" technology, a bioremediative and organic technology for cleaning the oil spills using microbes and bacteria, which was later employed for cleaning the 2010 Mumbai oil spill. The technology is reported to be cost-effective and most of major oil companies in India such as the Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Oil India, Indian Petrochemicals Corporation and Reliance Petroleum as well as Abu Dhabi National Oil Company employ it. His studies have been documented by way of a number of articles and ResearchGate, an online repository of scientific articles has listed 141 of them. Besides, he has published one book, "Wealth from waste : trends and technologies". He holds 8 patents for the processes developed by him and various institutions. However some of patents he surrendered as per Goole patents. He is a member of the American Society for Microbiology, the Society of Applied Microbiology, the Society of General Microbiology, the International Water Association, the Society for Industrial Microbiology and the Association of Microbiologists of India.
Awards and honors.
Banwari Lal received the AIBA Award from the All India Biotech Association in 2001 and he was chosen to receive three awards in 2002 namely, the Biotech Product and Process Development for Commercialization Award of the Department of Biotechnology, the Jawarharlal Nehru Memorial National Gold Medal Award of the International Greenland Society and the Burhani Foundation-NEERI Award for the development of "oilzapper" technology. The National Petroleum Management Association presented him the Program Award in 2003 and he was one of the finalists shortlisted for the 2004 World Technology Award of the World Technology Network. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards in 2004. The same year, he received the NRDC Innovation Award of the National Research Development Corporation. The Department of Biotechnology honored him again with a second Biotech Product and Process Development for Commercialization Award in 2008, the award presented to him by the then President of India, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.
Selected bibliography.
Patents.
Wellbore treatment for reducing wax deposits.
Patent number: 7681638
Abstract: A method of reducing wax deposition in an oil wellbore tubing includes providing an aqueous bioslurry comprising at least one microbe capable of degrading paraffin wax at about 20-45° C. and a nutrient medium containing one or more carbon source and an oxygen slow-releasing compound. The method further includes providing an oil wellbore completion having a production tubing with an interior surface including a zone that is susceptible to wax deposition when the well is operated to produce oil. The method further includes, while oil production from the well is stopped, incubating the biological slurry in the wax-deposition zone tubing for a sufficient time to multiply the microbe(s) and form a biofilm on at least the wax-susceptible zone.
Type: Grant
Filed: June 12, 2008
Date of Patent: March 23, 2010
Assignee: Glori Oil Limited
Inventors: Bhupendra Soni, Banwari Lal
Process for enhanced recovery of crude oil from oil wells using novel microbial consortium.
Patent number: 7484560
Abstract: The present invention provides a microbial consortium containing three hyperthermophilic, barophilic, acidogenic, anaerobic bacterial strains for enhanced oil recovery from oil reservoirs where temperatures range from 70° C. to 90? C. The said microbial consortium is unique in producing a variety of metabolic products mainly CO2, methane, biosurfactant, volatile fatty acids and alcohols in the presence of specially designed nutrient medium. These metabolic products increase sweep efficiency of crude oil from oil bearing poles of rock formation. The present invention also provides a process for enhancing the oil recovery by in situ application of the said microbial consortium.
Type: Grant
Filed: July 14, 2004
Date of Patent: February 3, 2009
Assignees: The Energy and Resource Institute, Institute of Reservoir Studies
Inventors: Banwari Lal, Mula Ramajaneya Varaprasada Reddy, Anil Agnihotri, Ashok Kumar, Munish Prasad Sarbhai, Nimmi Singh, Raj Karan Khurana, Shinben Kishen Khazanchi, Tilak Ram Misra
WELLBORE TREATMENT FOR REDUCING WAX DEPOSITS.
Publication number: 20090025931
Abstract: A method of reducing wax deposition in an oil wellbore tubing are disclosed which comprise providing an aqueous bioslurry comprising at least one microbe capable of degrading paraffin wax at about 20-45° C. and a nutrient medium containing one or more carbon source and a source of O2. The method further includes providing an oil wellbore completion having a production tubing with an interior surface including a zone that is susceptible to wax deposition when the well is operated to produce oil.
Type: Application
Filed: June 12, 2008
Publication date: January 29, 2009
Applicant: GLORI OIL LIMITED
Inventors: Bhupendra Soni, Banwari Lal
PROCESS FOR ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY USING A MICROBIAL CONSORTIUM.
Publication number: 20090029879
Abstract: A process and related apparatus for enhancing the oil recovery from an oil well are described. An embodiment of the process generally includes selection of a candidate reservoir; collecting oil formation water samples under anaerobic conditions; selecting media and enriching the microbes derived from the formation water; characterizing and identifying the selected consortium; mass scale production of the selected consortium; anaerobically preparing a defined composition nutrient medium, transportation of the nutrient medium by ISO tankers and the consortium by a specially designed field laboratory unit to the selected well treatment site; injecting the medium and consortium into the reservoir of the well; closing the well for the proliferation of microbes for one to three weeks; and allowing the microbes to dislodge oil in the reservoir and thereby enhance recovery of oil from the well.
Type: Application
Filed: July 2, 2008
Publication date: January 29, 2009
Applicant: GLORI OIL LIMITED
Inventors: Bhupendra SONI, Banwari LAL, John Allen BABCOCK
Process for enhanced recovery of crude oil from oil wells using novel microbial consortium.
Publication number: 20070092930
Abstract: The present invention provides a microbial consortium containing three hyperthermophilic, barophilic, acidogenic, anaerobic bacterial strains for enhanced oil recovery from oil reservoirs where temperatures range from 70° C. to 90? C. The said microbial consortium is unique in producing a variety of metabolic products mainly CO2, methane, biosurfactant, volatile fatty acids and alcohols in the presence of specially designed nutrient medium. These metabolic products increase sweep efficiency of crude oil from oil bearing poles of rock formation. The present invention also provides a process for enhancing the oil recovery by in situ application of the said microbial consortium.
Type: Application
Filed: July 14, 2004
Publication date: April 26, 2007
Applicants: The Energy and Resources Institute, Institute of Reservoir Studies
Inventors: Banwari Lal, Mula Ramajaneya Reddy, Anil Agnihotri, Ashok Kumar, Munish Sarbhai, Nimmi Singh, Raj Khurana, Shinben Khazanchi, Tilak Misra


Donald Van Slyke

Donald Dexter Van Slyke (March 29, 1883 – May 4, 1971) was a Dutch American biochemist. His achievements included the publication of 317 journal articles and 5 books, as well as numerous awards, among them the National Medal of Science and the first AMA Scientific Achievement Award. A non-SI unit of measurement for buffering activity, the slyke, is named after him, as is the Van Slyke determination, a test of amino acids.
Early days and education.
Van Slyke was born in Pike, New York on March 29, 1883. He completed his BA in 1905 and PhD in 1907 both at the University of Michigan, his father's alma mater. His PhD studies were performed under Moses Gomberg.
Post-doctoral study.
Van Slyke took up a post-doctoral position at the Rockefeller Institute in 1907, under Phoebus Levene. Levene also arranged for him to spend one year in Berlin under Hermann Emil Fischer in 1911. His early work focused on determining the amino acid composition of proteins. A major achievement during this time was the discovery of the amino acid hydroxylysine.
Urease.
Work with G. E. Cullen on urease led to a mechanism that yields a kinetic equation observationally indistinguishable from that of Michaelis and Menten, but based on different assumptions. Whereas Michaelis and Menten treated the binding of substrate to free enzyme to produce an enzyme–substrate complex as an equilibrium, Van Slyke and Cullen treated it as an irreversible reaction:
Enzyme + substrate → enzyme–substrate complex → enzyme + product
Effectively, therefore, they assumed a steady-state process. Their equation for the rate formula_1 at substrate concentration formula_2,
formula_3
resembles the Michaelis–Menten equation but the constant formula_4 in the denominator is interpreted differently.
Clinical chemistry.
In 1914, Van Slyke was appointed chief chemist of the newly founded Rockefeller Institute Hospital, where he played a key part in developing the field of clinical chemistry. His work focused especially on the measurement of gas and electrolyte levels in tissues, for which he is considered to be one of the founders of modern quantitative blood chemistry. He is also considered by many to have first popularised the term "clinical chemistry" in his two-volume work "Quantitative Clinical Chemistry", co-published with John P. Peters. The two-volume work was widely accepted in the medical world as the "Bible" of quantitative clinical chemistry. During this period, he also served as managing editor of the Journal of Biological Chemistry from 1914 to 1925.
Brookhaven.
In 1948, approaching retirement age, Van Slyke took up a position as Deputy Director of Biology and Medicine of the newly formed Brookhaven National Laboratory. He held this position briefly before moving back into research at Brookhaven, which he continued until his death in 1971.


