Title(s)
Carry On My Wayward Son: the transition of marketing mediums in an ever-changing music industry
Abstract
Music marketing was a static issue until the digital age. A band released an album, it was hopefully added to radio playlists, posters were hung in music stores, reviews listed in music magazines, and the band toured relentlessly. The upside to these strategies? They were easy, time-tested. The downside? Only a select few bands reached nation or world-wide success. The advent of MTV in 1982 was a huge boon to music marketing. Now a band's video and image could be broadcast across the country, reaching their target demographics directly. As advertising became more pervasive, bands began marketing through traditional mediums like billboards and television and through more creative efforts like street teaming, where fans are sent throughout their communities with flyers and other promotional gear. Once the internet took hold of our society though, the potential for music marketing exploded, most notably through early downloading and file-sharing sites like mp3.com and Napster. Now, websites like purevolume.com and garageband.com allow for bands to market themselves. Record companies have extensive networks of webpages dedicated to their artists, merchandise is sold at the click of a button, banner advertisements are on the side of every page, pop culture websites and blogs market music just by mentioning it, and social networking pages like MySpace and Facebook offer both direct marketing through advertising and indirect, user-generated marketing.
I will be exploring how this industry has evolved over the past 50 years and the avenues the field of music and music marketing must take to be successful in the future. While print, broadcast, and radio are still viable mediums, they should no longer be considered the primary avenue of music marketing in this complex digital world. But what are the implications of relying so heavily on the digital realm? A debate has raged for years about whether or not "illegal" file-sharing is beneficial to artists, especially those trying to make a name for themselves. And with the dearth of music marketing sites on the internet and all the different options, how to market these websites to potential users - both bands and fans? A recent Google search on "music marketing" returned more than 141 million options!
In researching this topic, I will uncover and demonstrate types of marketing that are effective in reaching unique market segments and demographics. I will also explore the issues that arise with such emphasis on digital marketing - the good, the bad, and the just-plain-confusing! This will be based upon market research and interviews with laymen and professionals in both the music and business fields. The best way to present both the past, present and future of this field is to use an experiential format, where the "reader" can travel through a sample marketing campaign using both old and new methods, and decide at the end which was more effective to them. In addition to this, the reader can make choices on how to market "their" band, seeing in the end which marketing techniques were best for them based upon their details and target market. This project will be useful to both artists interested in promoting their music and to companies who represent music and other media.
Methodology
This project is making an argument that music marketing is a complex issue in today's digital world, and that it must stay cutting-edge in order to stay relevant and in the public eye. I want to speak with those that currently work in the marketing field to get their opinions on how marketing has changed since they began working, and also uncover their marketing processes. I would also like to speak with those that work in related business fields such as advertising, public relations, and artist management to see what they feel are the best ways to adapt their contributions to ensure that new music marketing is successful. Obviously the most important aspect of this project however will be market research on various market segments - consumers and musicians alike and their respective demographics. I also want to research and do some case study-type work.
Media Presentation
I am seeing this project as an interactive "click and learn" journey through the history of music marketing, and then have it turn into a visualization of a discussion about where the industry is today, and the results of the market research into current techniques. Then I want to have the user experience some marketing techniques and at the end, judge which were more effective to them, and once they choose, have that lead into an explanation of the positives and negatives of each way, going from the oldest model to the newest idea for the future of marketing. Then at the end I would like to have a game option where the user has a band they must market. Choosing from some pre-set parameters - such as target market, musical style, and budget - the user will them choose which marketing path they would like to follow. Choices will be given along the way, like "You choose to encourage free downloading of your music as a promotional tool." The choices the user makes will determine in the end a success rating for their band.
The project will flow much like a paper but will have varying ways of using multimedia in each segment (interactivity, visualization, experiential, etc.) to keep it interesting. Marketing is itself not a subject that can be adequately described on paper, as very little marketing is done on paper. You must have multimedia to show the complexity of the subject, and especially in that this project relates directly to music, which obviously can only be heard in order to experience it. It will be presented in DVD format.
Advisors
Christi Crowe, owner of FLAG Marketing
(potential) Mark Goldstein, Music Industry Professor and former Lawyer
(potential) Marlene Towns, Marketing Professor in Marshall School
IML Advisor (who I'm told is Holly).
Budget
I don't anticipate the budget to be more than the cost of transportation, calling costs, and paper. It may be necessary, however, to purchase materials for research and imagery. I would not like to spend more than $200 overall.
Timeline
I will collect research materials and look for imagery over the summer, and do some initial research into marketing techniques. I would also like to construct some surveys with which I will begin market research upon my return in the fall. I will also begin work on the overall interface, and try to get the first part of the project done so that I can focus on creating the game element in the spring.
Resources
I will need lots of imagery as examples for marketing efforts, interviews, video clips, and related texts. In terms of software, I am interested in Korsakow but will most likely need Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Final Cut Pro.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Project Draft
Title: Million Views Project – Deconstructing Viral Web Videos
Abstract:
Short internet videos are a new, wildly popular, emergent form of entertainment, perfectly suited to the increasingly low-attention span culture we now occupy.
