March 8, 2010
Category: Academia • HBCU • Race in Science and Society
Last week, the New York Times college admissions and aid blog, The Choice, solicited readers for questions on US historically-black colleges and universities (HBCUs). These 105 HBCUs, primarily in the southern US, were defined by the Higher Education Act of 1965 as institutions of higher learning established prior to 1964 whose principal mission was and is the education of black Americans.
Answering questions received last week are African-American education expert, Dr. Marybeth Gasman, of the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Walter Kimbrough, president of Philander Smith College, a private HBCU in Little Rock, Arkansas.
I admire both of these educators: Gasman's work has provided me with an education on the history and relevance of HBCUs and President Kimbrough is one of the youngest college presidents in the US, dedicated to "cultivating a new generation of academically accomplished and socially conscious African-American students." Kimbrough also maintains an active blog.
Both Gasman and Kimbrough were recognized by Diverse Issues in Higher Education among The Top 25 to Watch, a list that also included Princeton University professor and frequent TV commentator, Dr. Melissa Harris-Lacewell, who also writes for The Nation.
The first round of answers appear today at The Choice. Therein they tackle the first topic that comes up in any conversation, even among African Americans: what purpose do HBCUs serve today?
Read on »
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 6:02 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 7, 2010
Category: Colorado • HeLa • History • The Working Scientist • Women in science and medicine
This post is the second in a series on the origin and history of HeLa S3 cells. The first post can be found here. In this post, we discuss the life and careers (yes, careers) of the remarkable physician-scientist, Florence Rena Sabin.
"Too bad you're not a boy, you would have made a good doctor."
Florence Rena Sabin was born in the mining town of Central City, Colorado, on November 9, 1871, two years after her sister and lifelong companion, Mary. Florence's father. George Sabin, had moved from Vermont to Colorado in the midst of the Colorado gold rush and a notable 1859 gold strike between the towns of Central City and Black Hawk. Her mother, Serena (Rena) Miner (yes, Miner), was a Vermont school teacher in Savannah, Georgia who moved sight unseen to Black Hawk to respond to an ad for a schoolteacher. (This photograph of their home, like many in this post, are derived from The Florence R. Sabin Papers, freely available from the National Library of Medicine's Profiles in Science Collection.)
If you've driven I-70 from Denver International Airport to any number of Colorado ski areas, you have passed a highway specifically built to bring you to these two former mining towns for a different kind of gold: limited stakes casino gambling.
Tough, hardscrabble living in the mountains led the family to move to Denver while Mr. Sabin continued to work in the mining business. Sadly, the girls' mother died in childbirth in 1878 and George Sabin enrolled his daughters in a boarding school called Wolfe Hall, where both would later teach. Mr. Sabin recognized how deeply the girls were devastated by the loss of their mother and his long absences didn't help matters. The girls were sent to live with their uncle Albert in Chicago - though not the Albert Sabin of poliovirus vaccine fame. He brought them to visit and then ultimately live with their paternal grandparents in Saxtons River, Vermont.
I belabor this issue because it was then that Florence's grandmother remarked that one of their ancestors, Levi Sabin, had been a doctor and her father had attended medical school for two years before moving to seek his fortune in gold. Observing Florence's love of nature and biology, her grandmother remarked, "Too bad you're not a boy, you would have made a good doctor."
Florence apparently took this statement as a challenge, vowing to become a doctor anyway. She finished school in Vermont and attended Smith College where she was befriended by the school physician, Dr. Grace Preston. Preston took an interest in Florence, cultivating her interest in biology and chemistry and advising her about a new university in Baltimore whose medical school would be accepting women owing in part to an unusual turn of events.
Money talks: how wise women influenced a new medical school
Founder of that eponymous university, philanthropist Johns Hopkins, had counted on income from B&O; Railroad stock to establish the medical school and recruit faculty. (N.B., the peculiar extra S was because his first name was actually a family surname - source.) However, the 1890s were economically volatile times and Hopkins only had funds to open the hospital but not the medical school. As documented in the history of the university, four daughters of the university's original trustees offered to help, with conditions:
Martha Carey Thomas, Mary Elizabeth Garrett, Elizabeth King and Mary Gwinn, all unmarried, wealthy, well-educated and devoted to the new feminist movement - offered a deal. They would raise the $500,000 needed to open the school and pay for a medical school building, but only if the school would open its doors to qualified women. Arguments ensued, the pragmatists won out, and the women were given the go-ahead to try.
