Monthly Archives: January 2014

Say cheese! Space station cameras now looking at us in high-def.

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After four spacewalks and a series of glitches, the International Space Station now sports a pair of cameras pointing at Earth.

The fourth spacewalk from Expedition 38, performed by Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy, wrapped up the installation of two high-definition cameras that experienced connectivity issues last month. A spacewalk on Dec. 27 tried to resolve the issue, but ongoing technical problems kept them from finishing.

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After exitingthe Pirs docking compartment, the men headed to the Zvezda service module, where they installed a high-resolution video camera and a medium resolution still camera to capture Earth imagery. The high-res camera checked out, but the medium-resolution camera again experienced telemetry issues.

Dr. Kotov and Dr. Ryazanskiy also retrieved scientific gear outside the stations Russian segment.

Their spacewalk lasted for 6 hours and 8 minutes, wrapping up at 3:08 p.m. EST yesterday (Jan. 27). The spacewalk a month before lasted two hours longer, clocking in at 8 hours and 7 minutes. Though they failed to complete the cameras' installation, they did set the record for the longest Russian spacewalk. The previous record-holders were Expedition 36 Flight Engineers Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin, who conducted a 7 hour and 29 minute excursion on Aug. 16.

On Dec. 27, Kotov and Ryazanskiy installed the cameras, but then had to remove them when Russian flight controllers on the ground reported that they could not receive necessary telemetry information.

The cameras are part of a commercial agreement between a Canadian firm and the Russian Federal Space Agency. Their goal is to provide views of Earth from the ISS for Internet-based subscribers. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation notes that the still camera has a resolution of five square meters, and the video camera has a resolution of one square meter.

The spacewalkers also retrieved a cassette container attached to Pirs, part of a materials exposure experiment. They then removed a worksite interface adapter attached to a portable data grapple fixture on the Zarya cargo module. The adapter removal work should ensure that future operations with the Canadarm2 robotic arm will not be impeded.

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Say cheese! Space station cameras now looking at us in high-def.

Red zoners apply to Govt for extension

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Residents still living in Christchurch's red zone have just three days left to leave their homes.

Those who want to stay have to apply to the Government for an extension, and if granted could be forced to pay a penalty fee to the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority.

Laurie Osborne has lived in the area with his wife, Patricia, for 54 years. He says it is virtually like "camping but with a roof over [their] heads".

They have been told to take their piled-up belongings and be out by Friday.

Mr and Mrs Osborne have running water and electricity but no sewerage. Instead they've paid $11,000 for a portaloo at the end of the driveway.

Mrs Osbourne says "it's clean, tidy and convenient and better than a hole in the ground".

They are waiting for a new house to be built in Amberley, which has already delayed by three months, so they've applied to CERA for an extension. But will they get it?

"What's another 10 weeks when you have had 1150 days?"

Nearby, Iddo and Vrouwkje Bongers received a red-zone extension until the end of May. Any longer and they will have to pay a penalty fee.

The Government has already provided extensions to red zoners but their patience is running out.Mr and Mrs Osborne are waiting for one last reprieve or will be forced out.

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Red zoners apply to Govt for extension

David Ortiz’s Contract Situation Should Be Handled By Boston Red Sox Soon

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David Ortiz and the Boston Red Sox are nearing that bridge again.

The Red Sox dont need to make a decision right now regarding Ortizs contract, which expires after the 2014 season. But the slugger is seeking a multiyear deal, and the club should consider offering an extension sooner rather than later.

Ortiz said Sunday that while hed like to retire as a member of the Red Sox, its possible that he could play for another team in 2015 and beyond. Thats a pretty substantial demand for a designated hitter who will turn 39 after this season, but the Red Sox would be wise to lock up Ortiz this winter to avoid any potential distractions in 2014.

