RE: Spending too much time on the flow - Ode to an apoptotic lymphocyte

Can I remind everyone of this relic...?

 

 

 

From: Howard Shapiro (hms@shapirolab.com <mailto:hms@shapirolab.com?subject=Re:%20Apoptosis> )
Date: Tue Sep 16 1997 - 19:01:15 EST 

Apoptosis takes its name from the Greek word describing the falling of
leaves or petals...which presented an irresistible opportunity for a Shapiro
flow song.  I'm not sure many of you remember the Roger Williams piano
arrangement of "Autumn Leaves", but those of you who do can try to conjure
it up in the background.

-Howard

LES FEUILLES MORTS

When outer leaflets of cell membranes
Let phosphatidylserine show,
Labeled annexin V will bind there,
And you can measure it in flow.

Mitochondria deenergize
And superoxide levels rise,
But the nuclear signs of apoptosis
Come later; then, the cell dies.

Did thymocytes get radiation?
Was dexamethasone to blame?
Or was it simply fas ligation?
The end results are all the same.

Lytic enzymes in the cell are loosed,
And glutathione is reduced,
And, around the time the membrane's leaky,
The vultures all leave their roost.

The journals publish three new assays
For apoptosis every week;
Is it biology which varies
>From cell to cell, or just technique?

Cells can stay alive, as good as new,
If they can make bcl-2,
But, if not, their DNA's in fragments
When apoptosis is through.

		(c) Howard Shapiro
		September, 1997

 
________________________________________________________________________
K. Melissa Keays
 
Mucosal and Vaccine Research Program, Colorado (MAVRC)
and
Center For AIDS Research (CFAR)
 
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
Department of Medicine
Division of Infectious Diseases
 
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BRB 142
Denver, CO 80262
 
tel  (303) 315-1387
fax (303) 315-8681

________________________________

From: Stan Ress [mailto:Stan.Ress@uct.ac.za]
Sent: Thu 6/26/2008 2:35 AM
To: cyto-inbox
Subject: Re: Spending too much time on the flow - Ode to a lymphocyte


Beverly,
 
It's great to see someone else passionate about their work!
You may have opened a Pandora's box, though......
 
When I started immunology years ago (circa 1981) I was similarly enamoured with these mysterious lymphocytes and their functions, prompting the following song:
 
ODE TO A LYMPHOCYTE (to the tune of "if I were a carpenter")
 
If I were a plant lectin
And you a receptor
Would you undergo blastogenesis
Would you release my factor?
 
If I were to be polyclonal
Would you HLA restrict me?
Answer me 'yes I would'
I'll promise not to mix it
 
CHORUS
Save my love from loneliness
Save my love from sorrow
I've given you DNA synthesis
Tritiated thymidine to follow
 
And if we produced cytokines 
That were antigen-specific
We'd be the envy of the hybrid lines
In assays that were cell free.
 
-------------------------
 
I sang it once at a immunology society dinner, but the song was otherwise forgotten, until your email reminded me.... 
Maybe our humble offerings will stimulate the creative juices and lead to the outpouring of great literature, that Paul can bring out on a special CD?
Hmmm....probably not.
 
 
--
Stanley Ress
Associate Professor of Medicine
Head: Division of Clinical Immunology
Department of Medicine
H47 Old Main Building-room 26
Groote Schuur Hospital and UCT
Observatory 7925
Cape Town
South Africa
TEL:INTERN. + 2721-4066201 or 4066197
FAX:   "    + 2721-4486815
Cell: 0833115482 
email: stan.ress@uct.ac.za


>>> Beverly Barton <bartonbe@umdnj.edu> 25/06/2008 14:44 >>>

 You know you've been spending too much time on the flow when:

1) you dream all night about a new instrument that doesn't exist
2) you dream in rhyme to a tune about what you do, thus composing your new lab theme song.
Me, I dreamt all night about a new flow cytometer that married the open configuration of a MoFlow to the capability of an ImageStream.	I also had expanded staff to run it.  I'll take the staff with my old FACScan!!


And the song?

To the tune of "Home on the Range"

Oh give me a flow,
Where all the cells glow;
(And one has to work in the dark).
I see cells fluoresce,
And never coalesce.
In this way does one make one's mark.

Refrain:
Flow, flow all the day!
No clogs to get in my way.
FITC and PE
Is what I shall see.
Science triumphant alway'.

If ISAC needs a theme song, we can talk....


Beverly E. Barton, Ph.D.

Research Cancer Biologist

VA NJ-HCS

385 Tremont Avenue

East Orange, NJ 07018




and




Assistant Professor

Department of Surgery/Division of Urology

UMDNJ-NJMS  F509 lab; F672 office

185 S. Orange Avenue

Newark, New Jersey 07103




Telephone 973-972-0662

E-mail bartonbe@umdnj.edu

Telefacsimile 973-972-3892