Physiology

The Unexpected Ingredient That Will Majorly Upgrade Your Fish Recipes – Mashed

Unless you're lucky enough to eat fish straight off the dock, it will have a certain level of "fishiness." But the odor isn't synonymous with the fish going bad; it's just science. Thanks to the physiology of fish, a compound called trimethylamine (TMA) is produced when fish die, which is responsible for that "fishy" smell.

According to Cook's Illustrated, soaking fish in milk for 20 minutes will neutralize and remove the offensive odor. The protein in milk, casein, binds to the TMA. After 20 minutes, the milk is drained, taking the TMA with it and leaving a sweet-smelling filet in its place. Susan Olayinka uses this method when preparing her pan-seared swordfish recipe. She notes that milk also tenderizes dense fish and leaves a mellower flavor. Just pat the fish dry and continue with your recipe.

Although freshwater fish, such as trout and catfish, don't get as "fishy" as ocean fish, they can have a "muddy" smell, which isn't pleasant either. Blue-green algaein surface waters where it's warm, shallow, and sunny can produce a toxin that penetrates the fish's skin, causing that smell. With these types of fish, adding an acid, such as lemon juice or vinegar, should remove any offensive odors, perNutrition.

Try this unexpected ingredient the next time you prepare salmon, shellfish, or even the uber-stinky bluefish. It'll save your home from smelling like fish, and maybe you'll convert your carnitarian at home, too.

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The Unexpected Ingredient That Will Majorly Upgrade Your Fish Recipes - Mashed

Physiology

Obesity in America: Seeking answers to nation’s overweight epidemic – USA TODAY

More than 4 in 10Americans now fit the medical definition for having obesity, putting them at risk for serious health problems, including diabetes, heart disease and some types of cancer.The pandemic increased the stakes. In its first year, nearly one-third of severe COVID-19 cases were blamed on excess weight.

USA TODAY decided to take a look at how Americas weight has been changing in recent years, including advances in treatments and the scientific understanding of obesity. We spoke with more than 50 experts in nutrition, endocrinology, psychology, exercise physiology and neuroscience and people who are intimately familiar with the challenges of extra pounds.

The answers arent simple.

But they get to the essence of America: our issues with race, stigma, personal responsibility, economic stability and the power of corporations.

Many people feel shame and guilt when they can't lose weight. Human biology, which evolved to hold onto extra calories, makes it extremely tough to lose weight on your own. Help is hard to find, but it is out there.

Obesity was long considered a personal failing. Science shows it's not.

Despite rising rates of overweight and obesity,the stigma of excess weight remains in virtually every aspect of society. Some people are fighting back, but it isn't easy to counter decades of stereotyping and falsely simple solutions.

Extra weight increases health risk in the long run. Fat shaming hurts now.

Biology makes it hard to lose weight. Our food environment makes it very easy to add excess pounds. What to eat if you're trying to shed that extra weight or avoid unnecessary pounds? Scientists are still searching for answers.

What we eat matters. Researchers are still searching for the 'best' diet.

Extra weight is often considered a personal failing, but lots of factors beyond an individual's power contribute to weight gain,including food deserts, the cost of healthy food, stress and prejudice. The situation isn't hopeless.

Americans don't choose to be fat. Many live within a 'system they don't control.'

Until recently, the only way to lose a substantial amount of weight was through surgery. New medications promise to change that,offering the possibility of shedding 15% to more than 20% of excess pounds. The challenge will be making these medicationsavailable to those who want them.

New drugs and surgery can deliver major weight loss. But they come at a cost.

Any solutionwill have to start with children, experts say. Starting almost from birth, kids learnpatternsthey follow for the rest of their lives, so there's a lot at stake in teaching them to eat healthy, exercise regularly and get enough sleep.

How will the obesity epidemic end? With kids.

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Obesity in America: Seeking answers to nation's overweight epidemic - USA TODAY

Physiology

I used this device to track my metabolism for a month here’s what happened – Tom’s Guide

If youve ever heard someone say, I just have a slow metabolism, chances are they dont actually know that for sure. And really, it may not be slow per se, but ratherto cop Lumens terminology inflexible.

Created by twin sisters and Ironman triathletes, Merav and Michal Mor, both of whom have PhDs in Physiology (total underachievers, right?), Lumen emanated from the Mors desire to help people reach their nutrition, performance, and/or weight loss goals by rejiggering their metabolisms. The premise is that if you know at key moments if youre burning mostly carbohydrates or fat (or a combo platter of both), you can determine what your body needs to function optimallyaka personalized nutrition.

Typically to gauge ones metabolic rate, an individual must undergo expensive testing in a lab setting. However, Lumen says they bring you an equivalentor at least scientifically supported (opens in new tab)at-home option whereby you can measure your own metabolism whenever you want, all thanks to the sleek little breathalyzer you receive when you sign up for the program.

To find out more, I tried Lumen for a month to see whether the claims were correct. Read my full Lumen review below to find out more.

Looking to invest in your health? Check out our best smart scales guide, our best fitness trackers, and the best adjustable dumbbells for working out at home.

To understand what any of this means to you, we need to take a second to explain how the Lumen device harnesses the tenets of metabolic science.

Basically, Lumen measures your metabolism/metabolic rate based on the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in your breath. The higher your CO2 concentration, the more you are burning carbs for fuel. This is because when your cells metabolize carbs, they produce more CO2 compared to when they metabolize fat.

If you went in for a professional lab test to have your metabolism measured, you would get back your Respiratory Exchange Ratio (RER), which is the amount of CO2 exhaled divided by the amount of oxygen (O2) inhaled. That number ultimately lets you know your metabolic efficiency.