The Red Sox already are facing a difficult decision regarding Jon Lester, who, like Ortiz, is a free agent after this year. Lester could be the best pitcher available on the free-agent market next offseason, and the Red Sox certainly will need to pony up some cash to keep the lefty around, even though he indicated last week that hed accept a hometown discount. You can bet that Lesters future will continue to be a talking point for as long as he remains unsigned or until he signs elsewhere, and it certainly wont do the Red Sox any favors to have Ortizs uncertain future hanging over their heads as well.

Ortiz, who is entering the second year of a two-year contract he signed last offseason, typically is outspoken, and its part of what makes him such a fascinating athlete. Big Papi always is willing to say whats on his mind, and while thats refreshing in an age when so many athletes go by the book, it also means that his next contract could be a conversation topic for the entire season if he doesnt sign an extension this offseason. It isnt exactly the end of the world, but extending Ortiz now rather than next offseason will help keep the focus on on-field matters.

The 2013 Red Sox showed an incredible ability to avoid distractions, which was a stark contrast from 2011 and 2012, when off-the-field drama generated plenty of headlines. Ortizs impending free agency might not threaten the status quo too much, but its a side bar with the potential to do more harm than good.

Obviously, there are advantages to waiting until next offseason to re-sign Ortiz. While the 38-year-old is coming off a strong 2013 campaign that was capped by a historic World Series performance, he will be another year older and its reasonable to expect some regression at some point. The Red Sox might want to wait to see how Ortiz fares this year his 18th big league season before making a potentially sizable financial commitment. After all, Ortizs value is extremely high right now because of his 2013 performance, so waiting could save the Red Sox a few bucks.

When you get right down to it, though, a contract extension for Ortiz should be inevitable. He has become more than just a feared hitter in the middle of the Red Sox order. He is the face of the franchise, and perhaps even the face of Major League Baseball. Those factors should be trumped by on-field production at the negotiating table, but letting Ortiz walk away over a few extra dollars would have serious repercussions.

The Red Sox might need to pay more to lock up Ortiz now, even though Boston would be competing with 29 other teams next offseason for his services. Its an investment worth making, though, as it will only ensure a smoother future for all parties involved.

Have a question for Ricky Doyle? Send it to him via Twitter at @TheRickyDoyle or send it here.

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David Ortiz’s Contract Situation Should Be Handled By Boston Red Sox Soon

Interstellar Dust Particles Carry Water, Organic Compounds To Earth

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January 27, 2014

Image Caption: The surfaces of tiny interplanetary dust particles are space-weathered by the solar wind, causing amorphous rims to form on their surfaces. Hydrogen ions in the solar wind react with oxygen in the rims to form tiny water-filled vesicles (blue). This mechanism of water formation almost certainly occurs in other planetary systems with potential implications for the origin of life throughout the galaxy. Credit: John Bradley, UH SOEST/ LLNL

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports Your Universe Online

Dust that originates from comets, asteroids and leftover debris from the birth of the Solar System could deliver water and organic material to the Earth and other terrestrial planets, according to a recent Proceedings of the National Academy of Science paper.

In the study, researchers from the University of Hawaii-Manoa (UHM) School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California-Berkeley explain that these interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) continually rain down upon our planet and other worlds in our Solar System.

The IDPs are bombarded by solar wind, especially hydrogen ions, and these ions disturb the order of the atoms in the silicate mineral crystal. This process leaves behind oxygen, which is more readily available to react with hydrogen in order to create water molecules, the study authors explained in a statement Friday.

It is a thrilling possibility that this influx of dust has acted as a continuous rainfall of little reaction vessels containing both the water and organics needed for the eventual origin of life on Earth and possibly Mars, said study co-author and UHM SOEST Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) associate researcher Hope Ishii.

This mechanism of delivering both water and organics simultaneously would also work for exoplanets, worlds that orbit other stars. These raw ingredients of dust and hydrogen ions from their parent star would allow the process to happen in almost any planetary system, the university added. Implications of this work are potentially huge.

