Foundational Skills in Life Sciences

What does it take to prepare a single lecture?   

In this episode, I will talk about months-long process for crafting a lecture on how to read clinical papers.   

I am passionate about teaching this foundational skill.   

The preparation includes choosing a paper that is best fit for the interest of the student body. It also includes making presentation slides tailor-made for the specific paper.   

I hope this episode is helpful for both fellow instructors and students.   

This episode = mini-series: training-2.   

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I have set up a training program for the postdoctoral researchers (postdocs) in my home department. Today, I would like to talk about: how and why I have done it, what we do in the program and what (positive!) feedback that I received.   

This episode might help you if you are a student looking for training opportunities or if you are a mentor who is already guiding your immediate trainees.   

This episode = mini-series: training-1.   

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This podcast is now two years old. And it is the start of the third year! Thank you for listening and for your support!   

I would like to give you my behind-the-scenes information, so that you will have some understanding about how I am preparing the scripts of the episodes for you.   

This episode = podcast update 8.   

This podcast is a product of my own thoughts, research, and voice. In other words, it is human-generated, not AI-generated.    

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Let’s read the first paragraph of the Introduction section in a paper written by the Nobel Laureates. Specifically, we will read each sentence in the paragraph, and think about the meaning and the role of each sentence. One key point is that the structural components of the Abstract will help us understand the paragraphs and sentences of the Introduction.   

We are reading the paper written by Dr. Katalin Karikó & Dr. Drew Weissman, that led to the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2023. We call it the Milestone Article 1. Here are two sets of links related to the paper.

Milestone Article 1: 

- “Suppression of RNA recognition by Toll-like receptors: the impact of nucleoside modification and the evolutionary origin of RNA” by Karikó, Buckstein, Ni & Weissman. Immunity, 23(2): 165-75, 2005.

- HTML: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.immuni.2005.06.008   

- PDF: https://www.cell.com/immunity/pdf/S1074-7613(05)00211-6.pdf   

- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16111635/    

Copyright of the paper (as of July, 2025):

- See the pull-down menu “Article Info” near the top of the article webpage (Use the DOI above to reach it).

- Check the “User License” section which lists the “Elsevier user license”:

--- http://www.elsevier.com/open-access/userlicense/1.0/   

--- https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-and-standards/open-access-licenses/elsevier-user   

This episode = mini-series: reading-38.   

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The Introduction section of a life-science paper tells the main story, sometimes even multiple related ones. But without helpful subheadings, understanding its core points can be challenging. Then, how do we effectively read Introduction paragraphs to understand the section?    

We will talk about it today, and we will keep reading one of the best papers as our example.   

We are reading the paper written by Dr. Katalin Karikó & Dr. Drew Weissman, that led to the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2023. We call it the Milestone Article 1. Here are two sets of links related to the paper.

Milestone Article 1: 

- “Suppression of RNA recognition by Toll-like receptors: the impact of nucleoside modification and the evolutionary origin of RNA” by Karikó, Buckstein, Ni & Weissman. Immunity, 23(2): 165-75, 2005.

- HTML: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.immuni.2005.06.008   

- PDF: https://www.cell.com/immunity/pdf/S1074-7613(05)00211-6.pdf   

- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16111635/    

Copyright of the paper (as of July, 2025):

- See the pull-down menu “Article Info” near the top of the article webpage (Use the DOI above to reach it).

- Check the “User License” section which lists the “Elsevier user license”:

--- http://www.elsevier.com/open-access/userlicense/1.0/   

--- https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-and-standards/open-access-licenses/elsevier-user   

This episode = mini-series: reading-37.   

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In combination with the last episode, we will talk about an introduction to how to read the Introduction section. With these two episodes, we will be ready to analyze the content details, from the next episode.

We are reading the paper written by Dr. Katalin Karikó & Dr. Drew Weissman, that led to the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2023. We call it the Milestone Article 1. Here are two sets of links related to the paper.

Milestone Article 1: 

- “Suppression of RNA recognition by Toll-like receptors: the impact of nucleoside modification and the evolutionary origin of RNA” by Karikó, Buckstein, Ni & Weissman. Immunity, 23(2): 165-75, 2005.

- HTML: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.immuni.2005.06.008   

- PDF: https://www.cell.com/immunity/pdf/S1074-7613(05)00211-6.pdf   

- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16111635/    

Copyright of the paper (as of March, 2025):

- See the pull-down menu “Article Info” near the top of the article webpage (Use the DOI above to reach it).

- Check the “User License” section which lists the “Elsevier user license”:

--- http://www.elsevier.com/open-access/userlicense/1.0/   

--- https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-and-standards/open-access-licenses/elsevier-user   

This episode = mini-series: reading-36.   

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Sub-sections and subheadings will be helpful.   

The Methods and the Results sections of life-science papers are divided into sub-sections. And the sub-sections will have subheadings, i.e., the titles that serve as signposts of the sub-sections.   

How about the Introduction section? What would this finding mean to us, the readers?   

We will talk about them by scanning the Introduction of a paper written by Dr. Katalin Karikó & Dr. Drew Weissman, that led to the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2023. We call it the Milestone Article 1. Here are two sets of links related to the paper.   

Milestone Article 1: 

- “Suppression of RNA recognition by Toll-like receptors: the impact of nucleoside modification and the evolutionary origin of RNA” by Karikó, Buckstein, Ni & Weissman. Immunity, 23(2): 165-75, 2005.

- HTML: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.immuni.2005.06.008   

- PDF: https://www.cell.com/immunity/pdf/S1074-7613(05)00211-6.pdf   

- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16111635/    

Copyright of the paper (as of March, 2025):

- See the pull-down menu “Article Info” near the top of the article webpage (Use the DOI above to reach it).

- Check the “User License” section which lists the “Elsevier user license”:

--- http://www.elsevier.com/open-access/userlicense/1.0/   

--- https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-and-standards/open-access-licenses/elsevier-user   

This episode = mini-series: reading-35.   

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The single-sentence rule for understanding research paper Introductions.   Have you thought about what the Introduction section of a life-science paper really does?   

In this episode, we will address that question and discuss a simple rule.   We will share a single sentence that encapsulates the entire role of the Introduction.   It will make it easy to grasp the authors' intention and the paper’s core logic.    

Hint: it is related to the key trio in the Abstract: the "Background-Known-Unknown" trio from Episode #53.   

This episode = mini-series: reading-34.

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In today’s episode, we will learn which structural components will be minimally essential for an abstract, and which will be additionally necessary for a well-written abstract. These are the abstracts of primary research papers in life sciences, both in clinical- and basic-science fields.   

There are very many variations in the structures of published abstracts. Why do we want to discuss the above topic?   

This is because understanding the essential components of abstracts will help us anticipate key information and understand the content more effectively!

This episode = mini-series: reading-33.

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Let’s talk about an excellent abstract that I read this week. It was so well written, and I was so excited to read it that I wanted to talk about it with you today. The beauty of it is that the first 3 structural components guide us through the authors’ intention and question very clearly. But there was also a little twist to the structure: we will talk about it, too.   

The abstract that we talked about today was from the following paper:

• “A meta-analysis of technology use and cognitive aging”
• Benge & Scullin, Nature Human Behaviour, 2025 
• “Online ahead of print” (thus, no volume number or page numbers) as of the date of this episode upload.
• PubMed link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40229575/
• Journal link: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02159-9

We can read its abstract on either of the above websites.

Unfortunately, the other parts of the paper are subscription-based. So, they are accessible, if you or your institutions have a subscription to the journal.

This episode = mini-series: reading-32.

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