scientists
Cool Videos: Metabolomics
Posted on by Dr. Francis Collins
Today’s feature in my Cool Video series is a scientific film noir from the University of Florida in Gainesville. Channeling Humphrey Bogart’s hard-boiled approach to detective work, the protagonist of this video is tracking down metabolites—molecules involved in biological mysteries with more twists and turns than “The Maltese Falcon.”
If you’d like a few more details before or after watching the video, here’s how the scientists themselves describe their project: “Inside our cells, chemical heroes, victims, and villains leave behind clues about our health. Meet Dr. Art Edison, one of many metabolomics PIs who are on the case. Their quest? To tail and fingerprint small molecules, called metabolites, which result from the chemical processes that fuel and sustain life. Metabolites can shed light on the state of health, nutrition, or disease in a living thing—whether human, animal, or plant. Funded by National Institutes of Health grant U24DK097209, the University of Florida Southeast Center for Integrated Metabolomics is sleuthing through these cellular secrets.”
Celebration of Science
Posted on by Dr. Francis Collins
Biomedical research has had a major positive impact on nearly all of our lives. Due in large part to NIH-supported research, a baby born in the United States today can expect to live to nearly age 79—about three decades longer than one born in 1900. But, with so many people still in desperate need of treatments and cures, much more remains to be done.
To show you a few of the many ways in which researchers are now working to save, extend, and improve lives, I’d like to share this video from the recent “Celebration of Science” forum at NIH. Not only will you hear from a leader in Congress, you’ll see how research is touching the lives of some ordinary people: an HIV-positive woman with dreams of having children, a young man using his brain waves to control a robotic arm, and teenage twins up against a mysterious disease. Take a look—we even have a celebrity cameo from a Seinfeld star!
