pages tagged SciFundbywayofsciencehttp://bywayofscience.branchable.com/tags/SciFund/bywayofscienceikiwiki2014-04-20T00:40:35ZNever send a sibling to do a clone's jobhttp://bywayofscience.branchable.com/posts/Never_send_a_sibling_to_do_a_clone__39__s_job/2014-04-20T00:40:35Z2012-06-29T21:08:18Z
<p>Back in May I had <a href="http://bywayofscience.branchable.com/tags/SciFund/../../posts/Guest_posts_at_Marmorkrebs_blog/">written a guest post</a> at the <a href="http://marmorkrebs.blogspot.com/2012/05/never-send-sibling-to-do-clones-job.html">Marmorkrebs blog</a> detailing why I think the <strong>Marmorkrebs</strong> or <strong>marbled crayfish</strong> is an excellent model system (or could become one).</p>
<p><a href="http://doctorzen.net">Doctor Zen</a> also posted the <a href="http://marmorkrebs.blogspot.com/2012/05/never-send-sibling-to-do-clones-job_29.html">second part</a> of my post as well--so check it out!</p>
<p>You can read the post <a href="http://marmorkrebs.blogspot.com/2012/05/never-send-sibling-to-do-clones-job_29.html">here</a> or recap the first part <a href="http://marmorkrebs.blogspot.com/2012/05/never-send-sibling-to-do-clones-job.html">here</a>.</p>
<p>Thanks to Doctor Zen for sharing my thoughts and supporting my <a href="http://rkthb.co/7543">#SciFund project</a>!</p>
<p><img src="http://kitenet.net/~kyle/kyle.gif" alt="Kyle" /></p>
<p><small><a href="http://bywayofscience.branchable.com/tags/SciFund/../../licensing/">K.S. MacLea, Ph.D.</a></small></p>
Guest posts at Marmorkrebs bloghttp://bywayofscience.branchable.com/posts/Guest_posts_at_Marmorkrebs_blog/2014-04-20T00:40:35Z2012-05-22T15:03:08Z
<p>I've got a new post up as a guest blogger at <a href="http://doctorzen.net">Doctor Zen</a>'s <a href="http://marmorkrebs.blogspot.com">Marmorkrebs blog</a>.</p>
<p>The first post is titled <a href="http://marmorkrebs.blogspot.com/2012/05/never-send-sibling-to-do-clones-job.html">"Never send a sibling to do a clone's job" (part one)</a> and talks about why I think <a href="http://marmorkrebs.com">Marmorkrebs or marbled crayfish</a> are a model system that should be of interest to scientists, and not just those that study crustaceans.</p>
<p>You can read the post <a href="http://marmorkrebs.blogspot.com/2012/05/never-send-sibling-to-do-clones-job.html">here</a>.</p>
<p>I will post part two when it is up for reading as well.</p>
<p><img src="http://kitenet.net/~kyle/kyle.gif" alt="Kyle" /></p>
<p><small><a href="http://bywayofscience.branchable.com/tags/SciFund/../../licensing/">K.S. MacLea, Ph.D.</a></small></p>
Crayfish Clone Wars supportershttp://bywayofscience.branchable.com/posts/Crayfish_Clone_Wars_supporters/2014-04-20T00:40:35Z2012-05-12T02:49:25Z
<p>My project in the second crowdfunding-for-science extravaganza known as <a href="http://www.rockethub.com/projects/scifund">#SciFund</a> <strong>has been fully funded--and beyond</strong>!</p>
<p>In fact, with generous donations, <a href="http://rkthb.co/7543">I am at</a> <strong>167% of my original goal</strong> ($1302 out of $780). <strong>(Update 5/22/12: $1616 or 208%!!)</strong> <strong>(Update 5/30/12: $$1779 or 229%!!)</strong></p>
<p>Thanks to all you donors with great taste and foresight--clearly great things await for the genetics of crayfish and our understanding of this unique parthenogenetic creature, the <a href="http://marmorkrebs.com">Marmorkrebs or marbled crayfish</a>.</p>
<p>Currently, the following beautiful, intelligent, and wonderful people have contributed to my Project, <a href="http://bywayofscience.branchable.com/tags/SciFund/../../posts/Crayfish_Clone_Wars/">Crayfish Clone Wars</a>. Thank you to <strong>all</strong>.</p>
<ul>
<li>Lindy Gullett & Kate Reilly</li>
<li>Anthony Salvagno</li>
<li>Kalani Kirk Hausman</li>
<li>Greg Crowther</li>
<li>Sean Sterrett</li>
<li>Lauren Kuehne</li>
<li>Aleks Ksiazkiewicz</li>
<li>Claudia Makeyev</li>
<li>Rob Denton</li>
<li>Mandy and Jayson Boyers</li>
<li>Jennifer MacLea & Peter Harmon</li>
<li>Robert & Lorraine MacLea</li>
<li>Terese, Rob, and Patrick MacLea</li>