For this project, I am attempting to deconstruct the elements that comprise viral videos that achieve a degree of internet notoriety and popularity. In doing so, I hope to help my reader understand how the average web user views, processes, and in turn propagates video media that he or she encounters. My assumption behind this project is that the internet audience is, contrary to popular belief, predictable, and while trends and general tastes are certainly mercurial, there exist common elements that are in fact shared by self-created and self-propagated media.
I will distill a number of theoretical "formulas" for popular internet videos from shared elements found in popular internet videos. The core of my project would be to then test the actual effectiveness of my formulas by applying it to a number of self-created videos and tracking their popularity. As there is often an author/viewer correspondence present in these videos, I will also fabricate and assume the various personas behind each video, responding to the viewers as necessary. In this way, this might be considered an interactive video project, or more specifically, a series of short interactive video projects linked by a common thread.
I will analyze commonly seen elements in popular videos, past and present, and distill them into generic formulas that I will then use as a blueprint to create videos of my own. Meanwhile, I will also document the making of process to yield insight into the thinking behind each decision. I intend to use the web video format as the primary way of presenting information, and necessarily will be also creating a webpage for the project as well.
The goal for each video is to reach one million views each. Videos that fall short of this goal will still yield insight as to why they did not take off – and will be analyzed as such.
While my audience is also an unwitting test subject, the real audience for this would be for the more academically minded, as they are aware of the fact that these videos are constructed with the sole purpose of achieving a high degree of internet popularity, and are also privy to the thought processes behind them. I intend for my final delivery format to be a website documenting my thinking and process, as well as containing the various videos themselves.
Significance:
The sheer volume of viewership and visibility of particularly popular internet videos opens up a world of yet unexplored possibilities in both the commercial as well as the creative realm. The fact that many memes from viral web videos have successfully migrated from internet culture to popular culture indicates that this form of entertainment is by no means confined to the boundaries of electronic medium. As of now, there have been no prominent traditionally scholarly analysis of this new form of entertainment, perhaps owing to the difficulty in writing about a primarily visual, constantly moving medium. It is a topic uniquely suited to a multimedia based scholarly approach.
The implications of this project are potentially far reaching. This medium by and large is a medium created and propagated by this generation, and a distillation of it would yield insight into the mindset of my generation. Moreover, in a realm where views are tied to advertising revenue, formulas that guarantee high amounts of views could have a wide array of practical applications.
Timeline:
Due to the constantly changing nature of this project (for example, response videos might be shot after the first is uploaded), it is safe to assume that I will be shooting/editing/uploading constantly throughout the entire process. For videos that have not hit the goal of one million views before the presentation date, I will have projected numbers based on hits per day.
∑ Summer/Pre-Summer
o Create user accounts on YouTube/Video websites
o Acquire props
o Conduct Research
o Test or actually shoot videos (to be uploaded later)
o Contact team members
∑ September
o Confirm proposal
o Shoot and upload videos
o Track data
∑ October
o Shoot and upload videos
o Track data
∑ November
o Shoot and upload videos
o Track data
o Prototype/draft presentation
∑ December
o Shoot and upload videos
o Track data
o Prepare “Making of” videos
∑ January
o Track data
o Conduct interviews
ß Tom Gunning?
ß Creators of LonelyGirl?
ß Ad Agencies?
o Prepare “Making of” videos
∑ February
o Track data
o Conduct interviews
∑ March
∑ April
∑ May
o Present Final Project
Budget:
I don’t anticipate the budget to go any higher than $500 for acquisition of props and transportation/gas. All other video hardware/software is freely accessible.
Advisor
Frank Chindamo, adjunct professor in the SCA Writing department, CEO of Fun Little Movies.
Resources
Video editing software and video hardware is already readily accessible: Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, DVD Studio Pro, Dreamweaver, After Effects, Shake.
Abstract:
Short internet videos are a new, wildly popular, emergent form of entertainment, perfectly suited to the increasingly low-attention span culture we now occupy.
For this project, I am attempting to deconstruct the elements that comprise viral videos that achieve a degree of internet notoriety and popularity. In doing so, I hope to help my reader understand how the average web user views, processes, and in turn propagates video media that he or she encounters. My assumption behind this project is that the internet audience is, contrary to popular belief, predictable, and while trends and general tastes are certainly mercurial, there exist common elements that are in fact shared by self-created and self-propagated media.
I will distill a number of theoretical "formulas" for popular internet videos from shared elements found in popular internet videos. The core of my project would be to then test the actual effectiveness of my formulas by applying it to a number of self-created videos and tracking their popularity. As there is often an author/viewer correspondence present in these videos, I will also fabricate and assume the various personas behind each video, responding to the viewers as necessary. In this way, this might be considered an interactive video project, or more specifically, a series of short interactive video projects linked by a common thread.
I will analyze commonly seen elements in popular videos, past and present, and distill them into generic formulas that I will then use as a blueprint to create videos of my own. Meanwhile, I will also document the making of process to yield insight into the thinking behind each decision. I intend to use the web video format as the primary way of presenting information, and necessarily will be also creating a webpage for the project as well.
