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Fall 2011, Vol. 7, No. 1 | Back Issues
INSIDE
THIS ISSUE:
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Message from the Director:
I hope all of you, your homes, families, and neighbors fared well during the recent tropical storm. Although the MBL did sustain some damage, it was not severe. This is due, in part, to Mother Nature, but also to our dedicated staff, particularly in the facilities department, who went above and beyond to secure the MBL against the storm. As Richard Cutler always likes to remind us, one of these storms will hit us hard one day so we need to consider these events as drills and take them seriously. Thank you to everyone for your cooperation... Continued (pdf) |
Researcher Spotlight
Meet Marko Horb,
Director, National Xenopus Resource
 The MBL has long been home to squid, clams, horseshoe crabs, and a host of other marine models. With the creation last year of the National Xenopus Resource (NXR), frogs have now been added to the list.
Marko Horb was recently hired to direct the NXR, which supports scientists who use the aquatic frog Xenopus for research into human health, disease, aging, and recovery from injury and disability. Because Xenopus can regenerate several body parts, they are important in the field of regenerative medicine.
The NXR currently houses 1,000 to 1,500 Xenopus, but can support 10,000 to 15,000. The facility breeds frogs of various genetic stocks and develops new experimental tools and husbandry techniques for two Xenopus species. The NXR will also offer courses and host meetings for Xenopus researchers. The first gathering is in October.
“Xenopus husbandry techniques have always been an issue,” Marko explains. “What’s the ideal room temperature? How much space do you need? What are the options for a recirculation system? When I started my lab, I had to develop my own system for maintaining Xenopus and nobody taught me how. It would have been great if I could have gone to a short course to learn the best methods. That is one type of course the NXR can offer, so people can incorporate the animals into their labs with less cost and hassle.”
Originally from Chicago, Marko completed his Ph.D. at Stony Brook University and was a postdoc at the University of Bath, England. He studied the steps and signals that lead to development of the pancreas and other endoderm organs, including the liver. In 2003, Marko successfully converted liver cells into all types of pancreas cells in Xenopus. His lab continues this research with the goal of specifying liver cells to become solely insulin-producing pancreatic cells, which could potentially provide a therapy for diabetes. Continued (PDF)
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Employee Spotlight
Meet Matthew Person,Technical Services Coordinator, MBLWHOI Library
 If you think your job requires keeping track of a lot of things, consider the work of MBLWHOI Library’s Matthew Person. Matthew manages the library’s extremely broad, increasingly online journals collection, which includes thousands of subscriptions that span disciplines from biology and oceanography to bioinformatics and marine policy. The Library’s facilities house 300,000 journal and book volumes, ranging from the 1600s to the present day. “My job is never the same for six months,” says Matthew. “There are continually major technological changes so I’m always learning new skills.”
Matthew grew up spending his summers in Woods Hole. His father, Philip Person, was a biochemist who conducted summer research at the MBL for more than 50 years. After 20 years of working as a writer, photographer, and even as a chef at the American Embassy in Iceland, Matthew was hired by the MBL in 1998 for a book moving project. That temporary job led to full time positions as a library assistant, serials librarian, and, most recently, technical services coordinator.
In addition to his work with the Library’s serials collection, Matthew also co-manages the digitization of MBLWHOI Library journals for The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), a consortium of 12 major research libraries that is the world’s largest repository of open access full-text digitized legacy biodiversity literature. From 2007 to 2009 alone, Matthew oversaw the digitization of close to 10,000 journals for the BHL. “All library staff have roles in the BHL, in addition to their roles at their respective libraries,” says Matthew. “It’s been interesting to learn how to provide not just materials, but also our added library services online.”
When Matthew was asked to represent the MBL at a BHL conference in Vienna, Austria last year, he hoped to spend his free time there learning about the ancestral home of his maternal family. What he never expected were the astonishing discoveries he’d make about his family history. Continued (PDF)
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The Collecting Net is an employee newsletter published by the Communications Office. Comments and suggestions are welcome. Call (508) 289-7423 or e-mail us at
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