<li>Amanda White</li>
<li>Katie Ritcheske</li>
<li>Lynn Chambers</li>
<li>Gil & Jeanne Slater</li>
<li>Edwin & Katherine Anderson</li>
<li>Elanor Pickens (added 5/12/12)</li>
<li>Joel Green (added 5/12/12)</li>
<li>Michelle & Tom Kidwell (added 5/20/12)</li>
<li>Jared Foo (added 5/20/12)</li>
<li>Nicole Soucy (added 5/20/12)</li>
<li>Yagya Sharma (added 5/22/12)</li>
<li>Andrew Piskorski (added 5/22/12)</li>
<li>Susan Roy Greenbowe (added 5/22/12)</li>
<li>Rose Hamel Scovel (added 5/22/12)</li>
<li>Maureen Ruth (added 5/26/12)</li>
<li>Annukka Pasi (added 5/26/12)</li>
<li>Francis Portland (added 5/29/12)</li>
<li>Suzann Brehony (added 5/29/12)</li>
<li>Natalie Pitts (added 5/30/12)</li>
</ul>
<p>You guys are the best.</p>
<p><img src="http://kitenet.net/~kyle/kyle.gif" alt="Kyle" /></p>
<p><small><a href="http://bywayofscience.branchable.com/tags/SciFund/../../licensing/">K.S. MacLea, Ph.D.</a></small></p>
Crayfish Clone Warshttp://bywayofscience.branchable.com/posts/Crayfish_Clone_Wars/2014-04-20T00:40:35Z2012-05-03T04:32:17Z
<p>The 2nd <strong><a href="http://scifundchallenge.org">#SciFund Challenge</a></strong> is <strong><a href="http://www.rockethub.com/projects/scifund">now live</a></strong>!</p>
<p>What is SciFund? It is <strong>"<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdfunding">crowdfunding</a>"</strong> to support scientific research. If you've heard of crowdfunding, it's probably because of sites like <a href="http://kickstarter.com">Kickstarter</a> and <a href="http://RocketHub.com">RocketHub</a> that have raised money for musicians to create albums, for programmers to create video games, and even for people to make feature-length films, among a lot of other projects, mostly in the artistic arena. SciFund is an effort to do the same thing for scientists--allowing them to raise money for small(ish) projects from individual donors.</p>
<p>But you want details, right?</p>
<p>The SciFund Challenge is asking the general public to open their wallets for small-amount donations organized through the <a href="http://RocketHub.com">RocketHub</a> website, which handles the administration of the project (and takes a small cut of the proceeds). You can think of this as the model charities have always used (bundling lots of donations to do good works), but with an internet/social media twist.</p>
<p>As in 2011 when the <strong>#SciFund Challenge</strong> started, scientists from a wide variety of disciplines (ecology to psychology to astronomy) have signed on to crowdfund their research. And I've decided to join them in <strong>SciFund 2</strong>!</p>
<p><img src="http://kitenet.net/~kyle/CrayfishCloneWarsSmall.jpg" alt="Crayfish Clone Wars" align="right" />
My project is called <strong><a href="http://www.rockethub.com/projects/7543-crayfish-clone-wars/">Crayfish Clone Wars</a></strong> and you can watch video I made for the project on YouTube: <strong><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ8iIw95jfc">Crayfish Clone Wars video</a>.</strong></p>
<p>So, I can hear you wondering, what exactly are you planning to do?</p>
<p>I've worked in the past with two types of decapod crustaceans, crabs (2 species) and lobsters. But the decapods also include shrimp and crayfish and to broaden my exposure to this fascinating group of creatures, I've decided to take on a research project studying the unusual "clone" crayfish <a href="http://marmorkrebs.com">Marmorkrebs</a> (also called the marbled crayfish). This crayfish is unique among the ~15,000 or so decapod crustaceans in that it is the only one that can reproduce <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis">parthenogenetically</a>. As a result, female Marmorkrebs reproduce without sex, and produce only daughters that are <strong>genetically identical</strong> to the mother.</p>
<p>But <strong>how identical is identical</strong>?</p>