Girdhar Kumar Pandey

Girdhar Kumar Pandey (born 15 February 1972) is an Indian molecular biologist, biochemist, biotechnologist, and a professor at the department of plant molecular biology of the South Campus of the University of Delhi. he is known for his studies on the signal transduction pathways in Arabidopsis (rockcress) and Oryza sativa (rice) and is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India and the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences, in 2015.
Biography.
Girdhar Pandey was born on 15 February 1972 at Almora, in Uttarakhand to Kishan Chand and Kamala Devi Pandey. He completed his graduate studies in biochemistry from the University of Delhi in 1992 and moved to Banaras Hindu University for his post-graduate studies. After securing a master's degree in biotechnology in 1994, he returned to Delhi to pursue for his doctoral research under the guidance of Sudhir Kumar Sopory which earned him a PhD in 1999 from Jawaharlal Nehru University for his thesis, "Presence and role of homologues of E. histolytica Calcium binding protein in higher plants and characterization of a novel protein kinase from Brassica juncea". His post-doctoral work was at the University of California, Berkeley under the supervision of Sheng Luan during 2000–07.
Pandey returned to India the same year to start his career by joining the University of Delhi at its south campus as a reader at the department of molecular biology and became a full professor in 2014. In between, he served as an associate professor from 2011 to 2014. He also served as a visiting professor at Capital Normal University, Beijing in 2012 and at the Institute of AgriBiotechnology of Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences in 2015.
Pandey is married to Amita Pandey (née Tyagi) who is a member of faculty of the University of Delhi and a co-author of some of his books. The family resides at Dwarka, Delhi.
Professional profile.
Pandey's research focuses on the "mechanistic interplay of signal transduction networks in plants under mineral nutrient deficiency and abiotic stresses". The team has identified Arabidopsis (rockcress) and Oryza (rice) as the main focus of study. His studies have been documented by way of a number of articles and ResearchGate, an online repository of scientific articles has listed 148 of them. Besides, he has published 7 books, including "The UNC-53-mediated Interactome: Analysis of its Role in the Generation of the C. elegans Connectome", "GTPases: Versatile Regulators of Signal Transduction in Plants", "Global Comparative Analysis of CBL-CIPK Gene Families in Plants", and "Mechanism of Plant Hormone Signaling Under Stress - A Functional Genomic Frontier", a two-volume book published by Wiley-Blackwell in 2016 and has contributed chapters to books published by self and others. He is an academic editor of PLOS One and an editor of Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants. He sits in the editorial boards of journals such as "Plant Signaling and Behaviour", Journal of Biological Sciences, Scientific Reports, Current Biotechnology, Current Genomics, and is an associate editor of "Plant Molecular Biology Reporter" and a former associate editor of "Frontiers in Plant Science".
Awards and honors.
Pandey received the Far Eastern Regional Research Organization (FERRO) Award of the United States Department of Agriculture in 1998 and the DBT-CREST Award of the Department of Biotechnology in 2011. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards in 2015. The National Academy of Sciences, India elected him as a fellow in 2016 and he became an elected fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences in 2018.
In 2018, Indian Society for Plant Physiology, New Delhi has awarded him with J.J. Chinoy Gold Medal award.


Metabotropic glutamate receptor

The metabotropic glutamate receptors, or mGluRs, are a type of glutamate receptor that are active through an indirect metabotropic process. They are members of the group C family of G-protein-coupled receptors, or GPCRs. Like all glutamate receptors, mGluRs bind with glutamate, an amino acid that functions as an excitatory neurotransmitter.
Function and structure.
The mGluRs perform a variety of functions in the central and peripheral nervous systems: For example, they are involved in learning, memory, anxiety, and the perception of pain. They are found in pre- and postsynaptic neurons in synapses of the hippocampus, cerebellum, and the cerebral cortex, as well as other parts of the brain and in peripheral tissues.
Like other metabotropic receptors, mGluRs have seven transmembrane domains that span the cell membrane. Unlike ionotropic receptors, metabotropic glutamate receptors are not ion channels. Instead, they activate biochemical cascades, leading to the modification of other proteins, such as ion channels. This can lead to changes in the synapse's excitability, for example by presynaptic inhibition of neurotransmission, or modulation and even induction of postsynaptic responses.
A dimeric organization of mGluRs is required for signaling induced by agonists.
Classification.
Eight different types of mGluRs, labeled mGluR1 to mGluR8 ( to ), are divided into groups I, II, and III. Receptor types are grouped based on receptor structure and physiological activity. The mGluRs are further divided into subtypes, such as mGluR7a and mGluR7b.
Group I.
The mGluRs in group I, including mGluR1 and mGluR5, are stimulated most strongly by the excitatory amino acid analog L-quisqualic acid. Stimulating the receptors causes the associated enzyme phospholipase C to hydrolyze phosphoinositide phospholipids in the cell's plasma membrane. This leads to the formation of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3) and diacyl glycerol. Due to its hydrophilic character, IP3 can travel to the endoplasmic reticulum, where it induces, via fixation on its receptor, the opening of calcium channels increasing in this way the cytosolic calcium concentrations. The lipophilic diacylglycerol remains in the membrane, acting as a cofactor for the activation of protein kinase C.
These receptors are also associated with Na+ and K+ channels. Their action can be excitatory, increasing conductance, causing more glutamate to be released from the presynaptic cell, but they also increase inhibitory postsynaptic potentials, or IPSPs. They can also inhibit glutamate release and can modulate voltage-dependent calcium channels.
Group I mGluRs, but not other groups, are activated by 3,5-dihydroxyphenylglycine (DHPG), a fact that is useful to experimenters because it allows them to isolate and identify them.
Group II and Group III.
The receptors in group II, including mGluRs 2 and 3, and group III, including mGluRs 4, 6, 7, and 8, (with some exceptions) prevent the formation of cyclic adenosine monophosphate, or cAMP, by activating a G protein that inhibits the enzyme adenylyl cyclase, which forms cAMP from ATP. These receptors are involved in presynaptic inhibition, and do not appear to affect postsynaptic membrane potential by themselves. Receptors in groups II and III reduce the "activity" of postsynaptic potentials, both excitatory and inhibitory, in the cortex.
The chemicals 2-(2,3-dicarboxycyclopropyl)glycine (DCG-IV) and eglumegad activate only group II mGluRs, while 2-amino-4-phosphonobutyrate (L-AP4) activates only group III mGluRs. Several subtype-selective positive allosteric modulators that activate only the mGlu2 subtype, such as Biphenylindanone A, have also now been developed.
LY-341,495 and MGS-0039 are drugs that act as a selective antagonist blocking both of the group II metabotropic glutamate receptors, mGluR2 and mGluR3. RO4491533 acts as a negative allosteric modulator of mGluR2 and mGluR3.
Localization.
Different types of mGluRs are distributed differently in cells. For example, one study found that Group I mGluRs are located mostly on postsynaptic parts of cells, while groups II and III are mostly located on presynaptic elements, though they have been found on both pre- and postsynaptic membranes.
Also, different mGluR subtypes are found predominantly in different parts of the body. For example, mGluR4 is located only in the brain, in locations such as the thalamus, hypothalamus and caudate nucleus. All mGluRs except mGluR6 are thought to exist in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex.
Roles.
It is thought that mGluRs play a role in a variety of different functions.
Modulation of other receptors.
Metabotropic glutamate receptors are known to act as modulators of (affect the activity of) other receptors. For example, group I mGluRs are known to increase the activity of "N"-methyl-"D"-aspartate receptors (NMDARs), a type of ion channel-linked receptor that is central in a neurotoxic process called excitotoxicity. Proteins called PDZ proteins frequently anchor mGluRs near enough to NMDARs to modulate their activity.
It has been suggested that mGluRs may act as regulators of neurons' vulnerability to excitotoxicity (a deadly neurochemical process involving glutamate receptor overactivation) through their modulation of NMDARs, the receptor most involved in that process. Excessive amounts of "N"-methyl-"D"-aspartate (NMDA), the selective specific agonist of NMDARs, has been found to cause more damage to neurons in the presence of group I mGluR agonists. On the other hand, agonists of group II and III mGluRs reduce NMDAR activity.
Group II and III mGluRs tend to protect neurons from excitotoxicity, possibly by reducing the activity of NMDARs.
Metabotropic glutamate receptors are also thought to affect dopaminergic and adrenergic neurotransmission.
Role in plasticity.
Like other glutamate receptors, mGluRs have been shown to be involved in synaptic plasticity and in neurotoxicity and neuroprotection.
They participate in long term potentiation and long term depression, and they are removed from the synaptic membrane in response to agonist binding.
Roles in disease.
Since metabotropic glutamate receptors are involved in a variety of functions, abnormalities in their expression can contribute to disease. For example, studies with mutant mice have suggested that mutations in expression of mGluR1 may be involved in the development of certain types of cancer. In addition, manipulating mGluRs can be useful in treating some conditions. For example, clinical trial suggested that an mGlu2/3 agonist, LY354740, was effective in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder. Also, some researchers have suggested that activation of mGluR4 could be used as a treatment for Parkinson's disease.
Most recently, Group I mGluRs, have been implicated in the pathogenesis of Fragile X, a type of autism, and a number of studies are currently testing the therapeutic potential of drugs that modify these receptors.
There is also growing evidence that group II metabotropic glutamate receptor agonists may play a role in the treatment of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is associated with deficits in cortical inhibitory interneurons that release GABA and synaptic abnormalities associated with deficits in NMDA receptor function. These inhibitory deficits may impair cortical function via cortical disinhibition and asynchrony. The drug LY354740 (also known as Eglumegad, an mGlu2/3 agonist) was shown to attenuate physiologic and cognitive abnormalities in animal and human studies of NMDA receptor antagonist and serotonergic hallucinogen effects, supporting the subsequent clinical evidence of efficacy for an mGluR2/3 agonist in the treatment of schizophrenia.
The same drug has been shown to interfere in the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, with chronic oral administration of this drug leading to markedly reduced baseline cortisol levels in bonnet macaques (Macaca radiata); acute infusion of LY354740 resulted in a marked diminution of yohimbine-induced stress response in those animals. LY354740 has also been demonstrated to act on the metabotropic glutamate receptor 3 (GRM3) of human adrenocortical cells, downregulating aldosterone synthase, CYP11B1, and the production of adrenal steroids (i.e. aldosterone and cortisol).
History.
The first demonstration that glutamate could induce the formation of molecules belonging to a major second messenger system was in 1985, when it was shown that it could stimulate the formation of inositol phosphates. This finding allowed in 1987 to yield an explanation for oscillatory ionic glutamate responses and to provide further evidence for the existence of metabotropic glutamate receptors. In 1991 the first metabotropic glutamate receptor of the seven transmembrane domain family was cloned. More recent reports on ionotropic glutamate receptors able to couple to metabotropic transduction systems suggest that metabotropic responses of glutamate might not be limited to seven transmembrane domain metabotropic glutamate receptors.