For example, airless bodies such as the Moon and asteroids, with abundant amounts of silicate minerals, are being exposed to solar wind irradiation constantly. This mechanism could generate water, and would help explain remotely sensed Moon data that detected OH and preliminary water, the researchers said. Furthermore, it might help explain what caused water ice to form in the permanently shadowed areas of the lunar surface.

Perhaps more exciting, Ishii said, interplanetary dust, especially dust from primitive asteroids and comets, has long been known to carry organic carbon species that survive entering the Earths atmosphere, and we have now demonstrated that it also carries solar-wind-generated water. So we have shown for the first time that water and organics can be delivered together.

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Interstellar Dust Particles Carry Water, Organic Compounds To Earth

News at Nine, January 27

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Arrests of Halawa corrections officers continue

A second corrections officer has been arrested at the Halawa Correctional Facility as investigations continue on Methamphetamine distribution and dealing at the prison.

According to officials, the officer has been identified as 45-year old Mark Samson Damas. He was taken into custody by FBI agents while on duty on Sunday morning. According to FBI special agent Tom Simon, Damas has been charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine at Halawa Corrections Facility. Damas is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Federal Court.

Damas is the second officer to be arrested. James Kimo Sanders III was arrested two weeks ago in the prisons parking lot for similar charges.

Source: HawaiiNewsNow

UHM faculty discover new IDPs role

IDPs, interplanetary dust particles, were discovered to have the ability to deliver water and organics to the Earth and other terrestrial planets.

The discovery was made by researchers from UHMs School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the University of California-Berkeley.

It is a thrilling possibility that this influx of dust has acted as a continuous rainfall of little reaction vesselscontaining both the water and organics needed for the eventual origin of life on Earth and possibly Mars, Hope Ishii, new Associate Researcher inthe Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) at UH Mnoa's SOEST and co-author of the study said in a statement.

Researchers will next attempt to estimate water abundances delivered to Earth by IDPS.

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News at Nine, January 27

Review of images UFOs near the Sun in the photographs satellites NASA – January 25, 2014 – Video

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Review of images UFOs near the Sun in the photographs satellites NASA - January 25, 2014
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Review of images UFOs near the Sun in the photographs satellites NASA - January 25, 2014 - Video

NASA Request for Information (RFI) for materialsLAB Workshop: New Workshop Dates

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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has rescheduled the materialsLAB Workshop from the original January dates to April 15-16, 2014. The workshop is being held to advise NASA on future research directions for the microgravity materials science program. The two-day event will bring together scientists and engineers from academia, industry, and other government agencies to assist NASA in identifying key engineering drivers and research priorities for the next generation of materials science experiments to be developed for the International Space Station.

To help NASA prepare for the workshop, the Agency requests responses to its Request for Information (RFI) for the materialsLAB Workshop. The full RFI and submission instructions can be found at http://tinyurl.com/mrhxt9g. To respond to this RFI, answers to a series of specific questions must be submitted electronically using the NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System (NSPIRES) website. Please refer to section "III. Response Instructions" in the RFI document for submission instructions. Note that your response to the RFI will be discussed in the break-out sessions, may be included in the final report and may be used by NASA in future announcements. The topic areas for the workshop break-out sessions include: Metals, Semiconductors, Polymers, Biomaterials, Nanomaterials, Glasses, Granular Materials, Ceramics, Organics, and Composites.

You can register for the workshop at: http://icpi.nasaprs.com/NASAmaterialsLABWorkshop2014

Please forward this email to any of your colleagues who may interested in participating in this workshop.

NASA Primary Point of Contact (POC):

Patton Downey, Technical Manager of Microgravity Materials, Marshall Space Flight Center

Email: patton.downey@nasa.gov

Phone: 256.544.6432

This is a Request for Information (RFI) only and does not constitute a commitment, implied or otherwise, that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will take procurement action in this matter.

