Our new long awaited paper just came out!

New Insights into Ligand-Receptor Pairing and Coevolution of Relaxin Family Peptides and Their Receptors in Teleosts

Briefly, this article explores some of the interesting aspects of the molecular evolution of relaxin peptides and their receptors in teleost fish, and employs the findings of our previous research published recently as the Plos One paper. This paper is the result of collaborative work done at the University of Winnipeg (Dr. JensFranck and Dr. Sara Good labs) and at the University of Utrecht (Dr. Jan Bogerd lab). The data presented in the article originates from the MSc theses of Sergey Yegorov (University of Winnipeg) and Joran Martijn (University of Utrecht).

http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijeb/2012/310278/

Spring/Summer of 2012: UPDATE

NEW PUBLICATION OUT:

Using Paleogenomics to Study the Evolution of Gene Families: Origin and Duplication History of the Relaxin Family Hormones and Their Receptors

The Spring started off really well with the publication of our paper on using ancestral genome reconstructions to trace the origin of gene families in March: this paper represents the main chapter of Sergey’s Msc thesis.

We are studying the origin and evolution of the relaxin gene family in vertebrates (please see our lab's webpage). The relaxin genes belong to the insulin superfamily but unlike insulin and insuline like growth factor (IGF) that play distinct roles in growth and development, the relaxin family of peptides, that include the relaxin genes and insulin-like peptides (INSL genes) play roles in reproduction and neuroendocrine processes.

One of the interesting results from our research, is that we find evidence that the relaxin family of genes duplicated from the insulin locus, early in evolution and that the first relaxin family genes may have played linked neurological processes to reproductive functions. Thus a paper that came out in July of 2012 showing that starfish have a relaxin like peptide that is secreted by the nervous system but acting on the reproductivesystem was of great interest to us.

We have recently begun collaborating with Juan Opazo and have a paper coming out on insulin-like peptide 4 in eutherians.

TRIP TO RUSSIA and KAZAKHSTAN

June 13^th, 2012: Sara flew to Moscow and then to Astana.

It is surprising how hard it could be for Westerners to access Russia! At first I was planning to visit Moscow during the 15 hour layover, but it turned out that my VISA didn’t allow for that (some miscommunication between me and the Russian Embassy in Canada). So I waited for 15 hours in a small guarded space in the airport with no access to food or water except if one had rubles (which I didn’t!) and requested an aide to go fetch for it for you! Luckily I met a Canadian-Uzbekistani woman who bought me a salmon sandwich and tea. Absolutely delicious!

June 15^th: Arrived in Astana early in the morning, incredibly happy to see both Sergey and his country. I’ve been fascinated by Soviet/Russian history since my teenage years, this was like a dream coming true to visit a former Soviet republic with Sergey!

on the pedestrian bridge over the river Esil, Astana downtown

the Government buildings in Astana

While in Astana, I gave a seminar at the new Nazarbayev University (NU) on funding and research for health sciences research in Canada. One of the faculty at NU is Charlie Gilman, who also works with zebrafish. We had a great night out with Charlie, and his wife Jessie: eating Dungan food, walking around the amazing city of Astana.

with Charlie and his wife Jessie

June 22^nd: Sara presented her seminar at NU.

NU is a surreal campus: everything housed in one large building that sports year-round palm trees and beautiful décor. In addition to people from NU, other people attended from two other research institutes in Astana: the National Centre for Biotechnology and Kazakh AgroTechnical University. 

June 24^th: Heading to Novosibirsk, Siberia for the 8thInternational Conference on Bioinformatics of Genome Regulation and structures/systemsBiology (the longest name ever!!). 

Most of the people at the conference were either Russian or collaborated with Russian scientists. It was a good size, with quite a diversity of talks. The conference was sponsored by the Institute of Cytology and Genetics and others at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Novosibirsk. Novosibirsk is a predominantly industrial city (3^rd largest city in Russia), and the campus is decorated in traditionally Soviet tones taking us 20 years back).

Here we are drinking Kvas – the Russian drink made from fermented bread that is a bit bitter but thirst quenching!

wandering around the campus in Novosibirsk

Campanula rapunculoides in its native Siberia :)

Sergey is graduating in absentia June 7th...with a Msc in Biosciences, Technology and Public Policy from UofW

The first posting

4th June 2012, 1:57 am Astana time: our blog is created!!!