Hanna Lis

Hanna Lis, "née" Kedaj (first married name Smoktunowicz) (born 13 May 1970 in Warsaw) is a Polish TV journalist.
She started her journalistic career in 1993. For many years she was involved in political and news topics - she led and co-created leading information and journalism programs in 3 popular Polish TV channels. After finishing her cooperation with Polish National Television at the beginning of 2016, she dealt with lifestyle issues: she was the host of the author's travel and culinary programme and ran talk-show programmes.
She appeared in the film "Rób swoje ryzyko jest twoje" (2002), was a participant in the "Asia Express" entertainment programme (2016) and she published her cookbook "Mój świat na talerzu" (2019). She is also a social activist, including taking part in the campaign against hate speech on the Internet and taking part in the current public debate through her social media accounts.
She was awarded and nominated many times for her professional activity to several industry awards and placed on the list of "100 most valuable stars of Polish show-business" of "Forbes Polska" magazine.


GRIK5

Glutamate receptor, ionotropic kainate 5 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the "GRIK5" gene.
Function.
This gene encodes a protein that belongs to the glutamate-gated ionic channel family. Glutamate functions as the major excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system through activation of ligand-gated ion channels and G protein-coupled membrane receptors. The protein encoded by this gene forms functional heteromeric kainate-preferring ionic channels with the subunits encoded by related gene family members.
Interactions.
GRIK5 has been shown to interact with DLG4 and GRIK2.


Stem Cell Reviews and Reports

Stem Cell Reviews and Reports is a medical journal published quarterly by Springer Science+Business Media. It covers contemporary and emerging areas in stem cells, including embryonic and adult stem cells, and related lineage and cloning issues. The journal also publishes reviews covering basic, clinical, biotechnology, regulatory, and ethical aspects of stem cell research and applications. The journal got its current name in 2009 from "Stem Cell Reviews". According to "Journal Citation Reports", the journal has a 2019 impact factor of 5.316.


Medivation

Medivation was an American biopharmaceutical company focused on rapid development of novel therapies to treat serious diseases for which there are limited treatment options. Medivation was headquartered in San Francisco, California, beginning operations in December 2004 with the acquisition of Medivation Neurology, Inc. Its final CEO was David Hung.
Medivation, in collaboration with Astellas, was in development of enzalutamide for multiple stages of prostate cancer and for breast cancer. On August 31, 2012, Medivation and Astellas announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approval to XTANDI (enzalutamide) capsules for the treatment of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who have previously received docetaxel. XTANDI is an oral, once-daily androgen receptor inhibitor.
Pfizer announced it would acquire the company in August 2016, and completed the acquisition in October 2016.
Company history.
Steve Gorlin and David Hung founded Medivation in 2003. After watching a 28-year-old breast cancer patient die during his oncology fellowship David Hung said he must do something about it.
2010 – Class action lawsuit.
On March 3, 2010, Medivation's stock dropped $27.15 per share to close at $13.10, a 67% one-day decline on volume of 45 million shares. In response, a security fraud class-action lawsuit was initiated by Izard Nobel LLP, alleging that Medivation made false and misleading statements regarding the effectiveness of Dimebon as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease, before being revealed that it did not meet primary and secondary goals in a Phase 3 trial for patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease.
The counsel for the case was Bernstein Liebhard and the lead plaintiffs were initially David Applestein then Catoosa Fund, LP. On March 22, 2012, the case was dismissed with prejudice. The plaintiffs appealed the dismissal in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Ninth Circuit granted oral argument which will be held on Friday, January 17, 2014. On March 7, 2014, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the class action, Catoosa Fund LP v. Medivation, Inc., No. 12-15960. The Ninth Circuit stated "With the exception of the tenuous and unattributed statement that Dr. Schneider relates secondhand, plaintiff has not pled any facts supporting an inference of actual knowledge by defendants. Plaintiff relies heavily on the inference that, due to their positions, the defendants must have known about the unmatched nature of the study. That inference is entirely speculative and does not rise to the required strong inference; plaintiff's allegation is not at least as compelling as any opposing inference one could draw from the facts alleged."
2016.
In April, the company was linked with a number of potential acquirers including Roche, AstraZeneca, Amgen and Gilead Sciences, and a possible hostile bid from Sanofi. AstraZeneca was reported to weigh in with an offer of £7 billion ($10 billion). On April 29, Sanofi launched a $9.3 billion takeover offer which was rejected by the Medivation board.
In August, Pfizer announced that it would acquire the company for $14 billion or $81.50 per share, a 21% premium over the closing price on August 19; the acquisition was completed September 28, 2016.
Awards.
Medivation CEO David Hung was the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2014 National Winner.