The goal for each video is to reach one million views each. Videos that fall short of this goal will still yield insight as to why they did not take off – and will be analyzed as such.
While my audience is also an unwitting test subject, the real audience for this would be for the more academically minded, as they are aware of the fact that these videos are constructed with the sole purpose of achieving a high degree of internet popularity, and are also privy to the thought processes behind them. I intend for my final delivery format to be a website documenting my thinking and process, as well as containing the various videos themselves.
Significance:
The sheer volume of viewership and visibility of particularly popular internet videos opens up a world of yet unexplored possibilities in both the commercial as well as the creative realm. The fact that many memes from viral web videos have successfully migrated from internet culture to popular culture indicates that this form of entertainment is by no means confined to the boundaries of electronic medium. As of now, there have been no prominent traditionally scholarly analysis of this new form of entertainment, perhaps owing to the difficulty in writing about a primarily visual, constantly moving medium. It is a topic uniquely suited to a multimedia based scholarly approach.
The implications of this project are potentially far reaching. This medium by and large is a medium created and propagated by this generation, and a distillation of it would yield insight into the mindset of my generation. Moreover, in a realm where views are tied to advertising revenue, formulas that guarantee high amounts of views could have a wide array of practical applications.
Timeline:
Due to the constantly changing nature of this project (for example, response videos might be shot after the first is uploaded), it is safe to assume that I will be shooting/editing/uploading constantly throughout the entire process. For videos that have not hit the goal of one million views before the presentation date, I will have projected numbers based on hits per day.
∑ Summer/Pre-Summer
o Create user accounts on YouTube/Video websites
o Acquire props
o Conduct Research
o Test or actually shoot videos (to be uploaded later)
o Contact team members
∑ September
o Confirm proposal
o Shoot and upload videos
o Track data
∑ October
o Shoot and upload videos
o Track data
∑ November
o Shoot and upload videos
o Track data
o Prototype/draft presentation
∑ December
o Shoot and upload videos
o Track data
o Prepare “Making of” videos
∑ January
o Track data
o Conduct interviews
ß Tom Gunning?
ß Creators of LonelyGirl?
ß Ad Agencies?
o Prepare “Making of” videos
∑ February
o Track data
o Conduct interviews
∑ March
∑ April
∑ May
o Present Final Project
Budget:
I don’t anticipate the budget to go any higher than $500 for acquisition of props and transportation/gas. All other video hardware/software is freely accessible.
Advisor
Frank Chindamo, adjunct professor in the SCA Writing department, CEO of Fun Little Movies.
Resources
Video editing software and video hardware is already readily accessible: Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, DVD Studio Pro, Dreamweaver, After Effects, Shake.
ITP Flash Classes
The Information Technology Program (ITP) over in Engineering is offering 2 Flash classes in the Fall...
ITP 216 - Web Animation & Interactivity
Monday 5pm - 8pm
Instructor Ari Blank
ITP 499 - Rich Internet Application Development
Wednesday 5pm - 8pm
If you have questions about ITP classes, contact Jonielle
ITP 216 - Web Animation & Interactivity
Monday 5pm - 8pm
Instructor Ari Blank
You’ll gain a thorough understanding of the fundamentals of Adobe Flash 8 and Flash ActionScript that will allow you to create powerful web animation and interactivity. You’ll explore script syntax and logic, learn to control targeted objects and timelines, and prepare and encode video for deployment so that advanced features of web design, layout and publishing as well as dynamic content loading will be at your fingertips.
ITP 499 - Rich Internet Application Development
Wednesday 5pm - 8pm
Students will acquire skills and knowledge to design and develop online applications powered by the cutting edge Adobe Flash 9 player. Content will be authored using Adobe Flex 2 for client-side development and PHP for server-side development. Major concepts covered are web application design, development, and deployment. Topics include the proper usage of Flex 2 components, creating custom components, and user interface design techniques. The final project will be a scalable fully functional online application.
If you have questions about ITP classes, contact Jonielle
Dustin Johnson's Full Draft
Title: Cinematography: A Language Without Words
Abstract: I am focusing on the little studied art of cinematography in critical studies. Any given film has a rich and complex text of its own that can be drawn upon by simply isolating the visuals. Cinematography is a complex semiotic language using such elements as color, grain, exposure, latitude, contrast, composition, shot angles, and depth of field to tell a story or create an emotion. This symbolism can come in the form of a specific motif in a given film, or can become a part of the conventions and iconography of a genre. Because cinematography has been so tied to ceaseless technical innovation from its beginnings, a given implementation of the visual language of cinematography may actually be tied to an era of technical development and experimentation.
First, I wish to expose and decode this language and its complexity to the student, lay-person, or even scholar not already willing to actually materialize the subconscious interpretations of the text on their own. Secondly, I wish to show how this encoded language appears throughout other media in specific relation to a given text. I plan to do so by choosing at least one film from within the last decade with significant use of the elements that I will define, and tracking both the influences that that film has had on films and other media since its release, as well as backtracking to as many of the influences on it as possible, back to the influences on its influences, and so forth.
