The phenomenon of regeneration has fascinated scientists for hundreds of years. But until the last decade, scientists haven’t had the molecular and genetic tools to unravel its mysteries. These advances have changed the landscape of regenerative biology – particularly so at the MDI Biological Laboratory. Though limb regeneration has been studied at the laboratory since…
Read MoreGuest post by James Coffman, Ph.D., Associate Professor; Director, Maine IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE)
Psychosocial stress can be toxic, as occurs with long-term abuse or extreme trauma, or when you are “stressed out” from struggling to cope with chronically adverse circumstances. Such stress, which is increasingly endemic to many communities and is currently being exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has been shown to contribute to a wide array of…
Read MoreResidents of Maine and New Hampshire rely heavily on private wells for their drinking water, but how safe is that water? Few have their wells tested and some standard tests in ME do not include arsenic, which is a problem in New England coastal arsenic belt. MDIBL Senior Staff Scientist, Jane Disney, Ph.D. and visiting…
Read MoreGuest post by Joel Graber, Ph.D., Senior Staff Scientist, Director of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Core
In the last post, we discussed RNA-seq, which is the state-of-the art method for obtaining genome-scale measurements of gene expression, which in turn lets us characterize the differences between the samples in an experiment. To be very explicit, the primary result of the initial analysis is an assessment of whether not each gene in the…
Read MoreOn Thursday, July 23, 2020 we held the 122nd Annual Meeting of the MDI Biological Laboratory. The last year has been a busy and productive year at the Lab, and despite the disruption of COVID-19, we are moving ahead with confidence and determination toward our goals. Some highlights outlined in this year’s Annual Meeting include:…
Read MoreAnecdata.org is an MDIBL designed and developed free web platform that engages citizen scientists to collect, manage and share their data for more than 200 projects across the globe. A core team of four have worked to constantly improve the platform since its inception and there had been numerous conversations about how internships, if set…
Read MoreGuest post by Joel Graber, Ph.D., Senior Staff Scientist, Director of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Core
But what exactly is it and why does science need it? Modern biology is hugely data intensive. In a typical experiment, the data collected for just a single sample often reaches thirty million or more individual pieces of information. If a person, or even a team of people, spent just one second looking at each…
Read MoreChris Sighinolfi credits his time at the MDI Biological Laboratory with leaving an indelible mark on his worldview. “It was an experience that challenged my thinking, broadened my perspective and reinforced the importance of having an open, curious mind,” says Sighinolfi. He has chosen to give back to the laboratory as a donor and…
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