GRIA2

Glutamate ionotropic receptor AMPA type subunit 2 (Glutamate receptor 2, or GluR-2) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the "GRIA2" (or "GLUR2") gene and it is a subunit found in the AMPA receptors.
Function.
Glutamate receptors are the predominant excitatory neurotransmitter receptors in the mammalian brain and are activated in a variety of normal neurophysiologic processes. This gene product belongs to a family of glutamate receptors that are sensitive to alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionate (AMPA), called AMPA receptors, and function as ligand-activated cation channels. These channels are assembled from a combination of 4 subunits, encoded by 4 genes ("GRIA1-4"). The subunit encoded by this gene ("GRIA2") is subject to RNA editing which renders the receptor it becomes part of impermeable to calcium ions (Ca2+). Human and animal studies suggest that the RNA editing is essential for normal brain function, and defective RNA editing of this gene may be relevant to the etiology of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Alternative splicing, resulting in transcript variants encoding different isoforms, has been noted for this gene, which includes the generation of flip and flop isoforms that vary in their signal transduction properties.
Interactions.
GRIA2 has been shown to interact with SPTAN1, GRIP1 and PICK1.
RNA editing.
Several ion channels and neurotransmitters receptors pre-mRNA as substrates for ADARs. This includes 5 subunits of the glutamate receptor ionotropic AMPA glutamate receptor subunits (Glur2, Glur3, Glur4) and kainate receptor subunits (Glur5, Glur6). Glutamate-gated ion channels are made up of four subunits per channel, with each subunit contributing to the pore loop structure. The pore loop structure is related to that found in K+ channels (e.g., human Kv1.1 channel). The human Kv1.1 channel pre mRNA is also subject to A to I RNA editing. The function of the glutamate receptors is in the mediation of fast neurotransmission to the brain. The diversity of the subunits is determined, as well as RNA splicing by RNA editing events of the individual subunits. This give rise to the necessarily high diversity of these receptors. Glur2 is a gene product of the pre-mRNA of the GRIA2 gene and subject to RNA editing.
Type.
The type of RNA editing that occurs in the pre-mRNA of GluR-2 is Adenosine-to-Inosine (A-to-I) editing. [11]
A-to-I RNA editing is catalyzed by a family of adenosine deaminases acting on RNA (ADARs) that specifically recognize adenosines within double-stranded regions of pre-mRNAs and deaminate them to inosine. Inosines are recognised as guanosine by the cells translational machinery. There are three members of the ADAR family ADARs 1-3, with ADAR1 and ADAR2 being the only enzymatically active members. ADAR3 is thought to have a regulatory role in the brain. ADAR1 and ADAR2 are widely expressed in tissues, while ADAR3 is restricted to the brain. The double-stranded regions of RNA are formed by base-pairing between residues in the close to region of the editing site, with residues usually in a neighboring intron, but can be an exonic sequence. The region that base pairs with the editing region is known as an Editing Complementary Sequence (ECS).
ADARs bind interact directly with the dsRNA substrate via their double-stranded RNA binding domains. If an editing site occurs within a coding sequence, it can result in a codon change. This can lead to translation of a protein isoform due to a change in its primary protein structure. Therefore, editing can also alter protein function. A-to-I editing occurs in a non coding RNA sequences such as introns, untranslated regions (UTRs), LINEs, SINEs (especially Alu repeats). The function of A to I editing in these regions is thought to involve creation of splice sites and retention of RNAs in the nucleus amongst others.
Location.
In the pre-mRNA of GluR-2 the editing site Q/R is found at amino acid position 607. This location is in the pore loop region deep within the ion channel in the proteins membrane segment 2. Editing results in a change from a glutamine(Q) codon to an Arginine (R) codon.
Editing at the R/G site, located at amino acid position 764 results in a codon change from arginine to glycine.
All editing in glutamate receptors occurs in double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs), which form due to complementary base pairing between the region of the editing site within the exon and an ECS within an intron sequence.
R/G site
Regulation.
Editing occurs at the Q/R site at a frequency of 100% of GluR2 transcripts in the brain. It is the only known editing site to be edited at a frequency of 100%. However some striatal and cortical neurons are edited less frequently. This has been suggested as a reason for the higher level of excitotoxicity of these particular neurons. The R/G site is developmentally regulated, being largely unedited in the embryonic brain with levels rising after birth. (ref 53)
Consequences.
Structure.
Editing results in a codon change from a glutamine codon (CAG) to an arginine codon (CIG). Editing at R/G results in a codon change. The region of the editing site is known to be the region that controls divalent cation permeability. The other ionotropic AMPA glutamate receptors have a genomically encoded have a glutamine residue, while GluR2 has an arginine.
Function.
RNA editing of the GluR-2 (GluR-B) pre-mRNA is the best-characterised example of A-to-I editing. Activated by L-Glutamate, a major excitatory neurotransmitter in vertebrates central nervous systems, it acts as an agonist at NMDA, AMPA, and kainate neurotransmitters.(103) Activation results in neuronal cation entry (CA2+), causing membrane depolarisation required for the process of excitatory neurotransmission.
The calcium permeability of these receptor channels is required for many important events in the CNS, including long-term potentiation.(104)
Since editing occurs in nearly 100% of transcripts and is necessary for life, it is often wondered why edited GluR-B is not genomically encoded instead of being derived by RNA editing. The answer is unknown.
RNA editing at the Q/R site is thought to alter the permeability of the channel rendering it impermeable to Ca2+. The Q/R site also occurs in the Kainate receptors GluR5 and GluR6. Editing at the Q/R site determines the calcium permeability of the channel, with channels containing the edited form being less permeable to calcium. This differs from GluR6 where editing of the Q/R site may increase calcium permeability of the channel especially if the I/V and Y/C sites are also edited. Therefore, the main function of editing is therefore in regulation of electrophysiology of the channel.
Editing in some striatal and cortical neurons is more likely to be subject to excitotoxicity, thought to be due to less than 100% editing of these particular neurons. Editing also has several other function effects. Editing alters the maturation and assembly of the channel, with the unedited form having a tendency to tetramerize and then is transported to the synapse. However, the edited version is assembled as a monomer and resides mainly in the endoplasmic reticulum. The arginine residue in the pore loop of GluR-2 receptor is thought to belong to a retention signal for the endoplasmic reticulum. Therefore, editing - since it occurs at 100% frequency - inhibits the availability of the channel at the synapse. This process occurs before assembly of the channels, thereby preventing glur-2-forming homeric channels, which could interfere with synaptic signalling.
Editing also occurs at the R/G site. Editing at the R/G sites results in variation in the rate that the receptor recovers from desensitisation. Editing at these sites results in faster recovery time from desensitisation
Dysregulation.
 Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Many human and animal studies have determined that RNA editing of the Q/R site in GluR2 pre-mRNA is necessary for normal brain function. Defective editing has been linked to several conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). ALS effects 1 in 2000 people, usually fatal in 1–5 years, with onset in the majority of cases being sporadic and minority being familial. With these conditions motor neurons degenerate leading to eventual paralysis and respiratory failure. Glutamate excitotoxicity is known to contribute to the spread of the sporadic condition. Glutamate levels are increased up 40%, suggesting that activation of glutamate receptors could be the reason for this causing increase Ca influx and then neuronal death. Since decrease nor loss of editing at Q/R site would lead to increase in calcium permeability. In diseased motor neurons editing levels of Glur 2 (62-100%) at this site was discovered to be reduced.
Abnormal editing is thought to be specific for this condition, as editing levels have not been found to be decreased in spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy. Q/R editing is not the only mechanism involved, as editing occurs only in spinal motor neurons not in upper spinal neurons. Also, it is unknown whether editing dysregulation is involved in the initiation of the condition, or whether it occurs during pathogenesis.
 Epilepsy
In mouse models, failure of editing leads to epileptic seizures and death within 3 weeks of birth. Why editing exists at this site instead of a genomically encoded arginine is unknown since nearly 100% of transcripts are edited.
 Cancer
Decreased editing at the Q/R site is also found in some human brain tumors. Reduction of ADAR2 expression is thought to be associated with epileptic seizures in malignant glioma.
Use in diagnostic immunochemistry.
GRIA2 is a diagnostic immunochemical marker for solitary fibrous tumour (SFT), distinguishing it from most mimics. Among other CD34-positive tumours, GRIA2 is also expressed in dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP); however, clinical and histologic features aid in their distinction. GRIA2 shows a limited distribution in other soft tissue tumours.


