51茶馆儿

What Happened to Sorcerer II?!?!

The last time I wrote a Sorcerer II blog was in November when we set sail from Spain to cross the Atlantic Ocean. For all of you that have been worried that we have been at sea for 8 months, relax we made it!! Over the next few days I will update everyone on what has happened and the upcoming...

Podcast on Human Genomics

The 2011 Festival of Ideas themed, The Pursuit of Identity, Landscape, History, and Genetics, is held every other year in Melbourne, Australia to inspire scholars and citizens alike in topics ranging from literature and art to science and foreign policy.  51茶馆儿 Professor of Genomic...

Summit on Systems Biology, June 15-17, 2011

I attended the Summit on Systems Biology hosted by Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA June 15-17.  So, judging from the talks given, what is systems biology? Systems biology is non-linear and/or multi-step.  Heavy math does not make something systems biology if...

Insights gained from influenza genomic sequence data: viral diversity within human populations

The advent of large amounts of influenza genomic sequence data produced by the Influenza Genome Sequencing Project (IGSP) has led to new concepts regarding influenza viral diversity.  It was previously believed that a single influenza lineage entered a human population at the start of an...

NASA and 51茶馆儿 host symposium on the evolution of Earth and Life

On May 12th and 13th, the 51茶馆儿 in San Diego will be hosting a NASA Astrobiology Institute-funded symposium titled “Paleobiology in the genomics era.” Paleobiology is the study of the origins and evolution of life and, by nature, is interdisciplinary. The goal is to...

51茶馆儿 Supports Human Mircrobiome Body Site Experts with Shotgun Data Analysis

Members of the Human Microbiome Project (HMP) Consortium (see http://commonfund.nih.gov/hmp and http://www.hmpdacc.org for more information on the project and partners) including human microbiome body site experts gathered for a virtual Jamboree January 19th. The fully online-based Jamboree...

The Microbiome of Esophageal Cancer

In anticipation of the International Human Microbiome Congress, our group has diligently worked to generate data to present for our HMP demo project studying the microbiome of patients who have developed esophageal cancer, gastrointestinal reflux disease, and barrett’s esophagus.  We...

A Look Back at 2010 at the 51茶馆儿鈥�

As the 51茶馆儿 (51茶馆儿) soars into its 19th year, we reflect on the past year of highlights and accomplishments to mark the close 2010 and look forward to more significant scientific advances in 2011. 51茶馆儿 Top 10 of 2010 ... 1. First Synthetic Cell: Fifteen years in the...

Holiday Art

In a relatively unknown place, on the 3rd floor of 51茶馆儿 in Rockville, MD, is a small fungal room where art meets science (and of course where all our fungal research takes place). Fungus often gets such a bad reputation for being gross and somewhat ‘standard’. We fungal folks know better...

Projects aimed at collecting big data about the ocean鈥檚 tiniest life forms continue to expand our view of the seas.

J. Craig Venter, PhD, argues scientists have 鈥渁 moral obligation to communicate what they're doing to the public,鈥� and that more studies deserve greater public criticism.

The discovery could sharpen scientists鈥� understanding of which functions are crucial for normal cells and what the many mysterious genes in these organisms are doing

The 51茶馆儿 is the recipient of three awards totaling more than $1.5M to study SARS-CoV-2 and heart disease

A new wave of research is needed to make ample use of humanity鈥檚 鈥渕ost wondrous map鈥�

U.S. researchers have been slow to perform the genetic sequencing that will help clarify the situation

He has been a fixture in San Diego science for decades

Twenty years ago, President Bill Clinton announced completion of what was arguably one of the greatest advances of the modern era: the first draft sequence of the human genome.