With this in mind, its easier to understand the premise of Lumen, which is that you can now get your RER anytime you want by breathing into your Lumen, no lab test required. A high CO2 reading means youre burning carbs, a low CO2 number indicates youre torching fat.

But is it accurate? Lumen says its validity as a metabolism measuring device has been reaffirmed by a San Francisco State University study (opens in new tab). However, this definitely seems to be a product that continues refinement the longer its on the market (it debuted in 2020).

But how do you use your RER number in day-to-day life? This is where the hacking your metabolism part finally comes into play. The ultimate goal of Lumen users is to achieve metabolic flexibility, a term coined by the company that basically means your metabolism becomes more efficient at burning fat and not just carbs for energy. If youre in the Lumen fat-burning mode more often, they claim it becomes easier to lose weight and stay lean.

Just like your muscles become fitter with regular workouts, apparently so does your metabolism if you pay attention to how your body switches between burning carbs and fats. And if you can get yourself into a state of metabolic flexibility, Lumen says youll end up with a whole bunch of rewards, such as:

Easier weight loss and maintenanceBetter lean mass/muscle building Deeper sleepImproved energyStable blood sugar levelsHigher immunity Enhanced physical performance

Lumen is only available as a subscription service through the Lumen website (opens in new tab). You get the Lumen device for free along with your paid subscription. Pricing is as follows:

6 Month Metabolism Booster = $249

12 Month Advanced Fat Burn = $299

18 Month Optimal Health Track = $349

There is a 30-day money-back guarantee and a 1-year warranty on the device.

The small square starter box comes with the Lumen device, its docking station, a USB cable for charging, a travel pouch, and the Lumen App Getting Started Guide.

The latter part is especially important because, without the corresponding app, youre honestly going to be kind of lost. The written directions included with the Lumen are pretty paltry, and this is one Lumen component that could be strengthened. It gives basic instructions for how to charge and turn it on, but it doesnt give you any of the info I just spelled out for you in the first part of the article.

While my Lumen was charging, I turned my attention to getting the Lumen app set up. It links to your device via Bluetooth, so this is an integral step for using the Lumen.

You have to begin by creating an account and then answering a battery of lifestyle and physiology questions. This requires quite a bit of time and must all be done manually. During the setup process, you are not only asked to input things like height and current weight but also estimated hours of sleep and daily exercise habits.

I found this frustrating because while Im super active, my exercise routine changes daily and I dont always know what my workout will entail ahead of time. You can go back and edit some of this later, but as I was filling it out in the beginning, I did feel a little hampered trying to structure my workout schedule.

It is possible to link Lumen to your Apple Health, Google Fit, or Garmin IQ account if you have one (which might give you even more accurate readings for activity levels and such). But since I didnt have any of those, I was left doing everything by hand.

Once all your basic data has been collected, you have to select your track. There are three options: Metabolic Health, Fitness Performance, and Healthy Weight Loss. I decided to select Healthy Weight Loss to start.

The app also allows women to track their monthly cycles, which could be great information to have when examining metabolic shifts. However, with the current restrictions that have just been levied surrounding female reproductive health and privacy, if youre a woman in the United States, unfortunately, you may wish to leave that feature toggled off.

Once my Lumen was fully charged (as indicated by a green light while its cradled in the docking station), I set about pairing it with my Lumen app. Bluetooth capability is required to get these two to talk to each other, but I had no issues once I powered my Lumen on.

Specifications

Weight: 75 gHeight: 10.2 cmMaterials: Soft-touch with a magnetically attached cap over metal mouthpiece

I continued to be impressed by the quality of the actual device. Though admittedly it looks like an oversized vape, its really solid and well constructed. As a portable and hand-held device, it is light while still encasing a pressure sensor and a CO2 sensor within its ergonomic casing.

If you want to keep your Lumen clean, do NOT wash it. Thatll tank the whole device. But since youre blowing into it sometimes several times per day, youll benefit by occasionally wiping down the metallic mouthpiece with an antibacterial wipe. And though you could technically share your Lumen by setting up separate accounts within a family, you probably dont want to (hello, Covid and other shared cooties).

In the app there is a breathing tutorial Lumen advertisements say it takes only 10 seconds to get a measurement, but you have to inhale for 10 seconds, hold your breath for 10 seconds, and then exhale for 10 seconds. Thats 30 seconds by my count. And usually you have to do that twice to get an accurate reading (waiting 15 seconds between each test).

The app has a helpful little bouncing ball you are coached to get in the center of a circle to make sure youre not breathing too hard, too soft, or too fast. I definitely didnt get it right the first few times I tried.

This is probably why they explicitly encourage you to be seated and relaxed before taking a measurement. Rookie tip, dont let out too much air at once when they let you finally exhale or youll run out of air before time is up.

Fortunately, after some practice I got pretty good at it. Mastering this step is vital, however. Because all your subsequent measurements are based on your breathing skills.

Your Daily Measurements

Once you start breathing into your Lumen at regular intervals, each time you take a reading youll be given an assigned score on a five-point scale. That number tells you whether youre burning mostly fat (1, 2), mostly carbs (4, 5), or carbs and fat (3).

Once you take your morning measurement (which should happen before you eat or drink anything), predicated on your goals, the app will also give you an assignment of a low-carb, medium-carb, or high-carb day. It comes with recommendations for the maximum number of grams you should ingest of carbs, protein, and fatyour macros for that day. It also has recipe suggestions in the app, but Id be kind of surprised if most people are trolling the app for recipe ideas.

Theoretically, if you have good metabolic flexibility, fast overnight and have burned off all your carbs from the previous day successfully, you should be fuelling your energetic needs mostly with fat in the morning. If not, then your diet needs adjusting. Or so goes the nutritional logic of this thing.