One example could be the extremely unique style of Tony Scott's film, Man On Fire, as it is clearly influenced by the Director of Photography's experiments on the BMW film Beat the Devil which can be seen as an extension of the styles used in Swordfish and Gone in Sixty Seconds, which are arguably influenced by the type of standout cinematography seen in Traffic, which not surprisingly came shortly after Three Kings, one of the more notable uses of the now well known “skip bleach” process. After Man on Fire came works like Last King of Scotland, Jarhead, and even Babel that used similar styles, influenced likely by the most recent as well as that which influenced the most recent and so forth. The similarities in style will, in the actual project, be broken down into more specific elements, and definitive examples of each element being compared will be given as each connection is drawn.The project will be pedagogical in that it teaches its users how to look at cinematography as a cultural art. The concept explores the layered effects of the influences on the subject film and the film's influences on other media, therefore is also multi-layered. The interface design will combine still photos (screen shots) with video clips, and with text as various means of exploring the concepts, therefore it is also comparative. The project is interactive to the extent that the user decides how he or she wishes to explore the multi-layered content through the interface. The project is visualization both in how it shows the material of the subject media, as well as visualizes the theories. In a straight forward way, the project is also annotation, as it combines images and moving images with textual explanations.I will probably do the entire project in Flash (a program in which I can call my self a fully competent designer, if not a programmer) and allow the user to navigate it.Methodology:I am going to solve the scholar's conundrum of discussing cinematography as a critical and theoretical aspect of film. Often we study the cinematography of one film, or even of certain genres, but never in depth, and never are those concepts of cinematographic theory applied to the entire study of film. I hope to take cinematography from a film to film context into the broader context by connecting cinematography among different films, and perhaps even among other cultural products that relate such as advertising, commercials, print design, web design, music videos, book covers, etc. If this is going too far, it is enough for me to just bring out patterns and contexts among films for distinct styles of cinematography that are weakly discussed and defined as of yet. The use of an interactive multimedia platform like Flash will allow the user to explore at their own pace the information that I can present to them, and hopefully it will be in the order that makes the most sense to them and that best satisfies their curiosity.
Significance
This project will argue the fact that even in such an independent and post-modern era of cinema, there is still a natural tendency for style to reverberate throughout art, specifically that which is most cinematic. No one text can be looked at independently of its context, and this project helps us understand that to understand a single auteur, one must understand his or her peers as well, for their work inevitably influences them.
Media Presentation and Justification:Because the terminology that exists to describe cinematographic theory is so limited and or so poorly known, using media to visualize and exemplify every part of the thesis will no doubt make possible what would otherwise be a tedious and confusing mixture of description and definition. So rather than writing a paper that would force the reader to look up information to figure out what the author is talking about, using a multimedia interface, the author can provide that information as he goes.
Timeline
First semester I will spend doing research and gathering the raw materials, putting together a large collection of video clips and still images that exemplify the argument being made. Before transcoding all of th footage and standardizing the images, I will test a preliminary Flash interface, undecorated but functional, using placeholders, so that I won't be bogged down later by having to repair and adjust all of my materials to fit.
Second semester, with a working interface model I will just have to update the interface with the actual media and decorate it. This will take a lot of time of course because the interface will not yet have the same scope as the final project will, so as I go I will be adding and expanding symmetrically.
Budget
As long as I use BitTorrent properly and illegally I will not have to pay any money for any of the footage I use from the films I am presenting a discussion of.
Advisors
Prof. Wagner (Critical Studies) and Holly (IML)
Presentation
This project will be offered as a website or viewable on a computer off of a DVD.
Resources
I will need a lot of movie clips, TV clips, commercials, movie marketing materials and other texts related through style ranging from the late 90's to the present. Software : Flash, After Effects, Photoshop, BitTorrent, DVD ripping and burning programs.
Abstract: I am focusing on the little studied art of cinematography in critical studies. Any given film has a rich and complex text of its own that can be drawn upon by simply isolating the visuals. Cinematography is a complex semiotic language using such elements as color, grain, exposure, latitude, contrast, composition, shot angles, and depth of field to tell a story or create an emotion. This symbolism can come in the form of a specific motif in a given film, or can become a part of the conventions and iconography of a genre. Because cinematography has been so tied to ceaseless technical innovation from its beginnings, a given implementation of the visual language of cinematography may actually be tied to an era of technical development and experimentation.
First, I wish to expose and decode this language and its complexity to the student, lay-person, or even scholar not already willing to actually materialize the subconscious interpretations of the text on their own. Secondly, I wish to show how this encoded language appears throughout other media in specific relation to a given text. I plan to do so by choosing at least one film from within the last decade with significant use of the elements that I will define, and tracking both the influences that that film has had on films and other media since its release, as well as backtracking to as many of the influences on it as possible, back to the influences on its influences, and so forth.
