NIH HPC News & Announcements
HPC staff presenting at NIH Bioinformatics SIG seminar on 2/1
Date: 31 January 2018 14:01:52
From: HPC Staff
The NIH Bioinformatics SIG seminar on Thursday, 2/1 features a presentation from the NIH HPC group. See below
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Please join the Bioinformatics SIG with the winners from last year's Pi Day.
We will have two presentations:
"Striking Back at Alzheimer’s Disease: From Bioenergetics to Behavioral Modification"
by Robert Pawlosky, NIAAA
and
"Balancing Modernity, Stability, and Reproducibility in Computational Analyses"
by David Hoover and Afif Elghraoui, CIT, HPC Group
Date: Thursday, February 1
Time: 3:00 pm
Location: Building 50, room 1328/1334 (rear)
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Robert Pawlosky's abstract:
Patients who develop Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have low fluorodeoxyglucose uptake
in the brain years prior to advent of clinical symptoms. Because of brain glucose hypometabolism AD patients and AD transgenic mice are unable to maintain a favorable energetic status resulting, for example, in an accumulation of ROS-damaged biomolecules and organelles. As an alternative, mild ketosis can potentially overcome glucose hypometabolism, improve the cellular redox environment and limit the buildup of oxidized biomolecules. Moreover, ketones can supply key intermediates for the synthesis of amino acids and lipids. Hippocampal n-acetyl aspartate (NAA) is an anxiolytic biomarker associated with exploratory behavior and also a signature of mitochondrial functionality. Utilizing quantitative mass spectrometry, we investigated the effects of mild ketosis on bioenergetic metabolites, the associated cellular redox potentials, energy of ATP hydrolysis and oxidized biomolecules in older AD mice. Mildly ketotic mice had significantly higher concentrations of glycolytic and Krebs cycle intermediates, an improved mitochondrial redox potential, greater energy of ATP hydrolysis and lower amounts of oxidized lipids and proteins. Importantly, higher concentrations of hippocampal NAA in these same animals was associated with potent anxiolytic outcomes that corresponded with increased exploratory behavior. These results strongly suggest that ketosis is a practical therapy for correcting energy deficiencies and modifying behavior patterns in Alzheimer’s disease.
David Hoover's and Afif Elghraoui's abstract:
The pinning of software and reference data versions in scientific workflows minimizes disruption to an ongoing project. However, just as you keep up with new studies in your field and how they may affect your project, you should also be aware of updates to the software and reference data you rely on. We will discuss the types of changes that come with software and data updates, their consequences, and how to stay informed of them.
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