Ali Khademhosseini

Ali Khademhosseini (, born October 30, 1975, Tehran, Iran) is the Director and CEO of the Terasaki Institute and former Professor at the University of California-Los Angeles where he held a multi-departmental professorship in Bioengineering, Radiology, Chemical, and Biomolecular Engineering and the Director of Center for Minimally Invasive Therapeutics (C-MIT). From 2005 to 2017, he was a Professor at Harvard Medical School, and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. His studies have been cited over 70,000 times. Khademhosseini is best known for developing hydrogels for tissue engineering and bioprinting.
Khademhosseini is a recipient of The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Outstanding Undergraduate mentor award and a recipient of the Presidential Career Award for Scientists and Engineers by President Barack Obama.
From 2014 to 2020 he has been selected by Thomson Reuters as one of the World's Most Influential Minds.
Background and Personal Life.
Khademhosseini was born in Tehran, Iran, and grew up in Toronto, Canada. He received his Ph.D. in bioengineering from MIT under the supervision of Robert S. Langer (2005), and MASc (2001) and BASc (1999) degrees from the University of Toronto both in chemical engineering.
Awards and Honors.
Dr. Khademhosseini’s interdisciplinary research has been recognized over 70 major national and international awards. He is a recipient of the 2011 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) by President Barack Obama, the highest honor given by the US government for early-career investigators. In 2007, he was named a TR35 recipient by the Technology Review Magazine as one of the world’s top young innovators. In 2011, he received the Pioneers of Miniaturization Prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) for his contribution to microscale tissue engineering and microfluidics. In 2016, he received the Sr. Scientist Award of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Society-Americas (TERMIS-AM) and in 2017 he received the Clemson Award of the Society for Biomaterials. In addition, he has received the young investigator awards of the Society for Biomaterials and the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society-North America. He has also received the American Chemical Society's Viktor K. Lamer award and the Unilever award and has been recognized by major governmental Awards including the NSF Career award and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator award. He has been elected into the Canadian Academy of Engineering as well as the Royal Society of Canada. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), Biomaterials Science and Engineering (FBSE), Materials Research Society (MRS), NANOSMAT Society, and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). In 2019, he received the Mustafa Prize, for his work on microfabricated hydrogel for biomedical applications.


Solute pumping

Solute pumping is a form of active transport of a solute through a cell membrane. Solute pumping allows a molecule that cannot regularly cross the lipid bilayer (because of concentration gradient, polarity, or other reasons) to enter the cell by way of a protein channel. Unlike diffusion (a form of passive transport), solute pumping requires energy (provided by ATP) to change the shape of the protein channel to allow the molecule to pass through, which is why it is an active transport mechanism.


Bufuralol

Bufuralol is a potent beta-adrenoceptor antagonist with partial agonist activity. It is metabolized by CYP2D6.
Most beta blockers are aryloxypropanolamine-based. In this rare exception, the benzofuran oxygen is part of a ring instead of derived from the epichlorohydrin precursor.


Liliana Quintanar Vera

Liliana Quintanar Vera (born 1975) is a Mexican chemist. She works on proteins and neurodegenerative diseases.
Early life and education.
Quintanar Vera was born in Mexico City in 1975. She took part in the Mexican Academy of Sciences Chemistry Olympics, representing the country in the International Chemistry Olympiad in 1993. She studied chemistry at National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1998. She was awarded the Gabino Barreda medal. She took part in an exchange program with the University of California, Santa Barbara. She worked on Neurochemistry with Stanley Parsons. Quintanar Vera joined Stanford University for her PhD, working on metalloproteins under the supervision of Edward I. Solomon. She focussed on the structure, function and activation mechanism of multicopper oxidase.
Career.
Quintanar Vera returned to Mexico and join the National Autonomous University of Mexico Department of Neurochemistry of the Institute of Physiology. She worked on manganese neurotoxicity. She joined CINVESTAV in 2005, where she studies the proteins associated with neurodegenerative diseases. Alzheimer's disease can cause proteins to aggregate and accumulate metals. She studies the role of metals in the aggregation of proteins and the etiology of diseases.
Quintanar Vera was a Fulbright scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology working with Jonathan King between 2014 and 2015. Her project looked at the role of copper ions in human Gamma-D crystallin. Quintanar Vera was appointed to the Society International Biological Inorganic Chemistry in 2017. In 2017 she coordinated the Thematic Network of Structure, Function and Evolution of Proteins (REFEP).
Awards and honours.
2017 Mexican Academy of Sciences Research Prize for Science
2016 Marcos Moshinsky Chair
2014 Fulbright Scholarship
2007 L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards


Siphonosphaera

Siphonosphaera is a genus of radiolarians. The genus contains bioluminescent species. It is a genus of colonial radiolarians (as opposed to solitary).
Species.
The following species are recognized:


Kelbidae


Magnesium responsive RNA element

The Magnesium responsive RNA element, not to be confused with the completely distinct M-box riboswitch, is a cis-regulatory element that regulates the expression of the magnesium transporter protein MgtA. It is located in the 5' UTR of this gene. The mechanism for the potential magnesium-sensing capacity of this RNA is still unclear, though a recent report suggests that the RNA element targets the mgtA transcript for degradation by RNase E when cells are grown in high Mg2+ environments.


Adipiodone

Adipiodone (INN, or iodipamide; trade names Cholografin and Biligrafin) is a pharmaceutical drug used as a radiocontrast agent in X-ray imaging. It was introduced in the 1950s.


3,5-Dihydroxycinnamic acid

3,5-Dihydroxycinnamic acid is a hydroxycinnamic acid. It is an isomer of caffeic acid.
It is a metabolite found in human urine.


ILPR

The insulin-linked polymorphic region (ILPR) is a regulatory sequence on the insulin gene starting at position -363 upstream from the transcriptional start location of the 5' region and consists of multiple repeats of a ACA-GGGGT(G/C)(T/C)GGG consensus sequence. The polymorphic aspect of this region is due to three possible combinations of sequences according to their length: 700bp, 1600bp and 2500bp.


Sarcolemma

The sarcolemma ("sarco" (from "sarx") from Greek; flesh, and "lemma" from Greek; sheath) also called the myolemma, is the cell membrane of a muscle cell.
It consists of a lipid bilayer and a thin outer coat of polysaccharide material (glycocalyx) that contacts the basement membrane. The basement membrane contains numerous thin collagen fibrils and specialized proteins such as laminin that provide a scaffold to which the muscle fiber can adhere. Through transmembrane proteins in the plasma membrane, the actin skeleton inside the cell is connected to the basement membrane and the cell's exterior. At each end of the muscle fiber, the surface layer of the sarcolemma fuses with a tendon fiber, and the tendon fibers, in turn, collect into bundles to form the muscle tendons that adhere to bones.
The sarcolemma generally maintains the same function in muscle cells as the plasma membrane does in other eukaryote cells. It acts as a barrier between the extracellular and intracellular compartments, defining the individual muscle fiber from its surroundings. The lipid nature of the membrane allows it to separate the fluids of the intra- and extracellular compartments, since it is only selectively permeable to water through aquaporin channels. As in other cells, this allows for the compositions of the compartments to be controlled by selective transport through the membrane. Membrane proteins, such as ion pumps, may create ion gradients with the consumption of ATP, that may later be used to drive transport of other substances through the membrane (co-transport) or generate electrical impulses such as action potentials.
A special feature of the sarcolemma is that it invaginates into the sarcoplasm of the muscle cell, forming membranous tubules radially and longitudinally within the fiber called T-tubules or transverse tubules. On either side of the transverse tubules are terminal cisternal enlargements of the sarcoplasmic reticulum (termed endoplasmic reticulum in nonmuscle cells). A transverse tubule surrounded by two SR cisternae are known as a triad, and the contact between these structures is located at the junction of the A and I bands.


William Karl

William Clem Karl is an ECE Department Chair and Professor at Boston University who was named Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2014 "for contributions to statistical signal processing and image reconstruction" and in 2018 was inducted into the Medical and Biological Engineering Elite of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. Karl is a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology from which he got his Ph.D. in 1991.