One example could be the extremely unique style of Tony Scott's film, Man On Fire, as it is clearly influenced by the Director of Photography's experiments on the BMW film Beat the Devil which can be seen as an extension of the styles used in Swordfish and Gone in Sixty Seconds, which are arguably influenced by the type of standout cinematography seen in Traffic, which not surprisingly came shortly after Three Kings, one of the more notable uses of the now well known “skip bleach” process. After Man on Fire came works like Last King of Scotland, Jarhead, and even Babel that used similar styles, influenced likely by the most recent as well as that which influenced the most recent and so forth. The similarities in style will, in the actual project, be broken down into more specific elements, and definitive examples of each element being compared will be given as each connection is drawn.The project will be pedagogical in that it teaches its users how to look at cinematography as a cultural art. The concept explores the layered effects of the influences on the subject film and the film's influences on other media, therefore is also multi-layered. The interface design will combine still photos (screen shots) with video clips, and with text as various means of exploring the concepts, therefore it is also comparative. The project is interactive to the extent that the user decides how he or she wishes to explore the multi-layered content through the interface. The project is visualization both in how it shows the material of the subject media, as well as visualizes the theories. In a straight forward way, the project is also annotation, as it combines images and moving images with textual explanations.I will probably do the entire project in Flash (a program in which I can call my self a fully competent designer, if not a programmer) and allow the user to navigate it.Methodology:I am going to solve the scholar's conundrum of discussing cinematography as a critical and theoretical aspect of film. Often we study the cinematography of one film, or even of certain genres, but never in depth, and never are those concepts of cinematographic theory applied to the entire study of film. I hope to take cinematography from a film to film context into the broader context by connecting cinematography among different films, and perhaps even among other cultural products that relate such as advertising, commercials, print design, web design, music videos, book covers, etc. If this is going too far, it is enough for me to just bring out patterns and contexts among films for distinct styles of cinematography that are weakly discussed and defined as of yet. The use of an interactive multimedia platform like Flash will allow the user to explore at their own pace the information that I can present to them, and hopefully it will be in the order that makes the most sense to them and that best satisfies their curiosity.
Significance
This project will argue the fact that even in such an independent and post-modern era of cinema, there is still a natural tendency for style to reverberate throughout art, specifically that which is most cinematic. No one text can be looked at independently of its context, and this project helps us understand that to understand a single auteur, one must understand his or her peers as well, for their work inevitably influences them.
Media Presentation and Justification:Because the terminology that exists to describe cinematographic theory is so limited and or so poorly known, using media to visualize and exemplify every part of the thesis will no doubt make possible what would otherwise be a tedious and confusing mixture of description and definition. So rather than writing a paper that would force the reader to look up information to figure out what the author is talking about, using a multimedia interface, the author can provide that information as he goes.
Timeline
First semester I will spend doing research and gathering the raw materials, putting together a large collection of video clips and still images that exemplify the argument being made. Before transcoding all of th footage and standardizing the images, I will test a preliminary Flash interface, undecorated but functional, using placeholders, so that I won't be bogged down later by having to repair and adjust all of my materials to fit.
Second semester, with a working interface model I will just have to update the interface with the actual media and decorate it. This will take a lot of time of course because the interface will not yet have the same scope as the final project will, so as I go I will be adding and expanding symmetrically.
Budget
As long as I use BitTorrent properly and illegally I will not have to pay any money for any of the footage I use from the films I am presenting a discussion of.
Advisors
Prof. Wagner (Critical Studies) and Holly (IML)
Presentation
This project will be offered as a website or viewable on a computer off of a DVD.
Resources
I will need a lot of movie clips, TV clips, commercials, movie marketing materials and other texts related through style ranging from the late 90's to the present. Software : Flash, After Effects, Photoshop, BitTorrent, DVD ripping and burning programs.
Andy'S Draft
I. A MULTIPERSPECTIVAL PRESENTATION OF THE MANY FACES OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT: PRINCE, SOLDIER, WARRIOR
II. Abstract
I am exploring the historical interpretations of Alexander the Great in an attempt to determine how ancient historians, and writers throughout the centuries, have interpreted this to form a comprehensive picture of the man. The written word will be an integral part of this project, but Alexander will also be seen through the eyes of the sculptors, painters, and artists who have tried to form the visual images of this enigmatic man. The primary goal of this work is to aid the reader in attaining a comprehensive understanding of one of the most dynamic leaders in world history accomplished what he did and how he and his actions were later seen. Recent work in the field of Alexandrian studies will be included which calls into question many of the ancient sources and their interpretation of certain aspects of his life, i.e. his mother, Olympias, and her influence on his subsequent undertakings, the burning of the Persian royal palace of Persepolis, and others. I want to produce a muti-perspectival project aimed at the academic reader (or any serious lover of history) that will examine several events in the life of Alexander as interpreted by a few sources. Alexandrian studies are a paradox because nothing can truly be known about the man himself to a certainty, despite the corpus of works concerning him. Many of the sources disagree; what I would attempt to do is allow a participant to physically see where the disagreements occur and how little moments of disharmony add up over the course of the main narratives.
