Biophysical Journal Club Web Page - Fall 2009 - Spring 2010

Meetings:  Room 4.238 Welch, Wednesdays, at noon.

Contact:  David Hoffman, email:  dhoffman@mail.utexas.edu 

Link to last year's Biophysical J. Club web page  

****************   Schedule for Fall 2009 - Spring 2010  *******************

Sept 9, 2009 -   Kate Kavanagh.   Director, Structural Genomics Consortium, Univ. of Oxford.
                          “Techniques for exploring the human genome in 3D”
                          2:00 p.m. in WEL 2.122 (Convocation center)
                          Host:  Jon D. Robertus, Ph.D.     Refreshments will be served at 1:45 p.m.

Sept 16, 2009 -   Art Monzingo.  Art is the manager of the Macromolecular Crystallography Facility.
                            He is planning to tell us what's new in the newly-renovated facility.

Sept 23, 2009 -  Amanda Hughes.  Amanda is a 2nd year graduate student in Adrian Keatinge-Clay's
                           group.  Title to be announced.  I believe it will have something to do with the enzyme
                            that Amanda recently crystallized.
                          
Sept 30, 2009 -   Mitra Rana.  "Deoxygenation-dependent isodesmic self-association of the
                            minor avian hemoglobin component - A Sedimentation velocity analysis".
                            Mitra is a graduate student in Austin Rigg's lab.

Oct 7, 2009 -      Marv Hackert.  "The American Crystallographic Association at 60:
                            Where are we now?"  A view of the current state of crystallography.

Oct 14, 2009 -    Matthew Lluis from Robertus lab will be doing his thesis defense
                            on this day.  The public part of his defense will be in the usual
                            journal club location.

Oct 21, 2009 -   open date

Oct 28, 2009 -    Brian Cannon, from Rick Russell's lab. Two related papers will be discussed:

                           "Single-Molecule DNA Sequencing of a Viral Genome"  Link to paper
                               and  "Direct RNA sequencing"  Link to paper 
                             
Nov 4, 2009 -   

Nov 11, 2009 -  David Hoffman.  "Environmental genomics reveals a single-
                          species ecosystem deep within earth".  Chivian et al., Science,
                          322, 275-278 (2008).  link to article 

Nov 18, 2009 -  

Nov 25, 2009 -   

Dec 2, 2009 - 

Jan 20, 2010 -  

Jan 27, 2010 - 

Feb 3, 2010 - 

Feb 10, 2010 -

Feb 17, 2010 -

Feb 24, 2010 -

Mar 3, 2010 -

Mar 10, 2010 -

Mar 17, 2010 -  spring break

Mar 24, 2010 -

Mar 31, 2010 -

Apr 7, 2010 -

Apr 14, 2010 -

Apr 21, 2010 -

Apr 28, 2010 -

May 5, 2010 -


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Suggestions for Journal Club presentations:

1) Create an introduction that provides a broad perspective for the specific work being presented.  For example, if you are presenting a paper on a new reverse transcriptase (RT) structure, you should provide some background on RTs in general.  Don't assume that everyone in your audience knows the background.  Provide historical perspective, such as when was the first RT discovered?  When was the first structure of a member of the RT family solved?  Why do we care about RT?  This will provide a context for introducing what is special about the paper you are presenting.  Also, explain enough about the work that came immediately before your paper (often from the same research group) so that your audience understands the starting point for the paper you are presenting.

2) Explain why you chose the paper you did.  What do you find most interesting about it?  Why is it important? Also, why is the topic interesting and important?

3) Instead of simply describing the methods used, look at the methods critically, with an eye for anything interesting or unusual.  Point out anything that might be generally useful.  For example, did the authors use any unusual purification or expression tricks?  The people in your audience, many of whom are struggling with purification and expression, may find this helpful.

4) What is the most significant contribution of the specific work to the field in general?

5) As much as possible, make your own cartoons and schematic diagrams  - don't copy these from the paper.  When you make your own figure, you can be sure that it makes exactly the points you want, no more and no less.

6) Do the results suggest any additional experiments to answer any new questions raised by the work?  Hint for 2nd year grad students:  These presentations can be a good source of ideas for qualifying exam topics.

7) Clearly explain the significance of the results.  Results by themselves are dull, unless they have significance.  The significance may not be obvious to the audience, so point it out specifically.  Also, try to think critically about the author's work.  For example, are there any possible alternative interpretations of the results? 

8) Try to appear truly interested (even excited!) about the work you are presenting.  Enthusiasm is contagious, and keeps your audience interested.  Can you think of anything to make your presentation unique?  An unusual prop or visual aid?  Make your presentation "professional".  That means, stand up in front, look directly at your audience, and don't "read" your slides.

9) Arrive at the conference room early.  Make sure you can get into the room (Natalie Potts on the 5th floor in Robertus' and Hackert's office has a key, as do some of the nearby labs).  Make sure you can make the projector work, and make sure you have everything you need for your presentation, such as a pointer. 

10) Practice your talk!