Lumen definitely encourages intermittent fasting. Though not a keto program (because they believe you sometimes do need carbs to keep your metabolism guessing and not storing them), it also seems to heavily lean towards a prescription for low-carb eating at least if weight loss is your selected track.

Also, to get your most accurate readings, youre supposed to enter every gram you eat at every meal of each macro (which you have to do manually). If counting grams of carbs isnt something you want to partake in, youre probably not going to see much of a shift in your results over time, especially since Lumen seems to be set up such that you get a better score if youre burning more fat than carbs.

Your Flex Score

Nothing about this process is quick and patience is necessary. Lumen has to become a habit, and they say it takes 30 days to create a new one of those, right?

At the very least, its going to take two weeks of consistent measurements before you get your first Flex Score. By Lumens definition, your Flex Score is a number between 0-21 that tells you how well your body is working with what youre putting in your mouth, and also what your metabolic flexibility is at this juncture. Heres what the different scores mean:

0-6 (Low metabolic flexibility)7-14 (Medium metabolic flexibility)15-21 (High metabolic flexibility)

When I started this about three weeks ago, I automatically assumed my metabolic flexibility would be high. Im lean and very athletic, eat well, and workout daily. Oh, how wrong I was.

Part of the issueor so I thoughtwas that the minute I started doing my daily measurements, I had an unexpected work assignment take me out of town. So instead of my usual healthy diet and routine, I was eating haphazardly (not poorly per se, but inconsistently) and sleeping erratically (thanks stress and a crazy schedule). As a result, I didnt feel my first week of measurements were remotely indicative of my bodys usual tempo.

In a panic, I wrote to see if I could reset my Lumen (you can message a Lumen expert any time you want in the Support Chat part of the app, which is admittedly a nice feature). I just wanted to start the whole thing over. Unfortunately, I was told no. I couldnt reset my Lumen, but I was, however, offered a free one-on-one onboarding session with a Lumen representative if I wanted help (every new subscriber can take advantage of that).

I was told I shouldnt worry because my Lumen would continue to learn more about me once I kept taking measurements. But I was worried. Once I was home, I still continued to get no less than a 3 on a morning reading. Ever. And most of the time on subsequent daily readings (like before and after workouts), I was still only in the carb-burning territory. And this felt incredibly frustrating.

Accountability

If youre someone who is ready to make a change in your dietary habits and youre willing to put in the effort, Lumen does make you more aware of what youre eating and how its affecting your body.

But you really have to be dedicated to all of it, not only breathing into the device several times a day. That means keeping a detailed food log, recording every minute you work out, updating your weight, watching how many hours you sleep, etc. And its a lot of work.

For some people, however, unless they have that kind of accountability, they wont ever stick to a diet. Lumen absolutely makes you pay attention to what youre eating, how much youre eating, and how the timing affects your metabolism.

There are also lots and lots of videos in the app to help you learn more about how to get the most out of your Lumen experience. And youll get emails with webinars you can attend on different nutrition topics.

Additionally, it offers a Facebook community users can join with 20,000 other Lumeners. You can think of it like your own Lumen support group. Individuals who want tips and a group they can chat with while working on their diet may find this additionally motivating.

I am a very disciplined human by nature. I was eating clean, working out hard, fasting overnight, sleeping for eight hours, and still waking up with my first measurement at a 3, 4, or 5. Then Id get a message that said Your body is good at burning carbs. Now lets get it to fat burn mode and Id want to throw the thing.

Eventually, I started to wonder if it was partly because I was never entering anything in my food log. But as someone who spent too many years counting every single calorie she ate, I felt really resistant to having to count and record every single gram of food I ingested. While that may help some people with portion control, its not a healthy way of eating for me personally.

However, that undoubtedly affects your ability to achieve Lumens definition of metabolic flexibility. Not paying attention to their macro suggestions will absolutely influence your score and subsequent daily recommendations. In my first three weeks with the Lumen, not once did it tell me I could have anything other than a low-carb day until I switched my track from Healthy Weight Loss to Metabolic Health and got one medium-carb day prescription.

When I got my first Flex Score after weeks of consistent morning measurements, it was barely registering Medium for metabolic flexibility.

None of that felt like I was winning with the Lumen, in spite of the encouraging messages the app kept sending me. And trust me, Im all for a cheerleader, but if youre not getting the results you think you should be getting, well I might be guilty of having said Yeah, whatever Lumen, more than once between breaths.

This is a fancy little device, but know that its not going to automatically fix your metabolism for you just because youre breathing into it on the regular. The Lumen is one piece of an overall program.

Does it work? If were talking about the actual Lumen itself, yes. Absolutely. This machine is the first portable metabolism measurement device on the market, and it seems to have a reasonable degree of accuracy. But if you want to lose weight and not just to see how your body is burning what you eat, then youve got to commit to the whole program. That includes taking breath tests several times a day, but also manually entering all the data it requires and following your personalized dietary prescription to the gram.

In other words, dont expect your Lumen to give you results just because youre good about breathing into it any more than youd expect your scale to suddenly drop in pounds just because you get on it regularly. Its a measurement tool, not a magic wand. Your success with Lumen is completely reliant on what you do with it and how dedicated you are to all the components.

If youre someone who needs accountability, motivation, feedback, and a lot of group support, then this is definitely a novel new way of learning about your body and how what you eat affects it. But dont expect the process to be uncomplicated. If you decide to make the significant investment, plan for a less quick fix and more Lumen long-haul.