Patrick Lincoln

Patrick Denis Lincoln (born 1964) is an American computer scientist leading the Computer Science Laboratory (CSL) at SRI International. Educated at MIT and then Stanford, he joined SRI in 1989 and became director of the CSL around 1998. He previously held positions with ETA Systems, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and MCC.
Education and early career.
Lincoln received a bachelor of science in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1986, with the thesis "DisCoRd distributed combinator reduction, automatic parallelizing compiler" under thesis advisor Rishiyur Nikhil. While pursuing that degree, he held a position in ETA Systems' Software Division from 1982 to 1983; one at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Division C-10 from 1984 to 1985. After graduation, he held a position with MCC from 1986 to 1988 in their Software Technology and Advanced Computer Architecture departments.
Lincoln then attended Stanford University, from 1988 to 1992, earning a Ph.D. in computer science under advisor John Mitchell. Lincoln's doctoral dissertation was "Computational aspects of linear logic".
Later career.
In 1989, Lincoln joined SRI International's Computer Science Laboratory (CSL). He is the director of SRI's Computer Science Laboratory since 1998 and became Vice-President of Information and Computing Sciences in 2018. He is also the executive director of SRI's program for the Department of Homeland Security's Cyber Security Research and Development Center and co-director of the SRI Center for Computational Biology. He also leads numerous multidisciplinary research groups.
In 2013, he was featured in the BBC Horizon episode "Defeating the Hackers" and NOVA episode "Rise of the Hackers" describing his work on secure computing and cortical cryptography. This is focusing on how to store a password in someone's mind that they cannot directly recall; for example, by teaching them to play a song and measuring their reaction times. Those methods are theoretically resistant to rubber-hose cryptanalysis, where a user is coerced to give up a password or other key; if you don't know a password, you can't tell it to someone.
Advisory boards and awards.
He has served on the Defense Science Board task force on Science and Technology and of the Defense Science Board task force on Defensive Information Operations. He is serving on several advisory boards, including startups such as Neurome, Relational.AI, Blackhorse.
In 2005, Lincoln was named an SRI Fellow. In 2013, he and collaborators received the Best Paper Award at The 19th IEEE Pacific Rim International Symposium on Dependable Computing (PRDC).
Selected publications.
Patrick Lincoln holds over 240 scientific publications. He is amongst the computer scientists whose publications' h-index is above 50
Patents.
Dr. Lincoln holds more than 40 patents in varied fields, including computer security, high-assurance systems, advanced user interfaces, computer networking, robotics, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. A selected subset is listed below.


Jerrold S. Petrofsky

Jerrold S. Petrofsky is a professor of physical therapy at Loma Linda University in the School of Allied Health Professions.
He is best known for his development while at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, of a portable computer system which stimulated the leg muscles of paralysis victims allowing them control of their lower extremities. In November 1982 he rose to prominence when a student, Nan Davis, who had been paralyzed from the waist down for four years, was made able to walk using technology Petrofsky helped develop. Their story became the inspiration for the television movie "First Steps".


Montowampate

Montowampate (1609–1633) (Pawtucket Confederation), was the Sachem of his people in the Saugus area at the time of English Pilgrim settlement in the area. The colonists called him Sagamore James. He was one of three sons of Nanepashemet, the sachem of the entire region occupied by tribes of the confederation. These were Abenaki peoples, part of the large Algonquian languages family.
Early life.
Montowampate was born in 1609 to Nanepashemet, the Great Sachem of the Pawtucket Confederation, and his wife, identified in English records only as the Squaw Sachem of Mistick. Nanepashemet's territory was divided following his death in 1619, and Montowampate was given control over the area consisting of present-day Swampscott, Nahant, Lynn, Lynnfield, Marblehead, Reading, Saugus, and Wakefield. Montowampate resided on Sagamore Hill in Lynn, a high bluff located near the head of Long Beach.
Personal life.
Montowampate was married to Wenunchus, daughter of Passaconaway. The two married about 1629 in Pennacook (now known as Concord, New Hampshire). Their marriage ceremony was followed by a large banquet. Not long after their marriage, Wenunchus, escorted by a number of Montowampate's men, returned to her father's territory for a visit. Once she arrived safely, Montowampate's men returned home. When Wenunchus was ready to return to Montowampate, Passaconaway sent messengers to Montowampate to tell him that his wife was ready to return and that he should send a convoy to get her.
Montowampate felt that Passaconaway should sponsor the return party, as Montowampate's men had already escorted her to her father. He thought that sending a convoy would make him and his people appear subservient to Passaconaway. Passaconaway felt that he deserved more respect from the young Sachem and told Montowampate that if he wanted Wenunchus' company, he would have to send a party for her. Montowampate still refused, telling Passaconaway that he could either send her with his own convoy or keep his daughter. Wenunchus was known to eventually return to Montowampate, but it is not recorded how the dispute between him and her father was settled.
Relationship with other tribes.
In 1631, Montowampate and his brother Wonohaquaham (also known as Sagamore John) met with Chief Masconomet in Agawam (present day Ipswich). Masconomet may have been seeking their assistance in his conflict with the Tarrantine. On the night of August 8, 1631, 100 Tarrantine warriors attacked Agawam. Masconomet, Montowampate, and Wonohaquaham, were all wounded and Montowampate's wife was taken captive. She was ransomed by Abraham Shurd, a colonist from Pemaquid (now Bristol, Maine), and returned to her husband on September 17, 1631.
Relationship with colonists.
Montowampate was described by Governor Thomas Dudley as being "of a far worse disposition" than his brother Wonohaquaham. On March 26, 1631, Montowampate went to Governor John Winthrop for assistance after he was defrauded of twenty beaver pelts by a colonist named Watts, who soon returned to England. Winthrop gave the leader a letter of introduction to Emanuel Downing, a London attorney. It is believed that Montowampate may have traveled to England to claim remuneration.
In 1632, Montowampate purchased muskets, powder, and shot from a settler named Richard Hopkins. By 1633, friction had emerged between the Pawtucket and colonists over the boundaries between the two. However, before the issue could be resolved, the tribe was hit by an outbreak of smallpox and suffered many deaths.
Death.
In 1633, most of the Pawtucket died during a smallpox epidemic, as they did not have acquired immunity to the new infectious disease. Montowampate died of the disease in December 1633, around the same time as his brother Wonohaquaham. Their younger brother Wenepoykin, also known as Winnepurkett, Sagamore George, George Rumney Marsh, and George No Nose (because of disfigurement from smallpox), was among the relatively few survivors. He took over both his brothers' territories and became sachem of the surviving Pawtucket.
Legacy.
An image of Montowampate was included on Saugus' town seal. He is depicted holding a bow and arrow in front of Round Hill and the rising sun.
Montowampate's image is also included on the first floor of the new Saugus Middle High School. The image, along with some biographical data, was taken from The Saugus Centenary - One Hundredth Anniversary of the Incorporation of the Town of Saugus. 1815-1915. July 3,4,5 1915.


National Hip Fracture Database

The National Hip Fracture Database (NHFD) is a nationwide audit within the NHS concerning the management and outcomes of patients with hip fractures.
It was initially set up by the British Orthopaedic Association and the British Geriatrics Society, however it is now commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP), a consortium of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and the Royal College of Nursing which holds the contract to manage and develop the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP), as part of the Falls and Fragility Fracture Audit Programme (FFFAP) of the Royal College of Physicians, in association with the BOA, BGS, Royal College of Surgeons of England and the Falls and Fractures Alliance (composed of Age UK and the National Osteoporosis Society).
Design.
The NHFD aims to improve the quality and effectiveness of hip fracture care by enabling clinical teams to monitor their performance against agreed clinical standards from the BOA and BGS 'Blue Book' publication, in addition to compliance with NICE Guidance 124 - ‘The Management of Hip Fracture in Adults’.
Data collected includes:
Reports.
The NHFD has reported nationally annually since 2010
In addition, quarterly reports are generated to allow for best practice tariff payments against the following criteria:


Alizapride

Alizapride (Litican, Plitican, Superan, Vergentan) is a dopamine antagonist with prokinetic and antiemetic effects used in the treatment of nausea and vomiting, including postoperative nausea and vomiting. It is structurally related to metoclopramide and other benzamides.