When the money was in hand by Christmas Eve, 1892, the Women's Fund Committee added a strategic twist, making new demands that even the staunchest opponents of a coeducational school could not reasonably refuse. Garrett - who as daughter of the head of the B&O; was able to donate about $350,000 to the effort herself - presented a list of stiff entrance requirements that would have to be met by any Hopkins applicant, male or female: proof of a bachelor's degree, proficiency in French, German and Latin, and a strong background in physics, chemistry and biology. Hopkins' leaders were taken aback; most of the demands appeared to have been lifted directly from an early letter by [first professor and dean, William Henry] Welch to University President Gilman - suggestions that even Welch, after he hired on, admitted he thought were impossible goals.
Yes, medical school standards varied widely at the time and these "impossible goals" pushed forward by the women established the new institution as one of the best in the United States.
To understand the prevailing attitude toward women in higher education, the following were the 1874 comments of Gilman's colleague Charles Eliot, president of Harvard University, who called coeducation "a thoroughly wrong idea which is rapidly disappearing," Hopkins trustees had Gilman call upon Eliot as a consultant on this issue:
"[S]tudents might fall in love, which could produce disastrous, socially unequal marriages; women would have trouble keeping up with the academic pace and hold up instruction for the men; the stress could prove so severe that the women might fall ill and destroy their chances of good marriages; and finally, a woman's future was so different from a man's that there was no point in educating them together."
Unfortunately, George Sabin's mining company in Denver was also suffering financially for many of the same reasons that the Hopkins railroad investments delayed opening of the medical school. The 1890s were volatile economic times not to be matched until The Great Depression. As such, Florence could not afford to attend medical school after graduating from Smith College in 1893 (her senior picture is shown to the left) and would have to assume financial responsibility for any future education.
As a result, Sabin came back to Denver to teach at Wolfe Hall, where her sister Mary was already working since her own graduation from Smith two years earlier. In 1895, Florence returned to Smith to teach and then received a fellowship during the summer of 1896 to work at the renowned Marine Biological Laboratories at Woods Hole on Cape Cod.
With these experiences and now-sufficient savings, Sabin was able to apply and be accepted to Johns Hopkins Medical School for the 1896-97 academic year. Exemplifying the commitment of Hopkins to training female physicians, Florence was one of 14 women in a class of 45.
What follows from her remarkable career is detailed at numerous sites on the web including a 1960 National Academies Press biography, the National Library of Medicine, and the Rockefeller Archive Center. But I detail these early life influences here because they are not widely accessible outside of archives at Smith College and the Colorado Historical Society and are covered only briefly in the 1960 National Academies biography. I learned most of the preceding story from a remarkable out-of-print 1990 book from a 50-book series entitled, American Women of Achievement. Written by New York freelance writer, Janet Kronstadt, this 101-page volume on Sabin can be purchased used on Amazon for only a few dollars, roughly the same cost as shipping.
The book and websites above chronicle the rest of Sabin's remarkable life of medical achievement and public service but I'll provide some of the highlights as follows.
Read on »
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 12:02 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 6, 2010
Category: Academia • Blogging community • Music • The Old North State
I want to get this quick shout-out for local hero, blogger, musician, and all around too-cool Princess Ojiaku before her band, Pink Flag, plays tonight at 10 pm in Durham, NC, at The Broad Street Cafe. From their website, "They're a regular three girl rhumba dancing on the common ground of a love of early post-punk, riot grrl and top 40 of the 1990s." Their name pays homage to the 1977 album by Wire (that also includes the song "Three Girl Rhumba"). I like these kids, paying proper respect to their elders.
Some of you may know Princess from having met her at ScienceOnline2010 in January or from her blog Science With Moxie. One of her recent posts, Music Emotions: Chill Edition, was selected as the PLoS Blog Pick of the Month for her review of, "The Rewarding Aspects of Music Listening Are Related to Degree of Emotional Arousal," by Valorie N. Salimpoor et al. She wrote:
When we get chills or feel intense pleasure when listening to music we enjoy, there is an actual range of bodily responses that go along with that! This seems like common sense, but this is important scientifically because having an actual, quantitative measure of the changes our bodies go through when experiencing good music opens doors to scientists thinking about other questions like, "why is music so unique that it causes actual emotional and physical arousal?"
Usually emotional responses have a definite function, such as joy from eating good food serves to keep us alive, or bonding with friends keeps us happy and connected to our fellow humans. Feeling these emotions helps us by making sure we keep doing the things that are good for our survival and well-being. But music is one of the only things that makes us happy without having a clear beneficial function to our survival as human beings. I think that makes it pretty special and interesting, and that makes me content to consume and play it.
