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Forums
 Ongoing discussions allow signaling researchers and students to discuss controversial topics or obtain advice. The Science Signaling editors moderate the discussions to help contributors format their comments for the web and provide appropriate linking.
Participation is open to anyone and only requires free registration. More about Forums 
Open Forums:
Open Forums:
- Teaching Cell Signaling
This forum is a platform for discussing strategies and tools for teaching cell signaling. The discussion is open and educators are invited to share ideas and suggestions for effectively teaching the complex, multidiscpline subject of cell signaling. Share your thoughts about how to create an effective lectures, what are core concepts that students should learn, or what online and text-based resources you have found that are particularly good.
- Principles of Cell Signaling and Biological Consequences
This forum is part of the Science Signaling supplement to the Cell Signaling Systems course. The topics under discussion were defined by Drs. A. Chan, R. Iyengar, S. Aaronson, A. J. Caplan, S. Salton, and M. M. Zhou and are based on the concepts presented in the first section of the course. Students at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, NY, as well as any other interested Science Signaling user (for example, students, instructors, or researchers) are invited to participate. The overall educational goals are (i) to critically read and analyze a recent primary publication and relate it to the concepts described in the first set of lectures described in the course, and (ii) to be able to use information presented in the course or found using PubMed literature searches to answer specific questions posed by the Dr. Chan.
- E-Conference: Defining Calcium Entry Signals
Calcium signals control a vast array of cellular
activities ranging
from short-term regulation of secretion, contraction, and
metabolic
pathways, to longer-term control of cell growth, division,
and apoptosis.
Receptor-induced calcium signals involve two closely
coupled events:
calcium release from ER stores, and calcium entry
across the plasma
membrane. The latter is a crucial calcium signaling
component, yet this
calcium entry process is clouded by uncertainty. Two
major gaps in our
knowledge of calcium entry signals exist: (i) the identity of
the channels in
the plasma membrane through which calcium enters;
(ii) the nature of the
transduction mechanisms linking receptor-induced
signals to activation of
entry channels. These fundamental questions are
being approached in
numerous laboratories that are producing a diverse
spectrum of results and
conclusions. An awareness of this progress as well as
an appreciation of
the remaining uncertainties is expected to provide
valuable insight to a
broad range of investigators studying cellular signaling.
- Open Discussion of Modeling and Computational Approaches to Cellular Signaling
As part of a coordinated effort with Science and Science's Online products (see Mathematics in Biology), Science Signaling provides this open forum for the discussion of issues related to modeling and simulation of cellular signaling process. The authors of Science's STKE describing online resources for performing such virtual experiments are available to respond to questions or comments (see Kutscher et al., which describes an online tool for modeling chemotaxis responses and Vayttaden and Bhalla, which describes a Linux-based graphical simulation environment and signaling-relevant demonstrations). In addition, anyone with an interest in modeling or simulations is invited to participate and provide the signaling community with insight about their favorite online tools for performing such analysis, pose questions, or simply make a comment on the topic.
- Questions and Controversies in Zinc Signaling
In May 2003, Science's STKE published a Focus Issue on metals in cell signaling, to complement a Special Issue of Science on metals in biology and in the environment. This Focus Issue, which included a Perspective by Li, Hough, and Sarvey on the functional significance of synaptically released zinc, and one by Chris Frederickson on zinc imaging, generated such interest among our readers that the editors opened a Forum specifically devoted to zinc signaling. Feel free to raise questions related to zinc signaling, or to comment on any interesting or unexpected twists in the ever-expanding zinc signaling story.
- Genomes: A Platform for Signal Transduction Research?
In the past few years, a number of genomes from various organisms have been completely sequenced. With the publishing of the human genome, the question in many peoples minds is "What can we do with this wealth of information?" Do you have an opinion about how genomics is currently impacting or is likely to impact signal transduction research in the future? Here is an opportunity to share your views. The forum is also a venue for a general discussion of how bioinformatics contributes to signal transduction research.
- Lipid Rafts: Real or Artifact?
In the past few years, a number of experiments have given credence to the idea that lipid
rafts--membrane microdomains--organize and regulate important cellular processes. However,
the nature of these microdomains, including their size, composition, organization, and even
their very existence, remains highly controversial. Dr. Michael Edidin of Johns Hopkins University has kindly volunteered to start the discussion with an Opening Statement and be available to respond to incoming comments and questions.
- Open Forum on Cell Signaling
Here is your chance to steer the discussion at
Science Signaling your way. This
"open" forum is available for discussion of any topic
related to signal
transduction research. Questions, comments,
opinions of all sorts are
welcome. This is also a place where the editors or readers may contribute "blog-like" postings with highlights from meetings that they have attended.
- Open Forum on Methodology
Troubleshooting techniques can take up a lot of time. So we've
established this "open" forum where you can enlist the help of other Science Signaling
readers. Post your comments, helpful hints, or questions related to
laboratory methods here.
- Ligation of Fas and Cell Death
With 250 papers appearing every week on apoptosis, it is not surprising that this relatively new field is subject to many areas of controversy. One area of contention is about how some cell death triggers are wired to the caspases, the key cell death effector proteins. This Web discussion is about how ligation of the receptor Fas (CD95/APO-1) leads to cell death, in particular whether Fas-triggered cell death can by signalled by pathways that can be blocked by Bcl-2 (or Bcl-xL), and, if so, the nature of the molecules that make this connection.
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