Comment Re:See who's publishing in your areas of interest (Score 1) 162
Most importantly, go to meeting of your field to meet with the scientists. Talk to them and show your interest.
Finding a Research Mentor? 162
bsomerville writes "As an aspiring social scientist preparing to apply to Ph.D. programs, I'm keen to find a faculty mentor somewhere in North America who shares my research interests. This is more difficult than I thought it would be. While links to program websites are readily available, I'm surprised to find no comprehensive collection of faculty research interests in my field (clinical psychology). Instead this information is buried several levels down in each university website. Is this a common problem across all fields? Is there some inherent reason why no wiki-type Web resource exists to meet this need? It seems like a text-searchable database could be built fairly quickly and maintained by users, saving countless aspiring grad students thousands of clicks through university websites."
Comment Misleading (Score 1) 18
I currently work with mass spectrometry to study differences in protein expression levels to understand cancer. By using the Orbitrap, we are able to study proteins in femtomolar levels and we are still far from detecting biomarkers. In deed, the field of proteomics recognizes that such is still an open chalenge, even when analyzing simple cell cultures instead of complex biofluids such as plasma. The field has become tired of published manuscripts of biomarkers that have proven wrong and are an artifact of overfiting statistical approaches. In this regard, it could be misleading to "advertise" and article as such before proving the claims on large populations.
New Nanotech Helps Detect Early-Stage Cancer 18
CWmike writes "Stanford University researchers have used nanotechnology and magnetics to create a biosensor that they said should be able to detect cancer in its early stages. The sensor, which sits on a microchip, is 1,000 times more sensitive than cancer detectors used clinically today, say scientists at Stanford. The researchers announced this week that the sensors have been effective in finding early-stage tumors in mice, giving them hope that it can be equally successful in detecting elusive cancers in humans. 'In the early stage [of a cancer], the protein biomarker level in blood is very, very low, so you need ultra-sensitive technology to detect it,' said Shan Wang, professor of materials science and engineering at Stanford. 'If you can detect it early, you can have early intervention and you have a much better chance to cure that person.' Wang also noted that the biosensor could be used to determine whether chemotherapy or other cancer treatments are working after only a few days."
Comment Mono in science (Score 1) 570
I currently research methods to improve cancer treatment using proteomics. Bioinformatics plays a key role. Thanks to Mono, we were able to port existing software to Linux and run in our cluster. Indeed, it must be recognized that Mono is contributing to this field and many others.
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The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not "Eureka!" (I found it!) but "That's funny ..." -- Isaac Asimov
