New & Noteworthy
Yeast, More Interesting than your Parents Think
April 23, 2013
Are you tired of getting asked why you study yeast? And having your grandma’s eyes glaze over when you try to explain your latest research result to her? Well, we here at SGD have decided to help you out.
We have revamped our “What are yeast?” page to make it even better. We’ve stripped out a lot of the jargon making it much simpler for the nonscientist to read. Not only that, but we’ve consolidated the information onto a single page so you won’t have to link out so much to find what you are looking for.
So now when your mom asks why you’re wasting your time on yeast, you don’t have to tear your hair out and try to explain it to her. We’ve done the work for you.
You can send her to our reworked page where she can see what makes yeast such an ideal organism to study. She’ll learn that we share a whole lot with yeast even though they are single-celled. Our cells are set up similarly, we share lots of the same genes, and yeast are way easier to grow and manipulate than a person. She’ll see we’ve learned a lot about cancer, Alzheimer’s, Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and so on from our little friends. She’ll learn how useful they are for making existing medicines better and finding new ones. And that’s just a couple of the sections!
After reading this, your friends and family will realize there is much more to yeast than making bread or wine (although these are awesome as well). They will see how useful yeast is for understanding us and they will have a newfound respect for the work you do. At least we hope they will!
Community Wiki Updated
April 22, 2013
SGD’s Community Wiki now has a new look and a clearer organization, making it even easier for you to share important information with the yeast community. Use the wiki to record facts about your favorite gene, post a job opening or meeting announcement, or add links to yeast resources. Please contact the SGD help desk for an account that will allow you to log in and add to the wiki.
SGD Server Move Successfully Completed
December 5, 2012
Thank you for your patience during our move to the new data center last week.
Systems Administrator Stuart Miyasato with the SGD servers in their new location
This move is very significant for us, as we are now in a professionally managed computing facility with all the necessary backup cooling and power contingencies available. This move also allows us to continue expanding our services.
The computer room is critical for the stability of SGD and other resources. Our previous location was created when SGD was young, and did not accommodate the amount of growth we have enjoyed. We are very happy to have the opportunity to be located in this brand new facility designed for research computing.
-Mike Cherry
The new Stanford Data Center housing SGD’s and other servers
SGD Hardware Update
October 9, 2012
We are in the process of migrating SGD servers to new faster hardware! You may have already noticed an increase in performance. There could be some teething issues in the next couple days – so please bear with us!
Expression Data and LiftOver Files Available for Download
February 14, 2012
RNA expression data that are included in SGD’s SPELL expression analysis tool are now available for download in the expression directory. Datasets have been grouped by publication and are in PCL format.
LiftOver files that allow conversion of chromosomal coordinates between different S. cerevisiae genome versions are also now available for download via the genome_releases link in the sequence directory.