And music she knows as she takes Spring Break away from the lab next week for a short tour with Pink Flag in Wilmington, NC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and NYC. Check out their MySpace site for dates and locations.
One last thing on this multi-talented scientist and musician: Princess was featured in a Wall Street Journal article last September on virtual internships. Typically wired, Princess found out about the internship via Twitter:
Princess Ojiaku, a graduate student studying biology at North Carolina Central University, wants to work in science policy. In July, she began a virtual internship of up to six months with Scientists & Engineers for America in Washington, D.C. She learned about the internship on Twitter, where she was following updates for the nonprofit group, which promotes awareness of science and technology issues to policy makers.
As part of her internship, Ms. Ojiaku spends 15 minutes to an hour each night tracking news articles, ads and poll results for this year's Virginia gubernatorial election, one of the elections the group is following. She posts updates on the group's Web site, including YouTube videos, campaign ads and summaries of the candidates' positions on science-related issues.
Ms. Ojiaku, who is considering being a lawmaker or policy adviser, says the internship has helped her learn about the legislative process and key players in Congress, without driving eight hours round-trip to Washington. "I'm getting an inside view," says the 25-year-old, who juggles the internship with classes and work as a graduate assistant in a university lab.
Damn. I'm tired just reading about everything she's doing.
Have a great show tonight and safe travels on your Northeast tour!
Readers can follow Princess O on Twitter @artfulaction, on her blog Science with Moxie, and at her band's MySpace or ReverbNation sites.
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 6:23 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Colorado • History • The Working Scientist • Women in science and medicine
When I first started my independent academic laboratory in 1992, it was in a brand new facility across the parking lot from a then 40-year-old building named in honor of the woman to the right. I took on a big teaching load from day one and while I had some cash left from the $50,000 start-up package, I didn't hire a technician immediately. So it fell upon me to do all the ordering of the basic supplies to get the operation rolling. No problem, right? I ordered much of my own stuff as a postdoc so it should be no problem to get everything I need to start the lab from scratch.
One of the most common buffers used in molecular and cell biology labs is "Tris," short for a base called tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane. By adding different amounts of hydrochloric acid to it, you can create buffers from pH 6.8 to pH 9 so it's pretty versatile.
So, I opened the old Sigma catalog (this was when companies were only just starting to get their catalogs online). There were five varieties of Tris and nine varieties of Trizma®, Sigma's brand of Tris base (there are now six and 15, respectively).
So which do I order? The ACS reagent grade >99.8%, the JIS special grade >99% or do I go for the BioUltra Trizma?
But the Bioultra Trizma comes in two forms, one for molecular biology and another for luminescence. I definitely needed a molecular biology grade tested RNase-free that I could also use for cell culture.
Hmmm, how 'bout the "Biotechnology Performance Certified, meets EP, USP testing specifications, cell culture tested, ≥99.9% (titration)."
And so, for each chemical I needed to start the lab I had to go through and evaluate why I needed one form over another, and what the difference was between all of the terminology.
When it came time to bring in the cultured cell lines for my work, I decided that I was going to start all of my cultures from an original, traceable stock obtained directly from a cell repository instead of the more common practice of soliciting colleagues around campus for hand-me-downs of their established lines. You never know where someone's cells have been, how long they might have been passaged, whether they have been cross contaminated, or if they have latent mycoplasma infections.
So I knew I needed HeLa cells - those ones we're hearing all about these days from Rebecca Skloot's New York Times-bestselling book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, about the 31-year-old rural black woman whose cervical carcinoma gave rise to the first immortalized human cell line.
The two most common vendors for original cell culture stock are the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) and the Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen (DSMZ), or German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures. There are others, including major national research institutes, and dozens of other vendors have modified cells for a variety of specialized uses.
ATCC is a private, non-profit organization that traces its roots back to 1925 when scientists realized a need for a central laboratory that distributed certified strains of microorganisms. If you isolate your own cell line that you wish to make available to the scientific community, you can deposit it with ATCC and they will handle requests for it from other investigators, using sales fees to support their operation.
Not only does ATCC serve as a central repository but it also contributes to the continuity of the biomedical research enterprise. I had a physician-scientist colleague a few years back who was closing his research lab and moving to private oncology practice. But he had developed a series of very useful drug-resistant clonal populations of two, common human leukemia lines. These are very useful cells for investigating why cancer cells develop tolerance to drug therapy but since there would be no one left to distribute them, he deposited them with ATCC (example).