<p>Turns out this is not as easy of a question as you might imagine. It's taken us a long time to prove that even human monozygotic (identical) twins are really genetically (mostly) identical. We don't really know <em>how</em> genetically identical these parthenogenetic crayfish are. So, this means that we don't really know how different that different lines of Marmorkrebs are (those that are not descended, at least to our knowledge, from the same ancestor). In <strong>Crayfish Clone Wars</strong>, I will use DNA sequencing to minutely examine genes from the different "lines" and see how the genes differ (that is, I will pit clone versus clone in a "Clone War" at the DNA level!). And since we have <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/?term=Marmorkrebs%5BORGN%5D">only a few</a> DNA sequences from the marbled crayfish in the entire <a href="http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov">GenBank</a> database, every gene we study brings us one step closer to the goal of a Crayfish Genome Project.</p>
<p>While this subject may seem esoteric, there is so much we don't know about crustacean biology, and crayfish are particularly understudied at the genetic level amongst the decapods (where most research goes to crabs, lobsters, and shrimp, depending on your part of the world). Every gene we study in crustaceans helps us to understand these animals better. I'm not going to promise that we're going to cure cancer with this information, but I think the discovery of new genes and how they work in new organisms is every bit as worthy of study.</p>
<p>What your contribution will support:</p>
<ul>
<li>Sample collection from Marmorkrebs (marbled crayfish) individuals.</li>
<li>Sample processing (DNA and/or RNA isolation, reverse transcription, gene cloning, quantitative polymerase chain reaction, preparation for and carrying out of conventional Sanger sequencing and/or next-generation sequencing (NGS) methods).</li>
<li>Bioinformatic sequence analysis.</li>
<li>Deposition of sequences in the GenBank gene database, contributing to knowledge of genetics in crustaceans and other organisms.</li>
</ul>
<p>What you will receive for your contribution:</p>
<ul>
<li>Periodic updates via my blog and by email on the status of work.</li>
<li>Rewards that are listed on the RocketHub <a href="http://www.rockethub.com/projects/7543-crayfish-clone-wars/">project page</a> and that commemorate your contribution in fun ways</li>
</ul>
<p>I originally released a "teaser" video for <strong>Crayfish Clone Wars</strong> in the month of April, to whet your appetites, which you can view here: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0fBE4oYyNwU">Teaser video for Crayfish Clone Wars</a></p>
<p>If you would consider a donation to <strong><a href="http://www.rockethub.com/projects/7543-crayfish-clone-wars/">my project</a></strong>, I would be grateful for your help. I'm raising only $780 to fund the modest costs associated with the collection of tissues or blood (hemolymph) from the crayfish and purification of genes from those samples. Because of the small pricetag for my project, if I can get everyone reading this to donate only $1 or $5, I can easily reach my goal by the end of the SciFund Challenge on May 31st, 2012.</p>
<p>Would you please help? Thank you very much!</p>
<p>If you would like to know more about me, have a look at the <a href="http://bywayofscience.branchable.com/tags/SciFund/../../posts/first_post/">about me</a> page for my blog, <a href="http://bywayofscience.branchable.com/tags/SciFund/../../posts/By_Way_of_Science/">By Way of Science</a>.</p>
<p><img src="http://kitenet.net/~kyle/kyle.gif" alt="Kyle" /></p>
<p><small><a href="http://bywayofscience.branchable.com/tags/SciFund/../../licensing/">K.S. MacLea, Ph.D.</a></small></p>
Teaser videos for upcoming SciFund projectshttp://bywayofscience.branchable.com/posts/Teaser_videos_for_upcoming_SciFund_projects/2014-04-20T00:40:35Z2012-04-21T20:41:25Z
<p><img src="http://kitenet.net/~kyle/CrayfishCloneWarsSmall.jpg" alt="Crayfish Clone Wars" align="right" />
