Reflections on 2008

I remember sitting in the Epernicus office a year ago, staring out over a thick blanket of December snow and wondering what the next few months had in store for us.  Epernicus was in its infancy in those days.  Our mission was bold but untested.  Our portfolio of assets was thin.  It included a basic web application, 2 office chairs, 1 file cabinet, 4 enthusiastic founders, and a whopping 20 members. 

 

Over the next several months, we held focus groups, built and rebuilt many parts of the site, and refined our vision for what would make high quality, high utility scientific network.  During this time, it was the input of many of our members, friends, and colleagues which shaped our ideas and the eventual platform. 

 

Since we opened our virtual doors this past summer, we’ve seen scientists join from over a thousand institutions in 57 different countries.  Epernicus members have added nearly 20,000 assets and have built rich profiles that are helping colleagues learn about their skills and accomplishments.  It’s been very gratifying for us to see the community grow.  We’ve also appreciated all the feedback that we’ve gotten along the way through emails, focus groups, and our member advisory council.  Our members’ feedback – both complimentary and constructive – has been a key factor that has made Epernicus one of the leading scientific networks. 

 

We have come a long way in one year; but we also know that we have a long way to go.  Our core mission remains the same: to enable scientists to find the people and resources they need to advance their research. 

 

In 2009, we have set an ambitious agenda for ourselves.  Our focus will be on helping scientists showcase their talents more effectively while also facilitating more productive exchanges between researchers.  We want Epernicus to be a resource that scientists can go to whenever they want to learn about a colleague, find a specific skill, or ask a question to their community.  As it has been from the beginning, the input of our members will be a critical part of ensuring success. 

 

Happy Holidays from everyone on the Epernicus Team!  We’re looking forward to 2009!

Should we provide incentives for answering BenchQs?

As I was reading through questions and answers in the Epernicus BenchQ archive the other day, I was struck by how many questions have been receiving helpful replies.  Without the expectation of reward, Epernicus members from across the country have been helping fellow scientists (strangers though they often are), providing advice on equipment, kits, techniques, candidate antibodies, and much more.   Third parties have been reading and benefiting from these exchanges as well.  Overall, it has been quite exciting to see.

One of the things we’ve often discussed is if and how these types of contributions should be incentivized.  Should people be rewarded for sharing their knowledge through BenchQ or should it be left up to inherent goodwill?  And if answering questions is rewarded, should it be with public recognition, tangible rewards, or something else?  Shirley Wu raised this issue of rewards in a thoughtful blog post earlier this year, and it generated quite a discussion.  I’m not yet sure what incentive structure would be best (or if incentives are even necessary), but any incentive system will carry the inherent risk of distorting motives.  The question is what kind of distortion and to what degree. 

A related issue that comes up is whether contributions in a forum like BenchQ should be represented in a scientist’s professional record.  A scientist who helps 100 colleagues through BenchQ has made a real contribution to the community – should this be represented in his or her resume or tenure file?  We’d be interested to know what our colleagues in the scientific community think about these questions.

Last summer, there was a lively discussion at BioBarCamp about considering new standards for scientific contribution.  Despite a growing recognition that peer-reviewed publications and impact factors are insufficient measures of contribution, we haven’t seen a significant change in these traditional standards.  Cameron Neylon, Chris Patil, Shirley Wu, and many others raised alternative activities which could be factored into a scientist’s curriculum vitae of contributions: blogging, sharing data (from failed and successful experiments), making protocols widely available, engaging in collaborations, and answering questions, to list a few.  There are many uncertainties about how we would quantitate and standardize such contributions; but even from a qualitative perspective, we have yet to see these types of contributions make their way to the score cards of tenure committees or admissions councils.

In the case of BenchQ, we want to reward people for helping other scientists and adding to a larger body of knowledge.  We’re open to experimenting with incentives and would welcome any suggestions.  Our hope is that tools like BenchQ will become a growing opportunity for scientists to make contributions, learn from their peers, and establish helpful relationships. 

Drumroll Please… One Figure contest winners

As promised, Epernicus.com is happy to announce the winners of our first One Figure contest, recognizing the ten people whose Figures have been complimented the greatest number of times in the month preceding Marie Curie’s birthday (Nov 7). This year’s winners will each receive a (BPA-free Camelback) Epernicus water bottle. Our congratulations go to:

• Samuel Tia (UC Berkeley, UCSF)
• Duc Dong (Burnham Institute)
• Jeffrey Karp (Brigham and Women’s Hospital)
• Anthony Schillmiller (Michigan State University)
• Vanessa Horner (Emory University)
• Amanda Nottke (Harvard Medical School)
• Matthew Hutchings (University of East Anglia)
• Franz Gruswitz (UCSF)
• Jasenka Memisevic (University of Missouri)
• Maria Cristina Palmieri (Helmholtz Zentrum Muenchen)

 

Here’s a sampling of the winning figures:

(A) “Developing zebrafish pancreas and liver” – Duc Dong
(B) “A 10.5 day old mouse embryo, stained to show canonical Wnt signaling. Wnt signaling is seen here in the forebrain, midbrain, limb buds, and neural tube.” – Vanessa Horner
(C) “Obstruction of the ammonia channel by the T-loop of GlnK as determined by the 1.96 Angstrom crystal structure 2NS1. “ – Franz Gurswitz
(D) “Gecko Feet” – Jeff Karp
(E) “Nitric Oxide production in Arabidopsis taliana mitochondria” – Maria Cristina Palmieri

Thanks to everyone who complimented these figures, and to the hundreds of members who have put up One Figures of their own. We hope you will agree that these figures are a great way to share something special about your work. You can add one to your profile under the Edit Profile tab. And browse the latest, most complimented, or in-your-network One Figures in the One Figure Gallery.