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I used this device to track my metabolism for a month here's what happened - Tom's Guide

Biochemistry

How Paleo is using biochemistry to bring plant-based mammoth meat to consumers – Food Dive

Meat alternative makers are working to create products that look, feel, taste and smell like the products consumers are already familiar with.

Belgian startup Paleo is developing an ingredient that will create an entirely new taste sensation: plant-based wooly mammoth.

The company creates different animal heme proteins through precision fermentation. Heme, an iron-rich protein found in the muscles of animals, is a substance that helps provide meat with its trademark taste. Paleo can use fermentation to make heme that is normally found in beef, chicken, pork, lamb, tuna and, yes, wooly mammoth.

You can describe it as being more meaty, said Co-founder and CEO Hermes Sanctorum.Mammoth heme has a stronger aroma and taste, he said though it usually depends on the ingredients its being used with, as well as its application.

But Paleo isnt just out there to resurrect tastes from the ancient past and add them to tomorrows soy and pea analogs. Its heme proteins can also customize alternative versions of the food many meat-loving consumers enjoy today, making them more likely to make sustainable and kinder choices, Sanctorum said.

Sanctorum acknowledges he is impatient. A bioengineer and former member of Belgiums Federal Parliament, he left politics because it took too long for things to get done.He said he is a firm believer in the power of cultivated meat, but it will still take years to get to the scale in which it can make a difference in what people eat. Plant-based food is here and available, but making the products taste like something consumers would want is a challenge, Sanctorum said.

Since heme is such an important part of taste in meat, if you want to make plant-based foods taste more like meat,it makes sense to add heme to it, Sanctorum said.

Because Paleo uses precision fermentation, its heme ingredients are identical to whats found in the corresponding animals. (Or, in the case of wooly mammoth, what would be found.) Its patent application was recently published by the World Intellectual Property Organization. Sanctorum said the company is currently talking with some food manufacturers, and its ingredient could be on the market as soon as next year.

Heme protein plays two vital roles in meat, Sanctorum said. It provides the characteristic meaty taste that consumers are used to. But it also makes iron bio-available. Both of those aspects are vital for meat analogs, he said.

It's taste, which is very important for a consumer preference, but it's also about health, nutritional value, so it's a good and healthy protein, Sanctorum said.

A small amount of heme protein can make a great impact on a plant-based products taste and nutrition, he said.

Paleo co-founders Hermes Sanctorum and Andy de Jong.

Courtesy of Paleo

Paleo, which Sanctorum founded with medical doctor Andy de Jong, uses precision fermentation technology to create this protein without any animal. It modifies yeasts to produce these specific heme proteins when fermented. And, Sanctorum said, this method gets around Europes strict restrictions around genetically modified food though whether it would be considered a GMO product by consumers or other groups is an open question.

There are already alternative heme ingredients out there. Impossible Foods has one for its products that comes from soy and is made through precision fermentation, and Motif FoodWorks launched its Hemami ingredient late last year. But Paleo is the only company with a portfolio of different heme choices, Sanctorum said.

Sanctorum said it was important to come out with several heme protein options because customers will be making different products and have different needs. The proteins are generally similar from animal to animal, but Sanctorum said that there are differences in things like amino acid composition or compounds. The work of designing the heme proteins is done through biochemistry, he said, and Paleo is working with potential clients to see how closely the proteins can meet different needs.

The companys biochemistry-based portfolio building is how they got to creating wooly mammoth heme, Sanctorum said.

It started as a challenge, Sanctorum said.We thought, if you can do all the obvious species, could we do it for an ancient protein that has been consumed a long time by humanity, but not any more, right? I mean, it's about 12,000 years ago.

Paleo partnered with paleozoic researchers to see what they could learn about wooly mammoth DNA, which has been preserved in part. It was a real puzzle, Sanctorum said, but they were able to figure it out through using science to figure out some of the missing pieces.

As they worked more on mammoth heme, Sanctorum said they found that the protein was more stable than those found in other animals. When the mammoth heme was cooked, it released more aromatic compounds than other ingredients.

The mammoth heme is more than a demonstration of Paleos tech knowhow, Sanctorum said. Its also not just something wacky that the company can offer.

I know that it's a bit more exotic,he said. I can imagine that not everyone is really into trying something like that. But at least we can show also that we are able to produce something less obvious.Because I can imagine that we sit together with a large potential client and they say, Yeah, but in fact,we need something that is slightly different. Well, we are able to anticipate on that, and we just make the protein that they need.

Paleo is working on its growth and moving toward creating enough ingredients to sell. The company has a partnership with the Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant an independent fermentation lab in Belgium that helps with product development as it is scaling up, Sanctorum said.

The scale-up process should be complete next year, Sanctorum said, but getting the ingredient to market is another story. Because Paleo is Europe-based, it designed its products to get around the EUs provisions dealing with GMO food, but the ingredients still need regulatory approval. Sanctorum said Paleo is working with regulators in Europe, as well as the U.S., Latin America and Asia.

The companys first launch, Sanctorum said, will depend on several things coming together. It will be in a country that grants regulatory approval, and with a manufacturer known for its innovation that is ready to use Paleos heme in a product intended to truly do something different. Sanctorum said his team is talking to about 10 companies who are candidates for a first launch.

Paleo is also working on fundraising. Late last year, the company closed a 2 million euro ($2.26 million) seed round. Those funds were used on R&D and designing future facilities, including its own pilot plant. Sanctorum said Paleo is working on finding investors for its next funding round, which it hopes to close this fall.

