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Coral reef fish facing acidification

22 March 2017

Ocean acidification caused by increased levels of dissolved CO2 can have significant effects on marine ecosystems. Behavioural and chemosensory abnormalities associated with exposure to elevated CO2 are reported to be among the greatest threats to fishes, particularly coral reef fishes. Most previous studies have investigated the effects of short-term exposure to elevated CO2 exposure, but to improve the ability of marine biologists to confidently predict the future effects of CO2 on marine ecosystems,

On the trail of running giraffes

16 March 2017

Years of anticipation and months of preparation – permit applications, equipment testing, liaising with multiple institutions – all boiled down to the single moment when Christopher Basu from the Structure and Motion Laboratory at the Royal Veterinary College, UK, got his first video footage of running giraffes. As part of his PhD, Chris studied the evolution and biomechanics of giraffe locomotion, collecting data on the motion and forces of walking giraffes in a UK zoological park.

Tracing the evolution of trafficking

13 March 2017

Eukaryotic cells traffic vesicles and cargo through a system of organelles, which allows them to carrying out processes such as endocytosis and exocytosis. Lael Barlow from the Department of Cell Biology at the University of Alberta, Canada, studies the evolution of proteins involved in membrane trafficking, including components of Adaptor and SNARE protein complexes. His bioinformatics work suggests differences in how membrane trafficking occurs in single-celled eukaryotes compared with animals and fungi.

The company seal

Medal_2

 

22 March 2016

The company seal designed by Bidder features two Egyptian symbols.

Camille Viaut, a PIPS intern from the University of East Anglia

4 September 2015

“This internship was a great introduction to the Publishing world. I worked in a nice and stimulating environment, as part of a team, and was supervised by two mentors who helped me to complete my projects and answered all my questions. I think that was a very good experience for me, as a PhD student, working in a completely different but still science-related field.”

Expanding perspectives

16 March 2017

EFA-6 is a cell-intrinsic inhibitor of axon regrowth in Caenorhabditis elegans, possibly through limiting the growth of microtubules. Previous work has shown that on axon injury, EFA-6 relocalises from the plasma membrane to near the microtubule minus ends. Ngang Heok Tang from the Division of Biological Sciences, University of California San Diego, USA, wanted to test different kinases that might phosphorylate EFA-6 to control its localisation pattern in one-cell embryos, and relocalisation activity in axons.

Covering the distance

13 March 2017

Marian Blanca Ramírez from the Institute of Parasitology and Biomedicine López-Neyra at the CSIC in Spain has been studying the effects of LRRK2, a protein associated with Parkinson’s disease, on cell motility and its association with stable microtubules. Her PhD research had led her to hypothesise that increased association between LRRK2 and microtubules might alter cell motility. To help her test this hypothesis, she applied for a Travelling Fellowship from the Journal of Cell Science to spend time in Prof Maddy Parson’s lab at King’s College, London, learning how to perform 2D and 3D cell migration assays.

The Company of Biologists: who we are and what we do

20 October 2016

The Company of Biologists is a not-for-profit publisher that exists to support biologists and inspire biology.

Intern – Anna Bobrowska

16 February 2016

In 2015 I spent nine months working as an Editorial Intern at Journal of Cell Science. Coming from a postdoc, this was my first foray into the non-academic world, which I undertook to gain experience to help me start a career in science publishing.

Sharon and Anna_the nice picture

Anna Bobrowska (Intern) and Sharon Ahmad (Executive Editor, Journal of Cell Science)

My primary project was to help start and run “Cell Scientists To Watch”, a new interview series with up-and-coming cell biologists. It involved coming up with questions, selecting and inviting candidates, as well as conducting, transcribing and editing the interviews.

Message in a bottle

Message in a bottle (image from the MBA Archive)

28 August 2015

George Parker Bidder III, the founder of The Company of Biologists, was an eminent marine biologist. While working at the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth in the early 1900s, Bidder released over 1,000 bottles into the North Sea as part of his investigations into water movements (in comparison with the direction of plaice migration). The majority were trawled up by fishermen, but some of the bottles were presumed to be lost for ever.

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