OK, so back to 1992: I open the ATCC catalog (again, before it was online) and, hmm, you've got HeLa cells (catalog designation CCL-2). Great. Let's order 'em up.
But then there are also HeLa 229 (CCL-2.1), and HeLa S3 (CCL-2.2).
Hrumph. I just want some freakin' HeLa cells - what's up with these other ones? They all kind of look the same, all from the same woman, all grown in the same medium.
So what the difference?
In her Los Angeles Times interview last month, Skloot remarked that the Lacks book began with a manuscript she was planning to meet the requirements of her MFA at the University of Pittsburgh:
"I was in class, and I got out a piece of paper and I wrote at the top 'Forgotten Women in Science,' " she remembers. She planned to do 12 essays. "Number 1, I wrote Henrietta Lacks, and then I was like, hmmm."
So over a series of posts this weekend, I wish to tell you about a woman in science indirectly related to HeLa cells. She may not necessarily qualify as a "forgotten woman of science" but her story is perhaps not well-appreciated today because her contributions occurred so long ago.
Florence Rena Sabin, MD (1871 - 1953), a daughter of a Colorado coal mining family, became a female pioneer in medicine and public health. With the simple notation of "S3" she is forever linked to the first clonal population of these cervical cancer cells from the poor Virginia tobacco farmer.
Image credit: Sabin color portrait from Women in the Rockefeller Archive Center
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 11:40 AM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 5, 2010
Category: Women in science and medicine
While I'm hammering out The-Post-That-Will-Never-Finish related to National Women's History Month (U.S.), let me draw your attention to the homepage of NobelPrize.org.
The entire frontpage is devoted to interviews and stories from women Nobelists spanning from 1903 to present.
The idea of an International Women's Day first arose at the turn of the 20th century and the event is now celebrated annually on 8 March. This week Nobelprize.org pays tribute to the 35 female Nobel Laureates, who, by their work in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Peace, have contributed great benefits to mankind.
Moreover, Nobel Laureate of the Week is my cancer chemotherapy & chemist hero, Gertrude (Trudy) Elion, who shared the 1988 prize in Physiology or Medicine - and without a PhD, mind you.
Go! Now!
Then you may debate below their use of of the word, "mankind."
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 9:02 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 4, 2010
Category: Blogging community • Career development
Looking all shiny and spiffy today are our colleagues over at the blogging network hosted by Nature. After some downtime to install a new blogging platform, Movable Type 4, Nature Network blogs are back with a much more pleasing aesthetic and a more user-friendly interface.
For those readers who don't have their own blog, the publishing software behind the scenes makes a big difference in how easily (or not) you can post text, photos and multimedia, and add all sorts of widgets and personalization features. I started, for example, on Blogspot with the Blogger interface (owned by Google) but had I to do it over again today I would have used Wordpress where, for example, our favorite literary bartender scribbler50 works his weekly shift at Behind The Stick. Both of these are free services that allow you to start a blog in literally 30 min. Wordpress also has a local version of their software you can use to further personalize blog templates and host a more SEO version of your blog.
If this is gibberish to you, just go over to the new Nature Networks interface. It now has a nice Recent Posts list analogous to the Last 24 Hours feature at ScienceBlogs.That was actually the original frontpage of ScienceBlogs when launched in January 2006 and I still find that to be the more useful for a quick look at things than the main frontpage here.
But some cool stuff Nature Networks now has is a Most Commented page to follow the posts with the most involved conversations, a Recent Comments page, and a Popular Blogs tab that permits one to list blogs by activity (which I assume to mean page views), ascending and descending alphabetical order, and by the wonderfully British term: recency.
One still is required to register to comment at Nature Network blogs, a feature that for good or for bad is generally an energy-of-activation barrier for some that limits the conversation. But what I *love* about the new Nature Network format is that I can read the type. The default text is a larger and nicer font than what I have here and there is some white space between the lines that makes it more friendly to my 40-ish eyes. (By the way, bloggers can alter their text settings here to make the appearance more friendly as does Revere(s) at Effect Measure but I don't yet know enough HTML to work on my own custom style sheet, or CSS).
Here's a nice example of the text from my fellow Colorado expat colleague, Kristi Vogel at The Gulf Stream. You've got a nice wide main text column and then two right-hand column for profiles, widgets, and other typical blog detritus. It also looks as though bloggers will have more opportunity to personalize the appearance of their blogs to provide better distinguishing between the writers and cultivation of their personal brand.