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How Paleo is using biochemistry to bring plant-based mammoth meat to consumers - Food Dive

Biochemistry

Assistant to Full Professor job with Department of Biochemistry and Structural Biology | 37289513 – The Chronicle of Higher Education

We are seeking outstanding candidates for Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor positions in Biochemistry and Structural Biology with initial appointment level commensurate with experience and accomplishments (tenure-track or tenured). Candidates may complement existing areas of expertise and/or bring exciting new directions to the BSB department (https://lsom.uthscsa.edu/biochemistry/).

We are interested in exceptional candidates in all areas of biochemistry and structural biology with particular emphasis on nucleic acid, virus, and/or cancer biology. The Department houses University-supported core facilities in macromolecular structure and interactions (X-ray crystallography, Cryo-EM, NMR spectroscopy, SPR, ITC/DSC), mass spectrometry (proteomics and metabolomics), as well as a Center for Innovative Drug Discovery (high throughput screening and medicinal chemistry) (https://wp.uthscsa.edu/biochemistry/core-facilities/).

UT Health San Antonio comprises of Medical, Graduate, Dental, Nursing and Health Profession schools. It is also home to the NCI-designated Mays Cancer Center, the Greehey Childrens Cancer Research Institute, the Sam and Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies, and the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimers and Neurodegenerative Diseases. San Antonio is the seventh largest city in the U.S., with a historical downtown, a vibrant economy, affordable housing, and many recreational opportunities.

Applicants must have strong research and publication portfolios and compelling plans for future work supported in part by extramural funding. Each position offers a generous startup package, a supportive scientific environment, and the potential for additional recruitment funds from the UT STARs Program and the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT). Successful applicants will be able to develop a competitive research program, form extensive internal and external collaborations, serve as mentors for students and research fellows, and contribute to teaching in graduate and professional programs. UTHSA is committed to a culturally and gender diverse faculty and is a designated Hispanic Serving Institution.

Interested candidates should visit https://uthscsa.referrals.selectminds.com/faculty and enter job number 2100-0985 in the keyword search to apply. Please upload a cover letter, a curriculum vitae, and a two-page description of current and future research interests before August 15th. The search committee will review applications in late August and begin interviews in September. For questions regarding these opportunities, please email: BSB-Search@uthscsa.edu

UT Health San Antonio is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer including protected veterans and persons with disabilities. All faculty appointments are designated as security sensitive positions.

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Assistant to Full Professor job with Department of Biochemistry and Structural Biology | 37289513 - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Biochemistry

Leap of faith: The people who left science to answer a call from God – ABC News

"Science and religion are incompatible," argues biologist, Jerry A. Coyne, in his 2015 book, Faith Versus Fact.

"They have different methods for getting knowledge about reality, have different ways of assessing the reliability of that knowledge, and, in the end, arrive at conflicting conclusions about the universe."

Coyne believes science and religion are diametrically opposed, locked in an irreconcilable "war between rationality and superstition".

For others, however, science and faith go hand in hand.

Some have even left a career in science to answer a call from God.

Benji Callen, Minister at Burnside City Uniting Church in Adelaide, always wanted to be a scientist a geneticist, like his dad.

"Where some people imagined a trophy for a footy premiership, I would imagine a Nobel Prize sitting on my bookshelf," he says.

"I always loved the scientific world. I loved imagining that I could understand something about the universe that no one else had understood before."

Reverend Callen studied science at the University of Adelaide before completing honours in biochemistry. He then spent five years working on a PhD in molecular biosciences.

He was working in a nanotechnology lab at the University of Liverpool in the UK when he received news that his PhD had been accepted.

His five years of hard work had paid off he'd done well and "got a good paper".

His wife, dad, and colleagues at the lab were all elated on his behalf.

But, despite his success, Reverend Callen's heart was elsewhere.

He realised it wasn't his burgeoning science career that most animated him.

Instead, his mind was drawn to his recent discussion with two other members of his church youth group about the meaning of life.

"I thought, 'My science career is going really well why am I far more excited about this conversation?'"

Reverend Callen had started attending church in his late teens and worked in youth ministry at his church in Australia. In Liverpool, he'd joined a Methodist church whose minister also had a PhD biochemistry. "The minister before him had a PhD in astrophysics," the reverend notes.

One of Reverend Callen's lab colleagues also volunteered at a church youth group. "He was happy being a science educator and doing ministry on the side. It was good to know that was possible."

But Reverend Callen realised he was different. While he "enjoyed the intellectual rigour and creativity" of working in science, he "always had this sense that something wasn't quite right".

So, when he and his pregnant wife returned to Australia, he applied for a role as youth pastor at his old church.

He got the job and started studying for a Bachelor of Theology in 2005.

The unease he had felt throughout his lab career vanished.

"I did feel a little sense of sadness or loss," he acknowledges.

"As soon as you step out of science, particularly research science it's really hard to get back into the game. I knew that there was no turning back."

Reverend Callen is now the minister at Adelaide's Burnside City Church, after spending eight years as a minister in the fishing town of Port Lincoln.

"People talk about it being one of the hardest jobs around, and I'd agree with that," he says. "I enjoy the huge variety no one day is ever the same."

Ann Edwards, Priest-in-Charge at St Mark's Anglican Church at The Gap, remembers always having a sense of faith.

As a child, her grandmother would take her to church.

In the days before women's ordination, she used to joke she would become the first female priest in the Anglican church.

"That idea was always there," she says. "I had a sense of vocation and call even from my early teens."

When a wristinjury prevented Reverend Edwards from pursuing the clarinet after school, she chose a new career path almost at random: speech pathology.

"I fell in love with the science of it," she says. "I loved anatomy and physiology and the psychology of it how brains worked. It captivated me."

Reverend Edwards established a rewarding career working with people with swallowing disorders caused by stroke and neurological disease.

"I had no plans to go anywhere," she says.