My project in the upcoming <strong>#SciFund Challenge</strong> (SciFund 2) will be called <strong>Crayfish Clone Wars</strong> and I'll be raising a small amount of money to do some experiments on samples from these amazing clone (parthenogenetic) crayfish! Stay tuned--the Challenge opens on May 1st.</p>
<p>Here's the "teaser" video for <strong>Crayfish Clone Wars</strong>:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0fBE4oYyNwU">http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0fBE4oYyNwU</a></p>
<p>On May 1st, you'll be able to actually donate to the project, so check this space!</p>
<p>You can also see the "teaser" video for <strong>Zen Faulkes</strong> of <a href="http://www.utpa.edu/faculty/zfaulkes/">UTPA</a>, who is doing his own crustacean research project (his second <a href="http://www.rockethub.com/projects/3695-doctor-zen-and-the-amazon-crayfish">SciFund</a> project), this time in <strong>Beach of the Goliath Crabs</strong>:</p>
<p><a href="http://neurodojo.blogspot.com/2012/04/coming-in-may-2012.html">http://neurodojo.blogspot.com/2012/04/coming-in-may-2012.html</a></p>
<p><img src="http://kitenet.net/~kyle/kyle.gif" alt="Kyle" /></p>
<p><small><a href="http://bywayofscience.branchable.com/tags/SciFund/../../licensing/">K.S. MacLea, Ph.D.</a></small></p>
SciFund projects in 2012http://bywayofscience.branchable.com/posts/SciFund_projects_in_2012/2014-04-20T00:40:35Z2012-04-15T22:52:05Z
<p>There are a lot of other people attempting to raise money for science in <a href="http://kitenet.nethttp://kitenet.net/~kyle/bywayofscience/posts/The_SciFund_Challenge/">SciFund 2</a>.</p>
<p><img src="http://kitenet.net/~kyle/SciFund_logo_small.jpg" alt="SciFund logo" align="right" />
I'm providing links here to reach their projects:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="http://neurodojo.blogspot.com/2012/04/coming-in-may-2012.html">Beach of the Goliath Crabs</a>: <a href="http://DoctorZen.net">Doctor Zen</a> <a href="http://www.rockethub.com/projects/3695-doctor-zen-and-the-amazon-crayfish">returns</a> with a new project, Beach of the Goliath Crabs.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://khazardnaproject.wordpress.com/">Khazar DNA Project</a>: In search of the Khazars of the Caucasus.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://stemulate.org/">STEMulate</a>: STEMulating Learning through personalized education - Encouraging interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) for young girls and boys.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://research.iheartanthony.com/">Anthony's research site, iheartanthony</a>: Examining the effects of deuterated water and deuterium-depleted water on life</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://readingfaces.wordpress.com/">Reading Emotions: Improving Our Non-verbal Accuracy</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://laurenkuehne.wordpress.com/">The Lakes Are Alive, with the Sound of Data</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://amphibianranavirusproject.blogspot.com/">The Amphibian Ranavirus Project</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/WildFreeProject">Wild and Free Project</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://phageresearch.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/">Bashing bacteria in the future</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://singaboutscience.org/">Sing About Science & Math</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://camelthorn.wikispaces.com/">Biblical Weeds of the Wasted West</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://www.heatherml.com/">Comparative Physiology, Lab and Field</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://scifundchallenge.org/hawaiianmoths/">The Unknown Moths of Kaho'olawe Island, Hawai'i</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://rddenton.blogspot.com/">All Female Salamanders on the Farm</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://simonvanrysewyk.wordpress.com">Pain facial expression: attention, perception and interpretation</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://simondonner.blogpsot.com">Coping with stress</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://www.ecologyofbirdloss.org">Snakes, Birds and Disappearing Chile Peppers</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://www.mermaidislands.com">Mermaid diffuses fish bombs</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://scifundchallenge.org/genopolitics">Genopolitics: Your Genes Affect Your Vote</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://redrhizos.wordpress.com">Birth control for fish, what's in YOUR water?