Harvard Professors Join Epernicus Scientific Advisory Board

We are happy to announce that Pamela Silver, Ph.D. and Angela DePace, Ph.D. have joined the Epernicus Scientific Advisory Board. In addition to their rich scientific experience, Professors Silver and DePace bring a keen interest in the use of web technology to advance science. We’re looking forward to their input and advice!

Pamela Silver is a Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School. She received her B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California Santa Cruz and her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California Los Angeles. After completing her postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, Dr. Silver served as an Assistant Professor at Princeton University where she was an established investigator of the American Heart Association and a recipient of the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award. At Harvard, Dr. Silver’s work is directed at understanding the principles of natural biological design. Her lab hopes to develop principles for building novel cells and subsystems that act as sensors, memory devices, bio-computers, and energy producers. Dr. Silver has received many research and mentorship awards, and she serves on a number of editorial boards including Nature Molecular Systems Biology and Genes and Development. She is an avid runner, having participated in several Boston Marathons.

Angela DePace is an Assistant Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School. She received her B.S. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University and her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, San Francisco. She conducted her postdoctoral work at the University of California Berkeley with Michael Eisen, Ph.D. before coming to Harvard Medical School. Dr. DePace’s work focuses on the evolution of transcriptional networks in animals. Using early development in multiple Drosophila species as a model system, her lab applies biochemistry, comparative genomics, molecular biology and quantitative imaging techniques to understand how regulatory information is encoded in the genome, how it is deciphered as gene expression patterns in space and time, and how it changes during evolution to contribute to organismal diversity.

You can learn more about Professors Silver and DePace through their Epernicus profiles.

Epernicus in the News

Nice article on Epernicus in Mass High Tech on Friday!

 

New BenchQ features

We recently launched some new BenchQ features we hope will make your experience using BenchQ more productive and enjoyable.  The genesis of these features is user feedback — please keep the comments and suggestions coming!

Flagging
You are now able to flag BenchQ threads.  Flagging a BenchQ thread will ensure it stays in your list of BenchQ’s, and will make it visually distinctive in the list (a red flag icon will appear next to the subject).  You will also have the option of having replies to that BenchQ thread emailed to you (this feature can be turned on or off via the “Email Preferences” pane) and of displaying only flagged BenchQ’s (by selecting the “Flagged” option in the new “Show” filter).

Marking multiple BenchQ threads as read
You are now able to mark multiple BenchQ threads as read.  Select the checkbox next to the BenchQ threads you’d like to mark, and then click the green “Mark selected as read” icon.  (This, combined with the “Select All” option, allows you to reset your unread BenchQ count)

General interface improvements
The BenchQ interface has been enlarged a bit and you can now scroll through the list of BenchQ’s even while the detail pane is open (previously you needed to close the detail pane to scroll through the list).

Get your custom public profile web address

When we first launched public profiles on Epernicus, we looked to implement a simple and egalitarian system for deciding on a user’s public profile web address.  I thought back to my first university network account username — your initials followed by a number!  Simple, right?  Limited typing!  Fair!

Well, the feedback has been clear…  While some of you appreciate the simplicity of the current scheme, others want some freedom of expression. In response, we’ve added the option of specifying a custom public profile web address.  This will work *in addition to* your originally assigned address, so no need to update old references.

Visit http://www.epernicus.com/account/public_profile to reserve your first pick today!

Oh, and my new profile address — http://www.epernicus.com/people/ezrafreedman

Video: Epernicus Talk

Mikhail and I frequently give talks on Epernicus to labs and departments.  In case you missed one of our presentations, you can watch the short video below.

Mikhail Defends

Mikhail (Epernicus co-founder) gave a fascinating and very well-attended talk today on genetically engineered sensors for non-invasive brain imaging for his thesis defense.  Now we’ll get his brain back on Epernicus!

Why should you join Epernicus if you’re on LinkedIn?

Recently, we received the following in an email:

“I am already on LinkedIn – which I find useful.  How is this site different?”

I really like LinkedIn as well as Facebook, and I find them incredibly helpful.  I’ve used LinkedIn to learn about business contacts and research potential hires.  And I spend more time than I’d like to admit on Facebook connecting with friends from all parts of my life (including long lost elementary school buddies). 

Mikhail and I started Epernicus because we realized that the social networks to which we belonged weren’t able to serve our needs as scientists.  The profiles didn’t capture what was important to scientists.  And equally as important, we couldn’t use these networks to help us find expertise in real world scientific networks. 

For example, I have hundreds of contacts on Facebook and LinkedIn.  But neither site can help me find a person in my department who has who expertise with dynamic light scattering or siRNA delivery.  This is why we built Epernicus.

Epernicus connects you automatically with your real world scientific network.  Your real world network is not just the people who you know directly – it’s also the people to whom you’re connected through your department, institution, and advisors (current and past).  This is one of your most valuable resources.  Some of these people you’ve never met before, but you share a kinship with them through your common affiliation.  When you register on Epernicus and enter your affiliations, you are automatically connected with this network.

Epernicus also captures people’s assets – the specific topics, materials, and methods in which they have expertise.  Assets give you a more detailed understanding of a scientist’s skill set, and they make searching on Epernicus a rich experience.

With Epernicus, I can now search quickly through my scientific networks for a specific topic or technique to find the people that I need.   It might be someone I know peripherally in my department, someone I’ve never met at my institution, or a former labmate.  It might also be someone I know (Epernicus can help you learn new things about people you see all the time!).