Despite the satisfaction she derived from speech pathology, Reverend Edwards still felt a call to God.

"I had this real sense of pull into ordained ministry," she says.

In 2014, she followed the call and began training as a priest.

She felt the skillsets she developed in her life as a speech pathologist, manager and researcher would be of great use in the practical business of running a church, particularly in improving disability inclusion, an issue she was passionate about and the focus of her theology thesis.

At the same time Reverend Edwards was embarking on her theology studies, she took up an academic role in speech pathology at the Australian Catholic University. She now wore "two hats" one "as a researcher in speech pathology, and as a researcher in church access."

As a minister, Reverend Edwards finds the same satisfaction from building relationships that she did in her clinical work.

"All those things that I loved about speech pathology are still here I'm still seeing people succeed, I'm still mentoring people," she says.

Reverend Edwards believes her scientific training is good preparation for the challenge of adapting ministry to a digital world, a prospect she finds exciting rather than daunting.

She sees no conflict between her "absolute belief [in] and love of science" and her faith. "My faith is informed by science," she says.

At Christmas, she delivered a sermon on the religious and scientific conceptions of creation and "how beautifully the two work together it's almost like a tapestry".

"The [Bible] stories have so much depth," she says. "They still speak truth if we don't hold them literally, and we hold them as they were meant to be."

She doesn't feel that her scientific background makes her an outlier in the religious world she now occupies.

"If you look at my community it's full of doctors and nurses and social workers," she says.

"There are more PhDs than you can poke a stick at here I'm not unusual at all."

Like Reverend Edwards, Reverend Callen sees science and faith as "complementary" not contradictory.

"Science does a great job of the 'how' of life, answering those 'how' questions 'How do cells work? How do stars work? How does gravity work?' but it does a pretty rubbish job at the 'why' questions 'Why are we here? Why do we have hope? Why do we love? Why do we hate?'"

He believes Christianity offers answers to those philosophical 'why' questions.

Both ministers talk about the "awe and wonder" they find in equal measure in faith and science.

Reverend Edwards finds affirmation of her faith in the natural world. Observing a "tawny frogmouth standing so still that you couldn't even see it in the tree that was a thing of awe and wonder for me," she says.

Reverend Callen says, "To be a good scientist, you need to have a sense of awe and wonder and curiosity about the universe."

He believes worship requires the same qualities. "For me, going into the lab and discovering something new about the universe was my meditation and prayer. It was my awe and wonder."

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Leap of faith: The people who left science to answer a call from God - ABC News

Biochemistry

Researchers Working To Find New Effective Treatments For Tuberculosis – Gilmore Health News

Treatment of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections is difficult, especially with the emergence of strains that are drug-resistant. Researchers led by University of Oklahoma professor Helen Zgurskaya are now working to find new, more effective drugs for tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis

Read Also: SMARt751 Brings a Solution to Drug Resistance by Tuberculosis Bacteria in Animal Models

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a pathogenic bacterium that is implicated in the incidence of tuberculosis. Experts say it is the number one cause of infectious disease globally. It affects billions of people worldwide about 25 percent of the worlds population.

Treatment of patients with active symptoms typically involves the use of multiple antibiotics for months. But, as with an increasing number of other bacterial infections these days, this infectious disease is becoming more drug-resistant.

Currently, the treatment requires a combination of antibiotics taken by patients for six months, but now imagine that the disease does not respond to the treatment, stated Zgurskaya, who is the studys corresponding author and a George Lynn Cross Research Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences.

We are out of therapeutic options for this infection, and we need new drugs. The paper we published is focused on understanding how recently discovered new inhibitors kill the pathogen, she added.

Read Also: Antibiotics: Two Antibacterial Compounds Effective Against Resistant Tuberculosis Discovered

The new paper appeared in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Aside from OU scientists, its authors included researchers from Colorado State University, Creighton University, and the Georgia Institute of Technology.

In this study, researchers investigated the mycobacterial membrane protein Large 3 (MmpL3) transporter and its analogs. This inner membrane protein is very critical for coming up with new drugs for tuberculosis.

MmpL3 transporters are vital for shuttling materials that are needed to build the outer membrane of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. They are, thus, essential for bacteria growth and building antibiotic resistance.

Zgurskaya and her colleague isolated MmpL3 from bacterial cells and purified it. Next, they reconstituted this major target for anti-tuberculosis discovery and its analogs in artificial membranes.

The team went further to make a range of substrate mimics and transporter-specific inhibitors. It also examined the activities and properties of these molecules.

Findings showed that all reconstituted proteins aided proton transfer across membranes. However, striking differences were observed in the responses of MmpL3 analogs to pH and their interactions with substrate mimics and indole-2-carboxamide inhibitors.

Read Also: The BCG a Tuberculosis Vaccine Boosts Immune Cells and Reduces Risk of Other Infections

This new paper suggests that certain inhibitors stop the transport activity of MmpL3, together with its analogs, by blocking proton translocation.

This study creates a potent method for characterizing and making new drugs for tuberculosis.

The research lays the groundwork for working out the mechanism of MmpL3 transporters. It also provides a biochemical basis for grasping the inhibition of these transporters by tiny molecule compounds. This will hopefully prove crucial for developing new effective antibiotics for tuberculosis treatment.

The expected next step following the publication of this paper would be to use the developed methods to study other inhibitors, said Zgurskaya. This will help to know which ones are most effective for possible evaluation in clinical trials.

