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Researchers at the , a part of the Ó³»­´«Ã½, are taking on two common but complex psychiatric diseases – bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Among the Stanley Center investigators is Jon Madison, a group leader within the Center whose work involves digging into the genetic contributions to both disorders.

January is , so it’s a nice time to reflect on our mentoring experiences. Many in the Ó³»­´«Ã½ community have at one time served as a mentor, a mentee, or both. Mentors at the Ó³»­´«Ã½ can be found at all levels, from research technicians up to core faculty members. The mentoring relationship is an essential one on the path to becoming a scientist, as many who enter the field are first inspired by a scientist or teacher they view as a role model.

A small pool of stem cells replenishes the human body with about 200 billion new blood cells daily. But the elaborate circuitry that determines if a cell will develop into a T cell, red blood cell, or one of the nine or more other blood cell types remains largely unknown. A research team led by scientists from the Ó³»­´«Ã½ and Brigham and Women’s Hospital has taken a systematic approach to help decipher this circuitry, compiling a comprehensive catalog of the factors that determine a blood cell’s fate. Their work appears in the January 21 issue of Cell.

I saw a mention today that the purported oldest elephant in North America died yesterday at the age of 71. Taj, who resided at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, was an Asian elephant - a smaller elephant compared with the African savannah elephant, Loxodonta africana. Aside from being long-lived, Taj also appears to have had an creating paintings sold for charity.