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NASA Request for Information (RFI) for materialsLAB Workshop: New Workshop Dates

Application Deadline Approaches for NASA STEM Program for High School Girls

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NASA is accepting applications until noon CST Monday, Feb. 3, for its 2014 Women in STEM High School (WISH) Aerospace Scholars program, in which high school junior girls can jump-start their future careers by exploring possibilities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Applicants must be female high school juniors who are U.S. citizens, have a cumulative grade point average of 3.25 or higher and show a proficiency in STEM subjects. They must have access to the Internet and email, be able to commit to the entire 6-month duration of the project and participate in a summer experience at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston.

The participants' online activities will be evaluated by a team of NASA education professionals, who will select approximately 30 students to participate in the on-site summer experience. Finalists will be notified by June 2014.

WISH participants will chart a course for human exploration of space and engage with NASA female role models. They also will interact with scientists and engineers who will share their own education and career paths and help mentor the participants. The WISH project consists of online modules beginning in February, in which students will complete activities in order to qualify for the activities Aug. 3-8 at Johnson, where they will design a mock human mission to Mars.

NASA's Office of Education sponsors WISH Aerospace Scholars and offers it free of charge to the participants. Questions about WISH may be directed to JSC-NHAS@mail.nasa.gov.

To learn more about NASA's WISH program, visit:

http://www.wish.aerospacescholars.org

For more information about NASA's education programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/education

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Application Deadline Approaches for NASA STEM Program for High School Girls

NASA Instruments on European Comet Spacecraft Begin Countdown

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Three NASA science instruments are being prepared for check-out operations aboard the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft, which is set to become the first to orbit a comet and land a probe on its nucleus in November.

Rosetta was reactivated Jan. 20 after a record 957 days in hibernation. U.S. mission managers are scheduled to activate their instruments on the spacecraft in early March and begin science operations with them in August. The instruments are an ultraviolet imaging spectrograph, a microwave thermometer and a plasma analyzer.

"U.S. scientists are delighted the Rosetta mission gives us a chance to examine a comet in a way we've never seen one before -- in orbit around it and as it kicks up in activity," said Claudia Alexander, Rosetta's U.S. project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

"The NASA suite of instruments will provide puzzle pieces the Rosetta science team as a whole will put together with the other pieces to paint a portrait of how a comet works and what it's made of."

Rosetta's objective is to observe the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko up close. By examining the full composition of the comet's nucleus and the ways in which a comet changes, Rosetta will help scientists learn more about the origin and evolution of our solar system and the role comets may have played in seeding Earth with water, and perhaps even life.

The ultraviolet imaging spectrograph, called Alice, will analyze gases in the tail of the comet, as well as the coma, the fuzzy envelope around the nucleus of the comet. The coma develops as a comet approaches the sun. Alice also will measure the rate at which the comet produces water, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.

These measurements will provide valuable information about the surface composition of the nucleus. The instrument also will measure the amount of argon present, an important clue about the temperature of the solar system at the time the comet's nucleus originally formed more than 4.6 billion years ago.

The Microwave Instrument for Rosetta Orbiter will identify chemicals on or near the comet's surface and measure the temperature of the chemicals and the dust and ice jetting out from the comet. The instrument also will see the gaseous activity in the tail through coma.

The Ion and Electron Sensor is part of a suite of five instruments to analyze the plasma environment of the comet, particularly the coma. The instrument will measure the charged particles in the sun's outer atmosphere, or solar wind, as they interact with the gas flowing out from the comet while Rosetta is drawing nearer to the comet's nucleus.

NASA also provided part of the electronics package the Double Focusing Mass Spectrometer, which is part of the Swiss-built Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) instrument.

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NASA Instruments on European Comet Spacecraft Begin Countdown

Lungs may suffer when certain elements go nano

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7 hours ago by Linda Fulps Yue-Wern Huang, professor of biological sciences at Missouri S&T.

(Phys.org) Nanoparticles are used in all kinds of applicationselectronics, medicine, cosmetics, even environmental clean-ups. More than 2,800 commercially available applications are now based on nanoparticles, and by 2017, the field is expected to bring in nearly $50 billion worldwide.