III. Description
This will take the form of experiential documentary where the user can explore material on Alexander during a series of events. The focus of the project would center on answering what we, as scholars, can truly know about Alexander, and then view the many ways he has been reinterpreted throughout the years based on various findings that continue to come to light. At the moment, I believe two examples that bear intense scrutiny are the Battle of Gaugamela and the Revolt at the Hydaspes, each of which center upon different facets of Alexander’s life and career. Can we only know, as most academics believe, that all we can take from the histories are what the author says Alexander did, or, can we say with any degree of certainty that he actually acted in that manner? The modern scholarship that does exist about Alexander is quite fascinating and is worth contemplating alongside the ancient scholarship as well. There is one particularly fascinating book that was recently published by Elizabeth Carney in which she completely rejects every negative interpretation of Olympias, Alexander’s mother, in the secondary sources as a misrepresentation of a strong and powerful woman who lived in a brutal time. I feel that the modern scholarship will give the project the extra component that will aid the viewer in appreciating how many ways something can be reinterpreted, which is a major portion of what I am attempting to do.
I find that most people can’t make their way through the ancient corpus of works about Alexander, much less make the distinctions among the different traditions that they hail - even academics find actively keeping this information organized in their mind to be a challenge. Trying to guide most people through the visual representations is easier. There is a rich and varied body of visual interpretation including incredible sculpted busts of the man, both as warrior and civilian, ancient statues, coinage, medieval illuminations, and a host of art from the Renaissance through the 19th centuries. The addition of visual illustration to the written work will bolster interest in the subject. By making the sources obvious via tabs or citations of some sort, people could literally see the similarities as well as the discrepancies side by side. I haven’t decided beyond the historically accepted artistic representations of Alexander if any cinematic projects deserve to be spliced into the project proper, but some (such as certain portions of Oliver Stone’s Alexander) do capture certain moments that are in concordance between sources. I truly believe that this could be a fascinating experience wherein the viewer could learn in one place about the many aspects of the man. Keep in mind, though, that this knowledge would not be presented as “this is what Alexander did”; it would be “this is what Arrian or Curtius said Alexander did”. From that basis, and after experiencing the project, I would allow the participant to make his own decision as to whether the source serves a more literary purpose (Callisthenes says Alexander did this and there remains some degree of suspicion as to its historical veracity) or a more historical purpose (Alexander did this and Ptolemy reported it). This needs to be done in a multimedia format because of the efficiency in assimilation and presentation of the information. I would attempt to arrange the project in such a way that the person experiencing it would be able to guide their learning in fields that interest them.
This would take shape as a DVD which would engross the participant with information and various interpretations of the man, the world he lived in, what drove him to undertake what he did, how he was seen then, now, and the position he assumes in recorded history. Ultimately, this will force people to see how the sources are not in concordance and how even the simplest facts cannot be agreed upon. Moreover, while experiencing the project, the viewer will learn what various scholars (ancient and modern) claim regarding Alexander, because, in the final analysis, all that can be known about one of the most dynamic leaders in history is what we can glean from several contradictory authors.
IV. Timeline
August-October Research Alexander
October-November Create Structure and begin editing clips
December-January Bulk of Work
February-May Polishing and Editing based on Initial Reactions
May 8th Finished Project
V. Budget
Although I don’t foresee this project costing anything more than materials, I’ll tentatively say that it will cost anywhere from $20-$200.
VI. Advisors
Vincent Farenga PhD. Classics
VII. Presentation/Distribution Venues
DVD
VIII. Production Resources
AfterEffects
FinalCutPro
Flash
Korsakow
DVDs
IX. Prior Related Work
After extensive research, nothing along these lines has even been attempted in the field of Classical Studies.
X. Research Bibliography
Arrian trans. Selincourt, Aubrey. The Campaigns of Alexander. London: Penguin, 1971.
Briant, Pierre trans. Daniels, Peter. From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire. Paris: Eisenbraus, 2002.
Cartledge, Paul. Alexander the Great. New York: Random House, 2004.
Curtius trans. Yardlet, John. The History of Alexander. London: Penguin, 2004.
Worthing, Ian ed. Alexander the Great: A Reader. London: Routledge, 2003.
II. Abstract
I am exploring the historical interpretations of Alexander the Great in an attempt to determine how ancient historians, and writers throughout the centuries, have interpreted this to form a comprehensive picture of the man. The written word will be an integral part of this project, but Alexander will also be seen through the eyes of the sculptors, painters, and artists who have tried to form the visual images of this enigmatic man. The primary goal of this work is to aid the reader in attaining a comprehensive understanding of one of the most dynamic leaders in world history accomplished what he did and how he and his actions were later seen. Recent work in the field of Alexandrian studies will be included which calls into question many of the ancient sources and their interpretation of certain aspects of his life, i.e. his mother, Olympias, and her influence on his subsequent undertakings, the burning of the Persian royal palace of Persepolis, and others. I want to produce a muti-perspectival project aimed at the academic reader (or any serious lover of history) that will examine several events in the life of Alexander as interpreted by a few sources. Alexandrian studies are a paradox because nothing can truly be known about the man himself to a certainty, despite the corpus of works concerning him. Many of the sources disagree; what I would attempt to do is allow a participant to physically see where the disagreements occur and how little moments of disharmony add up over the course of the main narratives.