Read Also: Vitamin D Can Help Treat Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis

Proton transfer activity of the reconstituted Mycobacterium tuberculosis MmpL3 is modulated by substrate mimics and inhibitors

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Researchers Working To Find New Effective Treatments For Tuberculosis - Gilmore Health News

Biochemistry

Biological Optical Microscopy Platform Manager job with UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE | 302639 – Times Higher Education

Location:ParkvilleRole type:Full time / Fixed-termfor 3 years (with the possibility of extension)Faculty: Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health SciencesDepartment/School:Department of Biochemistry and Molecular BiologySalary: Level B($110,236 - $130,900) or Level C ($135,032 - $155,698) p.a. plus 17% super

The University of Melbourne would like to acknowledge and pay respect to the Traditional Owners of the lands upon which our campuses are situated, the Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung Peoples, the Yorta Yorta Nation, the Dja Dja Wurrung People. We acknowledge that the land on which we meet and learn was the place of age-old ceremonies, of celebration, initiation and renewal, and that the local Aboriginal Peoples have had and continue to have a unique role in the life of these lands.

About the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology is a research and research-lead teaching department of the School of Biomedical Science in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences. The Departments research laboratories are mainly located in the Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute (Bio21 Institute) which is adjacent to the University of Melbourne campus at Parkville and the University of Melbourne, Medical Building. We use our strengths in research to create high-quality courses for our undergraduate and graduate students in biomedicine, science and medicine.

https://biomedicalsciences.unimelb.edu.au/departments/biochemistry

About the Role

This is an academic position with major responsibility for management and ongoing development of the Biological Optical Microscopy Platform (BOMP), which makes state-of-the art fluorescence microscopy equipment available to the staff and students of the University of Melbourne, as well as the wider community. You will be actively involved in oversight of the maintenance of a suite of instrumentation, as well as training and research projects.

You will provide leadership and direction to all users of the BOMP facilities in a collaborative research and teaching environment and will manage a team of application specialists.

Other responsibilities include:

The Department and the Bio21 Institute provides superb training facilities and environment for students, as well as outstanding career opportunities for staff.

Biological Optical Microscopy Platform (unimelb.edu.au)

About You

You are a collaborative researcher, with excellent time management and the flexibility to manage and respond to changing priorities and deadlines. You can demonstrate your high level problem-solving and well as your effective verbal and written communication skills. Your ability to foster relationships will set you up for success in this role.

You will also have:

To ensure the University continues to provide a safe environment for everyone, this position requires the incumbent to hold a current and valid Working with Children Check.

About the University

The University of Melbourne is consistently ranked amongst the leading universities in the world. We are proud of our people, our commitment to research and teaching excellence, and our global engagement.

Benefits of Working with Us

In addition to having the opportunity to grow and be challenged, and to be part of a vibrant campus life, our people enjoy a range of rewarding benefits:

To find out more, visithttps://about.unimelb.edu.au/careers/staff-benefits.

Be Yourself

We value the unique backgrounds, experiences and contributions that each person brings to our community and encourage and celebrate diversity. First Nations people, those identifying as LGBTQIA+, females, people of all ages, with disabilities and culturally and linguistically diverse people are encouraged to apply. Our aim is to create a workforce that reflects the community in which we live.

Join Us!

If you feel this role is right for you, please submit your application including a brief cover letter, your resume and your responses against the selection criteria^ (found in the Position Description) for the role.

^For information to help you with compiling short statements to answer the selection criteria and competencies, please go tohttp://about.unimelb.edu.au/careers/selection-criteria

We are dedicated to ensuring barrier free and inclusive practices to recruit the most talented candidates. If you require any reasonable adjustments with the recruitment process, please contact us athr-talent@unimelb.edu.au.

The University of Melbourne is required to comply with applicable health guidance and directions issued from the Victorian Health Minister. All University of Melbourne employees are to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, unless an exemption order applies. Applicants must meet this requirement when submitting an application.

Position description:PD_BOMP Platform Manager.pdf

Applications close: 24 AUGUST2022 11:55 PMAUS Eastern Standard Time

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Biological Optical Microscopy Platform Manager job with UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE | 302639 - Times Higher Education

Biochemistry

Phage therapeutics can be used to fight multidrug-resistant pathogens – News-Medical.Net

Scientists with the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences were among those providing the biochemical tools needed to help save a man's life through a unique emergency intervention in 2016.

Now those Center for Phage Technology scientists in the Texas A&M Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Bryan-College Station, have completed a study about that treatment as well as other opportunities for phage therapy.

Their study, "Comparative genomics of Acinetobacter baumannii and therapeutic bacteriophages from a patient undergoing phage therapy," was published recently in the scientific journal Nature Communications.

The threat of antimicrobial resistance has become a worldwide concern, with the World Health Organization estimating at least 50 million people per year worldwide could die from it by 2050. Center for Phage Technology scientists believe phage therapeutics can be used to fight these resistant bacterial infections.

The premiere case involved phage center scientists working in collaboration with other scientists and physicians at University of California San Diego, UC San Diego, School of Medicine and the U.S. Navy Medical Research Center Biological Defense Research Directorate. Together, they worked to identify phages and determine a treatment plan for Tom Patterson, a professor of psychiatry at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, who was infected by a deadly pathogen while vacationing in Egypt.

Bacteriophages, or phages, are viruses that can infect and kill bacteria without having a negative effect on human or animal cells. Phages can be used alone or in combination with antibiotics or other drugs to treat bacterial infections.

Bacteriophage therapy is an emerging field that many researchers think could yield novel ways to fight antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. At the center, we are interested in the applications of phage therapeutics to fight multidrug-resistant bacterial infections."

Mei Liu, Ph.D., program director at the Center for Phage Technology and a primary investigator for the study

She said the center's work is aided by the team's deep knowledge of phage biology, particularly in the areas of phage lysis and phage genomics.