But this influx of nanotechnology is not without risks, say researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology.

"There is an urgent need to investigate the potential impact of nanoparticles on health and the environment," says Yue-Wern Huang, professor of biological sciences at Missouri S&T.

Huang and his colleagues have been systematically studying the effects of transition metal oxide nanoparticles on human lung cells. These nanoparticles are used extensively in optical and recording devices, water purification systems, cosmetics and skin care products, and targeted drug delivery, among other applications.

"In their typical coarse powder form, the toxicity of these substances is not dramatic," says Huang. "But as nanoparticles with diameters of only 16-80 nanometers, the situation changes significantly."

The researchers exposed both healthy and cancerous human lung cells to nanoparticles composed of titanium, chromium, manganese, iron, nickel, copper and zinc compoundstransition metal oxides that are on the fourth row of the periodic table. The researchers discovered that the nanoparticles' toxicity to the cells, or cytotoxicity, increased as they moved right on the periodic table.

"About 80 percent of the cells died in the presence of nanoparticles of copper oxide and zinc oxide," says Huang. "These nanoparticles penetrated the cells and destroyed their membranes. The toxic effects are related to the nanoparticles' surface electrical charge and available docking sites."

Huang says that certain nanoparticles released metal ionscalled ion dissolutionwhich also played a significant role in cell death.

Huang is now working on new research that may help reduce nanoparticles' toxicity and shed light on how nanoparticles interact with cells.

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Lungs may suffer when certain elements go nano

Simulations to enable novel lithographic patterning techniques

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27.01.2014 - (idw) Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

European Research Consortium to Develop Simulation Tools, Materials and Processes to Enable Further Miniaturization of Nano-electronics Advanced simulation models and a computational framework for lithography-integrated directed self-assembly (DSA) of block copolymers will be developed within the European project CoLiSA.MMP. These software tools will aid the research and development of new materials, designs and process flows. By enhancing existing and future lithographic patterning techniques, DSA of block copolymers can help to further extend the impressive development in semiconductor technologies. Cost-efficient technologies for the miniaturization of patterns in semiconductor devices are key to the development of more powerful computers, mobile devices and many other types of consumer and industrial electronics. CoLiSA.MMP combines European expertise in soft matter physics, block copolymer chemistry, lithographic process and computational lithography.

For many technology generations, the miniaturization of semiconductor devices was enabled by evolutionary advancements in optical projection lithography. In the past, this was mainly achieved by the reduction of the wavelength or an increase of the numerical aperture (NA). Today with size requirements close to the physical limits, highly involved methods such as optical resolution enhancement techniques, source and mask optimization (SMO), double patterning and lithography-friendly design are required. Only with the help of these, can the downscaling pace of Moores law be maintained, allowing for technology nodes as small as 22 nanometers. The extension of optical lithography to even smaller dimensions will lead to a drastic increase in costs. Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, at a wavelength of 13.5 nanometers for example, promises a revival of wavelength-driven scaling. Because of major unresolved obstacles associated with the source power and stability and the mask infrastructure, the introduction of EUV has been repeatedly postponed. Directed self-assembly (DSA) of block copolymers offers an alternative approach to scaling. It employs nanophase separation between covalently bound chemically different monomers. In contrast to traditional, increasingly difficult and expensive optics-driven top-down technologies, DSA uses a cost-efficient material-driven bottom-up technique, permitting structures of 10 nanometers and below.

Two challenges still impede an industry-grade application of DSA: 1st, the host substrate strongly impacts DSA. The resulting pattern formation must be understood and modeled exactly in order to optimize its efficiency and to circumvent defects. 2nd, the specific properties of DSA must be considered early during the design stage. Within CoLiSA.MMP novel material and process models and a computational lithography framework for DSA will be developed. The combination of advanced, tailored atomistic and coarse-grained models and a series of complementary experiments, serves as the foundation for the development of highly efficient reduced models that seamlessly integrate into the lithographic process simulation. The new modeling facilities will be used to establish advanced design flows, which account for both the lithographic generation of guiding patterns and the patterns resulting from DSA. By posing the design problem as an inverse one, lithographically manufacturable guiding patterns and process conditions for given target structures can be precisely predicted and at a very early stage. Computational lithography will be also used to investigate the root causes of DSA-specific defects and to propose strategies to avert or mitigate them.