Biovest

Biovest International, Inc (OTCQB: BVTI) is a Minneapolis-based biotechnology company. Their active immunotherapy, BiovaxID, is a cancer vaccine whose first indication is intended to be consolidation/adjuvant therapy of follicular Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.
BiovaxID (dasiprotimut-T).
Unlike a preventative vaccine, such as for measles or mumps, BiovaxID is administered as a therapeutic cancer vaccine, designed to stimulate and "train" the patient's immune system to respond and attack cancerous cells, even long after therapy has been stopped — each vaccine being unique to that particular patient. Beginning with an excisional (>2 cm) lymph node biopsy, tumor cells are fused with Biovest's proprietary mouse/human heterohybridoma in order to induce secretion of normally surface-bound tumor immunoglobulin (idiotype or Id). Id-secreting clones are identified by a bioinformatics approach which confirms a match of each vaccine's unique idiotype sequence to the tumor's after which they are cultured (expanded) in a personal-scale, disposable hollow-fiber AutovaxID™ bioreactor system. In this manner, each vaccine is highly-specifically matched to highly-unique segments of the patient's tumor genome. During culture, supernatant (containing idiotype) is collected until sufficient amounts have been produced to yield adequate dosage of vaccine. This supernatant is purified by affinity chromatography and conjugated (bonded) to keyhole limpet haemocyanin (KLH), an immune-stimulating carrier protein, resulting in a finished vaccine that can be shipped and administered to patients. In the Phase III clinical trial, manufacturing success was approximately 95% of treated patients.
The BiovaxID vaccine is manufactured through a process known as rescue fusion hybridization. Since BiovaxID is a personalized vaccine, each patient's vaccine is individually manufactured from a tissue biopsy obtained from a patient's own tumor. This approach is used because there is a unique protein called an “idiotype” expressed exclusively on the cancerous B-cells. So, when a full, high-fidelity copy of the idiotype is linked to a foreign protein (KLH), and administered with an immune-enhancing agent (GM-CSF), the resulting vaccine can mount a highly specific anti-lymphoma attack that “trains” the body's own immune system to solely recognize the idiotype as a “foreign invader”, thus stimulating and recruiting the patient's own immune system to destroy micro-pockets of cancer cells that may remain following chemotherapy and potentially target and destroy newly arising lymphoma cells, thus delaying or preventing cancer recurrence. As such, through its unique mode of action, and exemplary safety record, BiovaxID represents a new therapeutic approach to treating follicular lymphoma.
BiovaxID obtained Orphan drug status with the FDA and has obtained positive Phase III clinical trial results. After a median follow-up of 4.71 years (56.6 months, range: 12.6 - 89.3 months), the median disease-free survival in the BiovaxID arm was 44.2 months compared with 30.6 months in the control arm, which is a clinically and statistically significant difference (adj. p=0.029). Among the 75 patients receiving BiovaxID in the study, 35 received BiovaxID manufactured with an IgM isotype and 40 received BiovaxID manufactured with an IgG isotype with each treatment vaccine produced to correspond with the patient's tumor immunoglobulin isotype. Of 40 patients receiving control, 25 had tumors with IgM isotype and 15 had tumors with IgG isotype. Two of the patients in the vaccinated treatment/control population had a tumor with mixed IgM/IgG isotypes and were excluded from this analysis. Among 35 patients with IgM tumor isotype receiving BiovaxID manufactured with an IgM isotype, median time to relapse after randomization was 52.9 months versus 28.7 months in the IgM tumor isotype control-treated patients (log-rank p=0.001; HR=0.34 (p=0.002); [95% CI: 0.17-0.68]. Among 40 patients with IgG tumor isotype receiving BiovaxiD manufactured with an IgG isotype, median time to relapse after randomization was 35.1 months, versus 32.4 months in control-treated patients with IgG tumor isotype (log-rank p=0.807; HR=1.1 (p=0.807): [95% CI: 0.50-2.44].
In its multi-center, randomized, controlled Phase 3 clinical study, BiovaxID demonstrated that it can induce powerful anti-tumor immune responses while providing a median disease-free survival benefit of over 15 months, and a reduction of 42% in the risk of relapse, and in the company's Phase 2 clinical trial, 28% of patients who received BiovaxID remain in continuous remission at a median of 12.7 years of follow-up.
The approval of Dendreon's Provenge on April 29, 2010, indicates the FDA's willingness to accept a new class of drugs called cancer vaccines, of which BiovaxID is one. BiovaxID has also completed phase II trials for Mantle Cell Lymphoma and is being investigated for the treatment of other Non-Hodgkin's Lymphomas as well. On November 2, 2011, BiovaxID was granted seven years of U.S. market exclusivity for Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia, a third and rare type of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.
Regulatory status.
In December 2013, Biovest reported that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) accepted the Company's Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) for BiovaxID (submitted to EMA as “Dasiprotimut-T Biovest”), a personalized cancer vaccine for the treatment of non-Hodgkin's follicular lymphoma. The MAA validation confirms the submission is complete and begins the formal EMA review process intended to secure approval to market BiovaxID in the European Union and to allow prescription and sale of BiovaxID for the treatment of non-Hodgkin's follicular lymphoma in patients who have achieved a first complete remission.
Biovest submitted its MAA following the successful completion and long-term follow-up of two Phase 2 clinical trials and of one multi-center, randomized, Phase 3 clinical trial (all conducted in partnership with the U.S. National Cancer Institute) in which BiovaxID demonstrated it could induce powerful anti-tumor immune responses, eradicate residual tumor cells from patients’ blood following chemotherapy, and improve the duration of complete remissions by a median of 15.4 months relative to control.
Patents.
Biovest has been granted many patents, including the following: Perfusion Bioreactors, Cell Culture Systems, and Methods for Production of Cells and Cell-Derived Products, Method and System for the Production of Cells and Cell Products and Applications Thereof, and Extra-Capillary Fluid Cycling System and Method for a Cell Culture Device.


Plum Island (New York)

