Diversity, Policy, Research, Student-focused

Travelling the world: Research Lab Edition

By Roaa Alalwany, University of Nottingham

In the new internet age of social media and open source intelligence, our world is becoming much smaller. The scientific community is no exception. In the same way that businesses have thrived with international ventures, scientific research has achieved bigger and better things with our ever-growing global connections and collaborations. Long gone is the time when you could pick out the ‘goofy geek with the glasses’ out of a high-school line up predicting they would end up in a lab coat.

Continue reading Travelling the world: Research Lab Edition

Biochemical SocietyAugust 24, 2017October 31, 2017Leave a comment

Journal content, Research

Blood vessel growth and metabolic stress

By Sayan Chakraborty, Senior Researcher at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, A-STAR, Singapore

In our hectic modern lifestyle, we are constantly subjected to stress of many kinds including the stress experienced by our body from weight-gain. From the physiological perspective, these symptoms are managed by signalling molecules present in the body that control energy expenditure and form new blood vessels (angiogenesis) to cope with increased ‘cellular stress’ levels. These physiological consequences can be precursors to conditions such as type 2 diabetes, one symptom of which is increased angiogenesis.

Proliferative retinopathy, an advanced form of diabetic retinopathy, occurs when abnormal new blood vessels and scar tissue form on the surface of the retina. (Credit: National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, USA) Continue reading “Blood vessel growth and metabolic stress”