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any road will take you there. –Lewis Carroll

Does your lab of a mission statement? The statement doesn’t have to be boring or public like a big corporation. The reason to create one is for focus. If you know where you want to go then it makes it easy to eliminate distractions. Does this project support our mission statement; if not then pass on it.

Oooh, look something shiny.

Instrumentation along with collaboration is an especially tempting distraction. The benefits can certainly be worthwhile, how do you know? If it supports your mission.

The Protein Structure Initiative (PSI) is responsible for depositing over 8,000 structures in the protein data bank (PDB). If you are working on a project related to a structure by the PSI then check out the Structure Knowledgebase. This resource has compiled a vast amount of information into a slick search function.

A number of results are produced with my favorite being the experimental protocols through the PepcDBl. Here are the links from the above example:
* PepcDb Summary
* selection
* cloning
* expression
* purification
* crystallization

This organization is very useful and would love to see this type of resource for all the deposited structures.

A career in science is full of traveling for experiments, to speaking engagements and conferences. If you use the 6 window and 28 tab method (loading up orbitz, kayak, expedia, southwest, etc..) to find a great flight then Hipmunk is for you.

Hipmunk just launched and have a number of features that make sense.

1) The calendar is easily visible and personally have never really liked those pop-up calendars.
2) Input by zip code is also handy


The display is simple although took me a moment to get oriented so here you go.
1) Prices at left
2) The main screen lists the airlines and airport abbreviations in light brown which is the layover time
3) Just above that is the relative time zones


You can also sort by a variety of factors such as by departure time, very cool – check it out.

The CoFactor database has an awesome logo. In addition, the database is a source of publications and mechanisms of organic enzyme cofactors (ref). The CoFactor database is related to the MACiE project which has already brought together hundreds of annotated enzymatic reactions. The database is still in the early stages, but if you work with an enzyme that has an organic substrate then it is worth keeping an eye on.

The database currently contains the following molecules:

• Adenosylobalamin (Vitamin B12)
• Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C)
• Biopterin
• Biotin
• Coenzyme A (CoA)
• Coenzyme B
• Coenzyme M
• Dipyrromethane
• Factor F430
• Flavin Adenine Dinucleotide (FAD)
• Flavin Mononucleotide (FMN)
• Glutathione (GSH)
• Flavin adenine mononucletide
• Heme
• Lipoic acid
• Menaquinone (Vitamin K)
• MIO cofactor
• Molybdopterin
• Orthoquinone residues (TTQ, LTQ and CTQ)
• Phosphopantethenic acid
• Pyridoxal 5′-phosphate (PLP)
• Pyrroloquinoline Quinone (PQQ)
• Nicotinamide-adenosine dinucleotide (NAD)
• S-adenosylmethionine
• Tetrahydrofolic acid (THF)
• Thiamine diphosphate (ThDP)
• Topaquinone (TPQ)
• Ubiquinone (CoQ)

The output contains a diagram of the molecule, molecular functions, chemical pathways and references. My favorite enzymic database is still BRENDA (just updated last month), but it’s nice to see some newcomers.

In the About section of this blog, we mention that “Reading this blog won’t guarantee your next paper will be in Nature”. We were wrong, it did!

You may recall us talking about Foldit a year ago. If you ended up giving it a try then you can add a(nother) Nature paper to your CV.

Foldit was recognized in the latest edition of Nature in the paper entitled, Predicting protein structures with a multiplayer online game.

The paper reminds us that human brains can still compete algorithms and we should enjoy it while it lasts. In all seriousness, the paper is worth a read and a tip of the hat to all the hard work that resulted in this publication.

Oh and I call author position 10 out of the ~57,000 – just as a heads up.

For the huge cross section of readers that are into rap and protein crystallography.

Graduate students need 10 while postdocs should have at least 25 papers.

But what about the impact of the papers? … good point (thanks).

So actually, you really only need one if it’s in Nature or Science.

However, the better questions is:

What gets you excited to come into the lab every day? Is it hearing you need 10 publications? or perhaps it is trying to answer an interesting question… finding the answer to that question is far more important.

is to be smart enough to be able to do it, but not smart enough to realize it will probably fail.

Thanks Noel.