Plum Island is an island in the town of Southold in Suffolk County, New York, in the United States. The island is situated in Gardiners Bay, east of Orient Point, off the eastern end of the North Fork coast of Long Island. It is about long and wide at its widest point.
The island is the site of the Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC), which was established by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1954. The Island is also the site of the former U.S. military installation Fort Terry (c. 1897), and the historic Plum Island Light (c. 1869), and its automated replacement.
Plum Island is owned in its entirety by the United States government, which was considering sale of the island, but suspended the plan in February 2012. Access to the island is controlled by the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
On August 29, 2013, the United States General Services Administration (GSA) and United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a final "Record of Decision (ROD): Public Sale of Plum Island, New York".
After years of pressure from organizations including the Preserve Plum Island Coalition (PPIC), the Connecticut Fund for the Environment, along with its permanent regional program Save the Sound and Soundkeeper, Inc., Congress voted in December 2020 to block the sale and preserve Plum Island. In 2020, President Donald Trump signed the legislation.
Geology.
The northern portion of Plum Island is a recessional moraine deposit, part of the Harbor Hill-Roanoke Point-Fishers Island-Charlestown Moraine, and thus is one of the Outer Lands. Boulders in the moraine can be seen in the eroding northern slope of the island.
History.
Plum Island was called "Manittuwond" by the Native American Pequot Nation. It was probably first seen by Europeans in 1614 when Adriaen Block, a Dutchman employed by the Dutch West India Company, charted the area. The island was named from the beach plums that grow along the shores, and an old Dutch map made about 1640 shows the name "Pruym Eyelant" (Plum Island). In 1659, the island was purchased by Samuel Wyllys III (Samuel Willis III), son of the Governor of Connecticut, from Wyandanch, the ruling local Indian Chieftain of Long Island, for a coat, a barrel of biscuits and 100 fishhooks.
On August 11, 1775, General David Wooster dispatched 120 soldiers to the island, then known as Plumb Island, who were immediately fired upon by the British. After firing a single return volley, the soldiers retreated back to Long Island. Although no casualties were reported, this brief skirmish is believed to have represented at least one American military "first": the first amphibious assault by an American army.
The historic Plum Island Lighthouse is located at the west end of the island. The original lighthouse on Plum Island was constructed in 1827; the current structure was built in 1869. The light marks the east side of "Plum Gut", a mile-wide entrance to Long Island Sound with extremely strong tidal currents. The light aided navigation near the entrance to Long Island Sound, especially through the "Plum Gut" channel between Orient Point and Plum Island.
After passing through the possession of more than 20 families, in 1899, the island was purchased in its entirety by the United States government following the Spanish–American War for approximately $90,000. The U.S. Army established a Coast Artillery post, later known as Fort Terry on the island in 1897. During World War II the fort was activated as an anti-submarine base and deactivated after World War II. The fort was later reactivated and assigned to the Army Chemical Corps.
In 1954, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) established the Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC). The center conducts research on animal pathogens to protect farmers, ranchers, and the national food supply. Because of the nature of the research, access to the island and the research facility is restricted.
In 2003, the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assumed ownership of the island and all its facilities. The USDA continues its long running science mission at PIADC jointly with DHS, who are charged with the safe and secure operation of the facility.
As one result of the heightened national security initiatives following the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, Plum Island was considered as a potential site for a new high-security animal diseases lab, National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF). In September 2008, the U.S. Congress passed Public Law 110-329 (Sec. 540 - New York) that directed the General Services Administration (GSA) to close the PIADC, sell the island to the public, and to use the proceeds towards the construction of the NBAF, if it were decided that NBAF would be built elsewhere. In January 2009, the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) selected the City of Manhattan, Kansas, as the site for the NBAF, and decided to relocate the PIADC there as well. However, the decline in real estate values stemming from the subprime mortgage crisis and late-2000s recession caused the sale of the island to be considered no longer viable. Because the proceeds from selling the island were needed to construct the new facility in Kansas, the project was effectively cancelled for the short term when the 2013 federal budget request contained no funding for the new facility. As part of the planned sale of Plum Island, the United States Government has been preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the island, one objective of which is to determine whether the impact of nearly sixty years of animal testing on the island constitutes a threat to public health that could preclude the planned sale.
Historical Society book.
In June 2012, the Southold Historical Society announced that it planned to publish a detailed history of Plum Island from the period of colonial settlement through modern times. The book, according to the Society, would correct a number of errors and mistakes in previous historical examinations, and provide the first complete, annotated history of the Island to date. The Society stated further that it was currently looking for original documents and images relating to the historic structures and families that once occupied Plum Island.
In September 2014, the Southold Historical Society announced the publication of the new book "A World Unto Itself: The Remarkable History of Plum Island, New York" documenting the history of Plum Island from its creation to the present day. Among the topics covered is the Island's use by British forces during the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, the Island's use as a place of recreation during the "Leisure Age," as well as serving as the location of the 1914 court martial of Benjamin M. Koehler, whose conviction on charges of homosexuality eventually led to the policy of Don't ask, don't tell. The Society noted in its press release regarding the release of the book:
"Through its many incarnations, Plum Island has managed to remain in a semi-natural state. Today, it provides a rare glimpse of what Long Island and much of the Northeast was like before it was gripped by progress. At the same time, it bears the marks of the human history that has unfolded there: the lighthouse tended by so many stalwarts; the narrow roads, rusted railroad tracks and overgrown artillery batteries once filled with soldiers who never saw combat; and, of course, the modern-day facility where the daily pursuit bioweapons both moves us towards dark and pushes us away."
Future, public activism, current legislative activity.
In 2008, the U.S. Congress passed, and U.S. President George W. Bush signed Public Law 110-329 (Sec. 540 - New York), part of the , which requires the sale of Plum Island and the Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC) to help with the funding of the new National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan, Kansas. This legislation started the process that may ultimately end with the Federal Government's sale of all of Plum Island to a private party.
The Connecticut Fund for the Environment and its permanent, regional program Save the Sound, and Soundkeeper, Inc., are the two organizations which are spearheading the legal aspects of the movement to preserve Plum Island, including the repeal of Public Law 110-329 (Sec. 540 - New York). In addition, a broad-based coalition of conservation, environmental, and civic, organizations, and others, have formed the Preserve Plum Island Coalition (PPIC), for the common purpose of protecting Plum Island for the public trust. The PPIC advocate that Plum Island be considered for designation as a National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) or other protected area. The Proposal of the PPIC, notes that in recent decades the Federal Government has established a number of NWRs in the eastern Peconic/southern New England region. These NWRs include: Nomans Land Island, off the coast of Massachusetts; Block Island, Sachuest Point, John H. Chafee, Trustom Pond, and Ninigret, in coastal Rhode Island; the ten units of Stuart B. McKinney NWR stretching along the Connecticut coastline; and Elizabeth A. Morton NWR, in Sag Harbor, New York.
On July 16, 2013, former U.S. Congressman Tim Bishop (First Congressional District of New York) introduced a new bipartisan bill ('Save, Don't Sell Plum Island'). This goal of this bill was to preserve critical biodiversity, and prevent further development, on Plum Island, by eliminating the current requirement in law that all of Plum Island be sold at public auction as part of the construction of the new planned National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) facility to be built in Manhattan, Kansas, to replace the Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC) on Plum Island. Similar legislation was also introduced in the U.S. Senate at the same time as that in the U.S. House of Representatives.
On August 29, 2013, the USDA and DHS announced a final Record of Decision (ROD) which determined that the entirety of Plum Island be sold to the private sector to help offset the cost of constructing a new facility for the PIADC in Manhattan, Kansas.
On September 30, 2013, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo sent a letter to the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and United States General Services Administration (GSA), calling for both agencies to submit to a consent order requiring them to present a comprehensive environmental cleanup plan for Plum Island, in Suffolk County, New York, and giving New York State final review of the Island's conditions before it is put up for sale.
On January 5, 2015, the Connecticut Fund For the Environment (CFE) & Save The Sound jointly sent a letter to the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), indicating a 60-Day Notice of Intent to Sue these agencies. This letter outlined how the final disposition of Plum Island, under the current terms of Public Law 110-329, was in violation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
On April 1, 2015, New York and Connecticut Senators Senators Schumer, Gillibrand, Blumenthal and Murphy, sent a letter to the Appropriation Committee asking for the repeal of Public Law 110-329. The senators explained that the original financial reasoning to sell Plum Island was no longer valid, and that it was in the best interest of the country to conserve Plum Island.
Congress voted on December 21, 2020, to block the planned sale and preserve the island. The policy was a provision of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, an omnibus spending and stimulus bill. Under the bill, the Department of Homeland Security must offer the island for transfer to other federal agencies such as the Fish and Wildlife Service. If no federal agency wants to take control, the department must offer the island to state and local government agencies. The legislation also would give Homeland Security $18.9 million to clean contamination on the island. The provision was based on legislation first introduced in 2015 by Representative Lee Zeldin, whose district includes Plum Island.
The overall bill had overwhelming support by both political parties. On December 27, 2020, President Donald Trump signed the legislation.
References.
Notes
Further reading


Boris Mamyrin

Boris Aleksandrovich Mamyrin (; 25 May 1919 5 March 2007) was a Russian scientist best known for his invention of the electrostatic ion mirror mass spectrometer known as the reflectron.
Biography.
Mamyrin was born in 1919 in Lipetsk, Soviet Russia during Russian civil war. Both of his parents were medical doctors and his early aim was to follow in their footsteps. However, shortly after he obtained his M.S. degree in physics from the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, World War II cut his studies short. He served in the army throughout the war, finally discharging from military service in 1948. He returned to the Polytechnic Institute and obtained his doctoral degree within a year. He was the head and leading research scientist of the laboratory for mass spectrometry at Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He was a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and a full member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences.


Bacteroid-trp RNA motif

The Bacteroid-"trp" RNA motif is a conserved RNA element detected by bioinformatics. It is found in the phylum Bacteroidetes in the apparent 5' untranslated regions of genes that encode enzymes used in the synthesis of the amino acid tryptophan. A short open reading frame is found within the motif that encodes at least two tryptophan codons. Similar motifs have been identified regulating tryptophan genes in proteobacteria (see trp operon), but not in Bacteroidetes. However, the Bacteroid-"trp" RNA motif likely operates via the same mechanism of attenuation.