On November 19 and 20, 2013, Fraunhofer IISB in Erlangen, Germany, hosted the kick-off meeting for the 3-year project, which has a total budget of 4.91 million Euros.

CoLiSA.MMP is funded by the European Union in the 7th Framework Programme, under the ICT project number 619793.

Contact Dr. Andreas Erdmann Fraunhofer IISB Schottkystrasse 10, 91058 Erlangen, Germany Tel. +49-9131-761-258 Fax +49-9131-761-212 info@colisa.eu

Fraunhofer IISB The Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Systems and Device Technology IISB is one of 66 institutes in the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. Here, applied research and development is carried out in micro- and nano-electronics, power electronics and mechatronics. With a staff of 180 employees, the institute is committed to contract research for industry and public authorities.

Fraunhofer IISB is internationally recognized for the development of technology, equipment, and materials for nano-electronics and its work on power electronic systems for energy efficiency, hybrid and electric cars.

In addition to its headquarters in Erlangen, the IISB maintains two branch laboratories in Nuremberg and Freiberg.

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Simulations to enable novel lithographic patterning techniques

Molecular geneticist Zoghbi throws light on enigmatic neurological disorder

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It was an encounter with a little girl who suffered from an enigmatic neurological disorder that set molecular geneticist Huda Zoghbi on a journey of unexpected scientific discovery, taking her from the paediatric clinic to a medical laboratory, where she would unravel the genetic origins of a rare and devastating condition Rett Syndrome.

Professor Zoghbi, now Professor of Paediatrics, Neurology, Molecular and Human Genetics and Neuroscience at the Baylor College of Medicine, spoke on Monday of the significance of her days as a clinician when she was able to catch medical clues to the relatively unknown disease, and the promise of a treatment made possible by genome sequencing, which can today help identify the cause of several disorders.

It was 16 years after she met her first patient at the Texas Medical Centre in 1983 that she discovered a genetic mutation linked to Rett Syndrome, which caused a critical reduction of the methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 (MECP2) and affected every part and every function of the brain, Professor Zoghbi said in a lecture A journey from the clinic to the laboratory to understand brain disorders she delivered as part of the Cell Press-TNQ India Distinguished Lectureship Series.

Rett Syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder that primarily affects girls (1 in 10,000), alters no fewer than 2,500 genes, causing learning and memory deficits, motor dysfunction and sometimes convulsions. And curiously, this hereditary condition sets in six to 18 months into the childs life: The girl who would sing along to nursery rhymes and greet her father when he returned from work fell silent at the age of two years. She lost her ability to use her hands and would rarely make eye contact. She could not walk with ease and most strikingly, would wring her hands constantly, she said.

However, the techniques of genome sequencing have transformed diagnosis, allowing us to identify causes of so many disorders, said Professor Zoghbi, whose investigations have provided vital clues to the genetic and molecular mechanisms of other neurological disorders such as Spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 and Huntingtons disease.

We are at a time when we can contemplate therapies, she said, adding studies were under way to find out if an anti-epileptic drug can pharmacologically reverse some of the crippling symptoms. Years of research on mice models revealed that when MECP2 was not at its optimal level it impacted a specific class of neurons (GABAergic neurons), which could become targets for therapy to rescue MECP2 levels and therefore alleviate symptoms, she said.

Professor Zoghbi will deliver her lecture at the Music Academy in Chennai at 4.30 p.m., Wednesday, and at the Teen Murti Auditorium in New Delhi at 4.30 p.m. on Friday.

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Molecular geneticist Zoghbi throws light on enigmatic neurological disorder