Newest HHMI BioInteractive-- check out the glow proteins!

dots on cancer! Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. JANUARY 25, 2017

Examining Alzheimer’s Plaques and tangles are the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. Until recently, most potential therapies have targeted plaques, which are made of a protein called amyloid-β. But tau, the protein involved in tangles, may also play an important role in the disease. That’s the focus of a newly annotated research paper from AAAS’ Science in the Classroom with embedded HHMI BioInteractive content. Read the paper and then be sure to check out our Alzheimer’s Disease Click and Learn.

Spotlight on: Neurophysiology

Sense and Sensitivity Probe your understanding of neurons and their activity in this virtual lab. You will record the electrical activity of individual neurons, identify responses to stimuli, and use fluorescent dyes to visualize their morphology.

Image of the Week

Designer Proteins Let it glow, let it glow, let it glow! Thanks to advances in computer design and synthetic DNA technology scientists have been able to produce completely new proteins. This image shows a highly fluorescent molecule that can be used in light microscopy studies.

Featured Clip

Clarifying the Brain To understand brain function, scientists must first be able to see how the brain works. This clip from the 2013 Holiday Lecture series shows how researchers use fluorescent tags to better understand neuronal communication in the brain.

Events and Announcements

Living the eLife Interested in bringing original research into your classroom – or just want quick digests of the latest findings? Be sure to take a look at eLife, an open-access online journal supported in part by HHMI, and their collection on Brains and Behavior. (Image Credit: Genny Anderson.)

Educator Tip

Connecting the Dots In this video teacher tip, New York educator David Knuffke describes how he uses the Cancer Gene Card Activity, part of the Cancer Discovery Activities suite of resources, and how it can help to teach Mendelian genetics using an interactive, real-world example. Do you have a favorite BioInteractive resource and want to tell us how you use it in your class? Email us the tip at BioInteractive@hhmi.org. If we feature yours, we'll send you a T-shirt! HHM