III. Description
This will take the form of experiential documentary where the user can explore material on Alexander during a series of events. The focus of the project would center on answering what we, as scholars, can truly know about Alexander, and then view the many ways he has been reinterpreted throughout the years based on various findings that continue to come to light. At the moment, I believe two examples that bear intense scrutiny are the Battle of Gaugamela and the Revolt at the Hydaspes, each of which center upon different facets of Alexander’s life and career. Can we only know, as most academics believe, that all we can take from the histories are what the author says Alexander did, or, can we say with any degree of certainty that he actually acted in that manner? The modern scholarship that does exist about Alexander is quite fascinating and is worth contemplating alongside the ancient scholarship as well. There is one particularly fascinating book that was recently published by Elizabeth Carney in which she completely rejects every negative interpretation of Olympias, Alexander’s mother, in the secondary sources as a misrepresentation of a strong and powerful woman who lived in a brutal time. I feel that the modern scholarship will give the project the extra component that will aid the viewer in appreciating how many ways something can be reinterpreted, which is a major portion of what I am attempting to do.
I find that most people can’t make their way through the ancient corpus of works about Alexander, much less make the distinctions among the different traditions that they hail - even academics find actively keeping this information organized in their mind to be a challenge. Trying to guide most people through the visual representations is easier. There is a rich and varied body of visual interpretation including incredible sculpted busts of the man, both as warrior and civilian, ancient statues, coinage, medieval illuminations, and a host of art from the Renaissance through the 19th centuries. The addition of visual illustration to the written work will bolster interest in the subject. By making the sources obvious via tabs or citations of some sort, people could literally see the similarities as well as the discrepancies side by side. I haven’t decided beyond the historically accepted artistic representations of Alexander if any cinematic projects deserve to be spliced into the project proper, but some (such as certain portions of Oliver Stone’s Alexander) do capture certain moments that are in concordance between sources. I truly believe that this could be a fascinating experience wherein the viewer could learn in one place about the many aspects of the man. Keep in mind, though, that this knowledge would not be presented as “this is what Alexander did”; it would be “this is what Arrian or Curtius said Alexander did”. From that basis, and after experiencing the project, I would allow the participant to make his own decision as to whether the source serves a more literary purpose (Callisthenes says Alexander did this and there remains some degree of suspicion as to its historical veracity) or a more historical purpose (Alexander did this and Ptolemy reported it). This needs to be done in a multimedia format because of the efficiency in assimilation and presentation of the information. I would attempt to arrange the project in such a way that the person experiencing it would be able to guide their learning in fields that interest them.
This would take shape as a DVD which would engross the participant with information and various interpretations of the man, the world he lived in, what drove him to undertake what he did, how he was seen then, now, and the position he assumes in recorded history. Ultimately, this will force people to see how the sources are not in concordance and how even the simplest facts cannot be agreed upon. Moreover, while experiencing the project, the viewer will learn what various scholars (ancient and modern) claim regarding Alexander, because, in the final analysis, all that can be known about one of the most dynamic leaders in history is what we can glean from several contradictory authors.
IV. Timeline
August-October Research Alexander
October-November Create Structure and begin editing clips
December-January Bulk of Work
February-May Polishing and Editing based on Initial Reactions
May 8th Finished Project
V. Budget
Although I don’t foresee this project costing anything more than materials, I’ll tentatively say that it will cost anywhere from $20-$200.
VI. Advisors
Vincent Farenga PhD. Classics
VII. Presentation/Distribution Venues
DVD
VIII. Production Resources
AfterEffects
FinalCutPro
Flash
Korsakow
DVDs
IX. Prior Related Work
After extensive research, nothing along these lines has even been attempted in the field of Classical Studies.
X. Research Bibliography
Arrian trans. Selincourt, Aubrey. The Campaigns of Alexander. London: Penguin, 1971.
Briant, Pierre trans. Daniels, Peter. From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire. Paris: Eisenbraus, 2002.
Cartledge, Paul. Alexander the Great. New York: Random House, 2004.
Curtius trans. Yardlet, John. The History of Alexander. London: Penguin, 2004.
Worthing, Ian ed. Alexander the Great: A Reader. London: Routledge, 2003.
Beth's Proposal
TITLE
The Role of Toxin-Antitoxin Gene Pairs in Cell Death/Cell Survival in Escherichia coli
ABSTRACT
Toxin-antitoxin pairs are pairs of genes that encode the information necessary for the generation of a toxin and an antitoxin. Within a healthy cell, toxin and antitoxin proteins are simultaneously produced, and bind together to form a complex that is harmless to the cell; however, in an abnormal cell, the toxin protein accumulates, disrupting normal cellular functions and ultimately causing cell death. For this reason, toxin-antitoxin pairs have been implicated as key components of programmed cell death mechanisms and the plasmid addiction system (a mechanism in which a cell dies if it does not receive a copy of a small, circular piece of DNA called a plasmid). Understanding the basic mechanisms underlying programmed cell death and plasmid addiction is an important step in gaining insight into disorders/diseases caused by uncontrolled cell proliferation like cancer, and may yield important molecular tools for initiating death in specific, undesired cells in laboratory experiments.
