March 9, 2009 meeting

We'll meet on March 9 at 12:00 noon in Room W2303 (back to our usual room on the second floor of the SPH, around the corner from the Daily Grind).
Min-Young Kim from the Drummond-Barbosa lab will be presenting -

A spindle assembly checkpoint protein functions in prophase I arrest and prometaphase progression
Science (2009) 329:991
Homer, Gui, and Carroll

Min-Young's comment about this paper:
"The anaphase promoting complex (APC) is a multisubunit E3 uibquitin ligase. The APC mediates degradation of cell cycle regulators. Direct binding of the APC activators, Cdc20 or Cdh1, is critical for target specificity and the timing of the APC activation. During mitosis, it is known that a component of Spindle Assembly Checkpoint complex (SAC), BubR1 inhibits the APC/Cdc20 until all chromosomes are properly aligned on metaphase plate. However, it is still unclear how the APC activity is controlled during meiosis. This paper has shown that BubR1 affects the stability of Cdh1 instead of Cdc20 during meiosis in mouse oocytes. This is a noteworthy finding in cell cycle study."

(and a special thank-you to Min-Young for being willing to present in her first year here at JHU!)

February 23, 2010 meeting

Lauren Matthews will be presenting at our next meeting.
Two things to note for this meeting:
TIME - 12:00 noon (we have switched from our 12:30 start time)
PLACE - E6519 (but just for this meeting)

And of course, also the paper! Lauren will be presenting:
Spindle Positioning in Mouse Oocytes Relies on a Dynamic Meshwork of Actin Filaments
Current Biology, 18: 1514-1519
Azoury et al.

Her comment on why she picked this:
"I like this paper because it focuses on how mouse oocytes position their spindle during meiosis. While it is well known that actin is required for spindle positioning, this group was the first to visualize the presence of a cytoplasmic actin meshwork in live mouse oocytes. Cool techniques coupled with some great egg biology = an awesome paper!"

Carnegie Symposium, April 29-30, 2010

A local conference of interest:

The 29th Carnegie symposium (organized by Carnegie post-doctoral fellows),
April 29-30 - Journey of the Germ Cell

There is an excellent line-up of speakers: Ruth Lehman, Jim Priess, Xin Chen, Richard Behringer, Tim Schedl, Gary Wessel, and Bill Sullivan.

Feb. 9 journal club POSTPONED - revised spring schedule

Due to Snowmageddon and the impending Snowmageddon II predicted for tomorrow (not to mention JHU being closed and classes canceled on Tuesday, Feb. 9), we will move Erin Stanley's journal club presentation. Schedule for the remainder of winter-spring will be:

Feb. 23 - Lauren Matthews (Evans lab) - E6519
March 9 - Min-Young Kim (Drummond-Barbosa lab) - W2303
March 23 - Erin Stanley (Zirkin lab) - W2303
April 6 - Mandy Gerolstein (Evans lab) - W2303
April 20 - Shiying Jin (Zirkin lab) - W2303
(May 4 - no RBJC; BMB dept. retreat)
May 18 - Jenn Wang (Seydoux lab) - W2303

Stay safe and warm, everybody!