In 2015, while on vacation in Egypt during the Thanksgiving holiday, Patterson began to experience severe abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. Local doctors diagnosed him with pancreatitis and treated him accordingly, but the treatments didn't work and his condition worsened.

He was later transported to Germany, where doctors found fluid around his pancreas and took cultures from the fluid's contents. The cultures showed he had been infected with a multidrug-resistant strain of Acinetobacter baumannii, an often-deadly pathogen found in hospital settings and in the Middle East. The same pathogen was also identified in many injured U.S. military members returning home after serving in that part of the world.

In Germany, Patterson was treated with a combination of antibiotics, and his condition improved to a degree where he could be airlifted to the intensive care unit at Thornton Hospital in the UC San Diego Health academic health system. There, however, the medical team discovered that the bacteria had become resistant to antibiotics.

Tom Patterson, in hospital bed, received phage therapy from Robert "Chip" Schooley, MD, left, of UC San Diego Health. (Courtesy photo used with permission of Dr. Tom Patterson)

A "compassionate use" exemption for phage therapy was requested by Dr. Robert "Chip" Schooley, the UC San Diego physician treating Patterson. He was given rapid approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, FDA, to proceed.

Shortly after the phage treatment began, Patterson awakened from a months-long coma. After a long recovery, his health improved greatly, and he was able to return to life as it was before the infection.

Acinetobacter baumannii is recognized as a significant bacterial pathogen in health care-associated infections. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report from 2019 stated that antibiotic-resistant pathogens cause more than 2.8 million infections and more than 35,000 deaths annually in the U.S.

Several characteristics of the pathogen that infected Patterson impacted the treatment regimens and outcomes, said Ry Young, Ph.D., director of the Center for Phage Technology.

Patterson's wife, Steffanie Strathdee, Ph.D., associate dean of global health sciences with UC San Diego School of Medicine and an infectious disease epidemiologist, had contacted Young to seek his help in finding a treatment for her husband once she became aware of Young's extensive work with phages.

Young and his lab team took up the challenge and worked almost nonstop for three months to help find a solution.

Phages are viruses that can infect and kill bacteria without affecting human or animal cells. Phage therapy was used extensively in the early 20th century prior to the use of antibiotics. (Stock illustration)

"Cases of resistant infections are becoming more prevalent and very few new antibiotics are available, so the use of bacteriophages to treat or control multidrug-resistant infections is being reconsidered as an alternative strategy," Young said. "Phage therapy is actually a very old concept, having been used extensively in the early 20th century during the pre-antibiotic era."

Phage treatment also has been successful in several more recent case studies involving multidrug-resistant strains of P. aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli bacteria.

"Phages had been sidelined as a potential treatment for bacterial infections when antibiotics came into wide use in the U.S.," Liu said. "But in other areas of the world, particularly where antibiotics were not immediately available, researchers and doctors have continued developing and practicing phage therapy. Now we are seeing more instances of how phage therapy can be used when antibiotics alone are not sufficient to treat bacterial infections."

Jason Gill, Ph.D., professor in the Texas A&M Department of Animal Science and associate director of the Center for Phage Technology, said while the Patterson case and similar case studies treating multidrug-resistant bacteria have been encouraging in terms of clinical outcome, a more in-depth examination of the phage-host interaction during treatment and its implications is needed.

"The recent study showed that resistance to the therapeutic phages emerged early, and the acquisition of new mobile elements by the bacteria can occur during treatment," said Gill, a corresponding author of the study. "It is important to have a thorough genomic analysis of phages prior to phage treatment in order to maximize treatment success and minimize both effort and resources. There is also a need for conventional experimental testing for phage host range and growth characteristics."

Gill also noted the use of well-characterized phages in a phage cocktail can avoid redundancy and significantly save time and effort in phage production and purification. Eight of the nine phages used for treatment in the Patterson case turned out to be closely related, and this knowledge could have been used to streamline the process if the investigators had known this when assembling the treatment.

"The Patterson case has done a lot to increase awareness of phage therapy and its effectiveness as an alternative therapy for multidrug-resistant pathogenic strains," Liu said. "The success of phage therapy in that case and other cases has brought wider attention to its use and efficacy."

Liu added that the Center for Phage Technology is focusing on developing the technology, standardizing optimal delivery procedures and securing necessary approvals from regulatory agencies to make phage treatment available to patients in the U.S.

"Much of what we did in the Patterson case was unconventional due to the context of phage therapy at that time," Liu said. "But there have been many advances in genomic sequencing and other technologies since then. Today, it would be a much quicker and more efficient process to develop and implement phage therapy if there was another case similar to Patterson's."

Source:

Journal reference:

Liu, M., et al. (2022) Comparative genomics of Acinetobacter baumannii and therapeutic bacteriophages from a patient undergoing phage therapy. Nature Communications. doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31455-5.

Originally posted here:
Phage therapeutics can be used to fight multidrug-resistant pathogens - News-Medical.Net

Biochemistry

Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor, Bio Sciences and Technology job with VELLORE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY | 302478 – Times Higher…

Job Description:

Designations Available:

Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor

Desired Skillset:

Preferred Qualifications:

Ph.D. in Life Sciences / Biotechnology/Molecular Biology/ Biochemistry/ Chemical Engineering

Areas of Specializations:

Responsibilities:

Academics:

Research Consultancy:

Academic / Administration:

Apart from the above duties, any other relevant work is assigned by the Dean of the respective schools.

Department:School of Bio Sciences & Technology (SBST)Location:Vellore, Tamil Nadu, IndiaPosted On:19-Jul-2022Years Of Exp:0 to 20 Years

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Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor, Bio Sciences and Technology job with VELLORE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY | 302478 - Times Higher...