Welcome to Our Blog
Thank you for visiting our website. We are a relatively small lab with big ideas. We are part of a much larger group of investigators known collectively as the LLUMC Molecular Radiation Biology Laboratories. It is our hope that this website will educate, communicate, and incite scientific debate. As the PI of our little group, I hope to post our data and discuss potential mechanisms, consequences, and countermeasures. With a bit of luck we'll all learn something. The links to the left include our merry band as well as collaborating investigators and laboratories. The links to the right include our archive and blogroll. The banner above will always bring you back to the main page page. Take a look around and please feel free to leave a comment on our blog (try to keep it civil and constructive) or shoot us an e-mail. - Michael " Ubertramp " Pecaut
Radiation Research Society Meeting
Posted by: Ubertramp on 2010.05.03
Categories & Tags: Gamma Radiation,Low Dose Radiation,Macrophage,Oxidative Burst,Radiation,Society Meeting
Comments: None
We recently submitted an abstract for the annual Radiation Research Society meeting. This year it is in Maui. I’m not sure if I’ll have the money to go or not but several of us at the lab are planning to attend. Worst case, I may send my poster with one of them. The work for this abstract was done almost exclusively by my tech, Erben Bayeta, and our summer student Cory Pan. Cory is planning on returning to our lab this summer to do some follow up studies. I’m sure we have more than enough to keep him busy. 
Celso Perez has joined us to start doing some work in his spare time (he’s actually our lab manager). He should have some data on a third cell line by the time the symposium comes around. I’ve attached some of the data we are presenting to this post. Read More..
Lab Update
Posted by: Ubertramp on 2009.04.12
Categories & Tags: Gamma Radiation,Grant,Low Dose Radiation,Microgravity,NASA,New Publication,Protons,Radiation,Space Shuttle,T cell
Comments: None
It’s been a couple of months since the last update, so it’s about time. We have some good news and some bad news. The bad news first. My NASA grant was turned down for funding. I haven’t seen the review yet, so I’m not sure why. Nor do I know who or what actually DID get funded. Guess we’ll have to see.
Ironically (or coincidentally, I haven’t decided which), we received the acceptance letter from JAP for our third immune publication from the last shuttle flight on the same day. The reviewers were pretty rough on us, though. It bounced back and forth three times before they finally accepted it. Farnaz was pretty excited as this was her first publication. Woot! Now all she has to do is finish her dissertation and graduate. Hahaha. It’s still an Epub ahead of print, so I don’t have a reprint. Give it a few weeks. Read More..
Update on NIH and NASA grant proposals
Posted by: Ubertramp on 2008.10.27
Categories & Tags: Grant Proposal,Low Dose Radiation,Mouse,NASA,NIH,Radiation,Russian Space Agency,Space Shuttle
Comments: None
You may recall that we submitted a grant proposal to NASA a few months ago to fly an immune experiment on board the Russian Bion M1 rocket. We proposed to fly mice for about a month and then challenge the mice with live E. coli about three days after landing. We also had a second aim that included using a transgenic mouse model (NOX2 or gp91phox knockout). Unfortunately, NASA and the Russian Space Agency could not come to an aggreement on the flight and the project was changed. Now, the flight will likely occur on the space shuttle in February 2010. We were fortunate enough to be one of five proposals invited into the scientific defnition phase. Basically, we were asked to rewrite our proposals to meet the new requirements (e.g. smaller sample size, shorter flight time, different launch/landing site, etc.) and we’re thrilled to get this far. The new due date is Nov 19th.
The news for our NIH proposal is less good. In this proposal we were focusing on the low dose radiation patients receive for bone marrow transplants and the long term immune and behavioral consequences. Unfortunately, the proposal was returned without a score. We’re still waiting on the review.
Where have all the radiobiology bloggers gone?
Posted by: Ubertramp on 2008.06.19
Categories & Tags: Bacteria,Department of Energy,Grant,Immunity,Low Dose Radiation,Radiation
Comments: None
Lately, I’ve been a bit busy with a few things. Mostly writing grants for DOE (due June 25) and NIH (due July 15), and working with Farnaz to get the first space shuttle paper out (we sent it out to our co-authors for their input earlier today). Not to mention a couple of graduation ceremonies and a dissertation defense. Needless to say, this means I haven’t been as productive here as I’d like. So, since I had to write a summary statement for my DOE grant, I thought I’d post it here as well.
Theoretically, it’s supposed to be written for the layperson. But, as you’ll see, some of it ain’t. Unfortunately, I was limited to one page of text, and there were requirements on what I had to include (like hypothesis and specific aims), so I couldn’t go into a lot of detail. The actual grant proposal is 15 pages long. And trust me, you have no idea how hard it is to keep a proposal that short until you’re forced to do it.