</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://scifundchallenge.org/frogsci/">African clawed frogs: The mysterious invaders</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://www.science3point0.com/evomri/">What happened to your fossil? Let's find out</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://readingnature.tumblr.com/">Reading nature</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://scifundchallenge.org/risitas/">Are coral reefs picky eaters?</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://rkthb.co/7530">Down with the (hospital) gown</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://www.rockethub.com/projects/7546-helping-children-stay-oriented-through-life">Helping children stay oriented through life</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://www.rockethub.com/projects/7509-projet-crevette-save-children-from-disease">Projet Crevette: Saving children from disease</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://www.rockethub.com/projects/7579-recipe-for-scientists">Recipe for Scientists</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://shipout.wordpress.com">Roads of the Ocean</a></p></li>
</ul>
<p>Be sure to visit these websites to learn about the <strong>other cool projects</strong> in the second <strong>#SciFund Challenge</strong>! I'll post more when I have the updated link list for other projects.</p>
<p><img src="http://kitenet.net/~kyle/kyle.gif" alt="Kyle" /></p>
<p><small><a href="http://bywayofscience.branchable.com/tags/SciFund/../../licensing/">K.S. MacLea, Ph.D.</a></small></p>
The SciFund Challengehttp://bywayofscience.branchable.com/posts/The_SciFund_Challenge/2014-04-20T00:40:35Z2012-04-07T06:01:27Z
<p>This year, during the month of May I'll be raising money for a scientific research project I'm conducting, using the crowdfunding collaborative project known as the <strong>SciFund Challenge</strong>.</p>
<p><img src="http://kitenet.net/~kyle/BWoS.jpg" alt="By Way of Science" align="right" />
I'll post a bit more about this tomorrow, and I'll be using <a href="http://scifundchallenge.org/blog/">their blog space</a> to promote the project I'll be undertaking.</p>
<p><a href="http://scifundchallenge.org/">The SciFund Challenge</a> raised over $76,000 in their 1st fundraising drive in 2011. This year, in the 2nd Annual SciFund Challenge, with almost double the projects, they hope to raise a lot more money for scientific research. I hope you'll help me be a part of it!</p>
<p>To give you a little teaser, I'll just say this much right now: I'll be studying the genes of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis">parthenogenetic</a> crayfish known as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marmorkrebs">marmorkrebs</a>. If you want to learn a little bit about marmorkrebs before my next post, please see <a href="http://doctorzen.net">Zen Faulkes's</a> excellent <a href="http://www.utpa.edu/faculty/zfaulkes/marmorkrebs/">website on the critter</a>.</p>
<p>In the mean time, watch this space to learn more about crowdfunding science. (In addition to the SciFund Challenge, another project, <a href="http://petridish.org">Petridish.org</a> is a new entrant into the crowdfunding-for-science world. Check it out! I'm going to stick to just the one project for now, though.)</p>
<p><img src="http://kitenet.net/~kyle/kyle.gif" alt="Kyle" /></p>
<p><small><a href="http://bywayofscience.branchable.com/tags/SciFund/../../licensing/">K.S. MacLea, Ph.D.</a></small></p>