Oh yeah, and there's content as well. For a nice example, take a gander at this insightful post by Dr. Eva Amsen at her blog, Expression Patterns, on why she chose not to do a postdoctoral fellowship.
So, happy day to you my colleagues at Nature Network blogs. Enjoy your shiny new toy!
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 9:02 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 2, 2010
Category: Humor • The Old North State
The NCAA basketball season traditionally brings to the Piedmont region of North Carolina the Tobacco Road battles between the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University, the private school in Durham about 12 miles to the northwest (actually 10.79 miles from the Dean Dome to Cameron Indoor Stadium).
But what I'm wondering is why a coal war hasn't erupted between the two institutions.
In the last couple of weeks, much hand-wringing has occurred on the UNC campus regarding the fact that the campus burns coal to generate heat for the university buildings. Rather than burning it in eastern Tennessee or western North Carolina where the mercury and sulfur dioxide can be left unseen with poor Appalachian folk, it came to light the the state's flagship university burns coal on its campus. Most of the discussion centered on whether or not UNC buys their coal from companies known to use the environmentally-less friendly approach of mountaintop removal. This latest discussion was sparked, as it were, during a recent visit by climate scientist James Hansen and an accompanying rally by local members of the Sierra Club.
It seems to have come as a revelation to some that the university uses coal as an energy source. Yet activists are pushing for a "coal-free UNC."
Uhhhh, suuure. Let's put a nuclear power plant in Carrboro. (for those outside NC, think Boulder, Berkeley, Bozeman)
But rather than pointing fingers at one another across the UNC campus, Tar Heels should look in solidarity across town at a common enemy: their archrival, Duke.
Back when I was well enough to go to Duke's Medical Center library, I would drive up Coal Pile Drive to see if there was any short-term parking. Yes, Coal Pile Drive (map):
Hey, Tar Heels! Duke has a big-ass pile of coal that they burn too! Right across the street from all kinds of research labs from neurobiology to their institute for the environment.
Rather than examine one's own inevitable need for coal and lack of any plausible alternative, blame Duke.
Does it solve the problem? No.
But doesn't it just feel better to blame Duke?
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 8:02 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Journalists, Awesome • Religion
Great news came across my RSS reader the other day that author and journalist, Chris Mooney, was among twelve journalists selected by the John Templeton Foundation for an intensive two-month fellowship on the relationship between science and religion. The Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellowships in Science & Religion provide financial support for scholars to study at their home institution and engage with US and European scholars at the University of Cambridge UK to "promote a deeper understanding and more informed public discussion of this complex and rapidly evolving area of inquiry."
As one might suspect, the vast majority of the 239 comments at Chris's blog post contain vitriol and bile that Chris would take such tainted money as that from the Templeton Foundation because the organization is partisan and this will forever constitute a conflict of interest, that Chris has formally left science, how dare he still call himself a journalist...blah-dee-blah.
As my colleague PhysioProf is wont to say: Bring out the fainting couch and some vapors.
I think all of us in the biomedical sciences know investigators who have taken funding from the tobacco industry before it was fashionable not to and very few of them have tied down friends and neighbors and forced them to smoke cigarettes.
And wait. How is it that 2% of the US population and 0.25% of the world population is Jewish yet 27% and 28% of Nobel laureates in Physiology/Medicine or Chemistry, respectively, are Jewish? Seems more consistent, although not causal, that a little religion helps your science.
Read on »
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 12:02 PM • 16 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 28, 2010
Category: Chronic Illness • Personal
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about being stricken with pneumonia and my reflections on what it must be like for people who live continually with chronic illnesses. I was surprised by the response from many readers, quite a few of whom I've never seen comment here, who voiced understanding and even relief that a "normal" would take the time to reflect on what their life might be like.
Well, my illness is continuing even longer than my pulmonologist had expected and this has evoked for me a whole new layer of emotions. I write the following not for sympathy or concern, but rather for the Medicine and Health channel of ScienceBlogs to give voice to those much worse off than I who may not otherwise have a voice in our national health care dialogue.
A note of warning for those who read me regularly: the following will include foul language, disgust, hopelessness, and possibly disturbing thoughts you may not normally associate with me. These are the rants of a blogger who has been confined to bed for just over six weeks. As a result, the rest of the post is below the fold.
Read on »
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 8:08 PM • 25 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
