Protein-Protein (and Postdoc-Postdoc) Interactions

Posted on June 26, 2008 by Cath@VWXYNot?

Realising that the stacked papers behind my monitor were starting to pose a serious safety hazard, I decided to actually read a few of them today before they crush me to death in the next earthquake. Cup of tea in hand, I pulled a paper at random from the ever-ascending pile… and discovered a link between my current department and my PhD supervisor’s lab in Glasgow.
It turns out that the two proteins studied by the Glasgow group interact with the protein studied by my new colleagues.
This somehow reminded me of an interrogation suffered by a postdoc friend of mine one drunken Glaswegian evening. When quizzed about his relationship with the neighbouring lab’s postdoc, he said “well, I work on [enzyme], and she works on [enzyme substrate], so it’s a match made in heaven, really”. (Protein names removed to protect the guilty innocent, who are now married to each other. One of them is actually a professor, which scares me).
Now that we have all these amazing online social networking tools, maybe we can start forging links to people whose proteins of interest interact with our own. Imagine – a whole new network based on satisfyingly geeky biochemical data. You might even find your next date in this way (100% success rate, n=1).
Matt, can we have a new category on the “Your Network” page please?
The Drosophila people will probably have the most fun, as usual.

About Cath@VWXYNot?

"one of the sillier science bloggers [...] I thought I should give a warning to the more staid members of the community." - Bob O'Hara, December 2010
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6 Responses to Protein-Protein (and Postdoc-Postdoc) Interactions

  1. Ian Brooks says:
    June 26, 2008 at 11:51 pm

    Drosophilists always have the most fun 🙂 I have very fond memories of the “Fly Meetings”. That list you posted missed my pet gene from my PhD: cacophony so named because of the defect in its courtship song…

  2. Cath Ennis says:
    June 26, 2008 at 11:56 pm

    It missed cheapdate (low alcohol tolerance) too, but at least INDY (I’m not dead yet, increased lifespan) is in there.

  3. Neil Saunders says:
    June 27, 2008 at 12:20 am

    Discovery using social networks of data, rather than people, is definitely a good idea. Just another argument for open science and open data in standard, machine-readable formats.

  4. Bob O'Hara says:
    June 27, 2008 at 5:41 am

    bq. It turns out that the two proteins studied by the Glasgow group interact with the protein studied by my new colleagues.
    Does this require coenzyme CE?

  5. Maxine Clarke says:
    June 27, 2008 at 7:15 am

    There’s a Nature Network collaborations group here. Would that help?
    Can Nature Networks create collaborations between its members? How can NN facilitate this process? Here you can discuss these details, and look for other people who are interested in working on the same topics as you are.

  6. Cath Ennis says:
    June 27, 2008 at 5:25 pm

    Neil, nice post! I liked your description of using social networks “to find new information using my existing information”. I mostly use mine to play Scrabulous, but maybe now I’ll start filling in my favourite music / films etc. to get new suggestions.
    Bob, CE is completely superfluous to requirements as far as I’ve been told…
    Maxine, maybe! Can it be used for online dating though?

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