Bascom		Whitelam

Whitelam, Bascom Take 30th Runaround Honors

Steve Whitelam, a chemist in Phillip Geissler’s soft condensed matter group, and Jamie Bascom, a postdoc in Mina Bissell’s cancer research program in Life Sciences, were the top men’s and women’s finishers in the 2007 SHARES Runaround on Friday. Whitelam finished the 3-kilometer course in 9:26, winning on his second try. Four-time winner Dula Parkinson (9:50) was the only other runner to finish under 10 minutes. Bascom, a three-time Runaround winner (’99, ’01, ’04), finished as the top female in the race with a time of 12:24, just ahead of Caroline Ajo-Franklin (13:16), a scientist at the Molecular Foundry, and Becka Jones (13:26), a graduate researcher in Eugene Haller’s materials group and last year’s winner. Results will be posted here when available.

Retirement Talk
Today at 11:30 a.m.

A talk on retirement investing by Joseph Hagar of FITSCo takes place today at 11:30 a.m. in the Building 50 Auditorium. From 12:30 to 2:30 p.m., Hagar will be in the cafeteria lobby to answer additional questions.

Personal DNA Sequence Could be Useful One Day

This opinion piece, by Berkeley Lab physical bioscientist Steven Brenner, appears in the current issue of Nature Magazine

Brenner

Revelation of the complete DNA sequences of James Watson and J. Craig Venter elicited headlines in recent months, but most press reports struggled to offer meaningful interpretations. Put simply, even we in the scientific community can't easily come to grips with what we know. The effects of gene variations are scattered in hundreds of databases, across hundreds of interpretative reports in clinical laboratories, and among millions of manuscripts and patent applications. I propose establishing a Genome Commons, a public knowledgebase of human genetic variation and its effect, culled from databases, diagnostic laboratories, and the scientific literature. Full story.

Normal bacteria, left, can't grow with toxic gene inserted, right

Genome Data Reanalysis
Solves Lethal Genes Case

Genomic data that goes unnoticed, despite its widespread availability, can reveal extraordinary insights to the discerning eye. Such is the case of a systematic analysis by the Joint Genome Institute of the massive backlog of microbial genome sequences from the public databases.  The survey identified genes that kill the bacteria employed in the sequencing process and throw a microbial wrench in the works.  It also offers a possible strategy for the discovery of new antibiotics.  Full story.

Slight Price Increase
At Cafeteria Required

Due to the rising costs of products, shipping, and labor, the cafeteria will implement a small price increase. “We hope the Lab community understands the necessity for this and knows that we appreciate their continued patronage,” says cafeteria manager Victoria Fassano.  In other cafeteria news, customers will be able to pay for food and coffee purchases using their ATM or credit card starting today.

Lab and Campus Calendars Have Been Connected

Lab employees can now invite UC Berkeley staff to meetings and reserve UC Berkeley conference rooms using the Lab’s Calendar system.  The IT Division recommends that users change their calendar preferences to enable "/LBNL" to be shown after each Lab employee's name. Instructions are shown here. Go here for more information.