The aim of this project is to generate a miniature database documentary about toxin-antitoxin pairs, and more specifically toxin-antitoxin pairs in the bacterium Escherichia coli. This will be a referential and educational tool that includes a review of toxin-antitoxin pair literature, as well progress on toxin-antitoxin pair research being conducted in the Finkel laboratory at the University of Southern California.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
DEFINITION OF PROJECT
Genre and Delivery Format
Data presentation is one of the most important aspects of the scientific process, regardless of whether the project is a literature review or laboratory-based research. The publication of papers and the presentation of works at conferences and symposiums allow researchers to present their findings to the scientific community, as well as the general public. This generates a forum for the discussion and exchange of ideas, which is inherently important to scientific progress.
There are three primary modes of presentation in the sciences: paper publications, oral presentations, and poster presentations. Despite the inherently scholastic nature of science, which demands careful note-taking, attention to detail, and the analysis and interpretation of data, there are many aspects of science that are better explained through images, especially for lay audiences or those unfamiliar with the research topic. These components include physical, chemical, or physiological mechanisms, experimental procedures, and data. For instance, it is much easier to understand how a neurotoxin can cause paralysis via a schematic drawing or an animation, than it is to read a dense passage detailing each step in the process. Likewise, it is much easier to understand data presented as a graph than as a list of numbers.
For this reason, this project will be a multimedia-based project in the form of a database documentary. It is critically important to maintain a textual, scholarly component in the presentation of this project because of the scholastic nature of the research: at the core of this project are a literature review of toxin-antitoxin pairs in the bacterium Escherichia coli and data collected from ongoing research. However, there are also multiple components of this project that are far better served by visual aids, including pictures, animations, interviews, and data. A database documentary will allow for the incorporation of scholastic and multimedia components, as well as allow the audience to explore and learn about toxin-antitoxin pairs in E. coli at their leisure and personal level of understanding.
Research Methodology
The specific aim of this research project is to conduct an extensive literature review of toxin-antitoxin pairs in the bacterium Escherichia coli, and compile the information in a cohesive and understandable multimedia format that is accessible to both the layperson and the professional researcher. This project will be comprised of five major components: (1) general information about toxin-antitoxin pairs, (2) toxin-antitoxin pairs in E. coli, (3) proposed theories for the role of toxin-antitoxin pairs in E. coli death and/or survival, (4) potential applications of toxin-antitoxin pair research, (5) progress with research that I am conducting in the laboratory.
The first component of this project will present a broad overview of toxin-antitoxin pairs – the background information. It will begin with two basic concepts that are crucially important to toxin-antitoxin pair action, programmed cell death and plasmid addiction (a mechanism in which a cell dies if it does not receive a copy of a circular piece of extra-genomic DNA called a plasmid). The discussion will continue with the identification of toxin-antitoxin pairs on bacterial genomes, what they are, how they are thought to act, and their potential significance for cell death or survival.
The second component of this project will concentrate on the main focus of this project, toxin-antitoxin pairs on the E. coli genome. This section will include information about each of the toxin-antitoxin pairs identified in E. coli, their locations on the E. coli genome, their putative modes of action, and other pertinent information.
The third section will be focused on the major theories regarding the purposes of these toxin-antitoxin pairs in E. coli. The theories proposed by the two major camps of toxin-antitoxin pair research, the Gerdes laboratory and the Engelberg-Kulka laboratory, will be discussed here, as well as the theory proposed by the Finkel laboratory.
The fourth, and final section of the literature review, will be concerned with the potential applications of toxin-antitoxin pair research. Understanding the mechanisms of toxin-antitoxin pairs is a major step forward in understanding programmed cell death mechanisms, and possibly the mechanisms underlying the termination of programmed cell death abnormal proliferation of cells (e.g. cancer). Additionally, toxin-antitoxin pairs have the potentially of being a very useful molecular technique that can be used to terminate certain, unwanted cells in controlled experiments.
The final component of this project will be concerned with my own research. This section will consist primarily of the protocols and processes that are involved in my research, with a little bit of data. Realistically, there will be little data to present, as current research endeavors are focused on the generation of mutant E. coli strains required for the study of toxin-antitoxin pairs.
PROJECT GOALS
The primary goal of this multimedia project is to generate a miniature database of information regarding toxin-antitoxin pairs in Escherichia coli. This will be an interactive project that can be used as both a source of reference for people conducting research on toxin-antitoxin pairs in E. coli and an educational experience for people of all educational backgrounds who have an interest in learning about toxin-antitoxin pairs.
To accomplish this goal, the information contained within this project will be made accessible to both the layperson and the professional researcher. a researcher can browse through the project, looking at current information and research about toxin-antitoxin pairs and bypassing explanations and images that describe basic knowledge (e.g. transcription and translation), while a lay person can browse through the project, bringing up annotations (textual and/or visual) that explain concepts they do not know or understand.
SIGNIFICANCE
Toxin-antitoxin pairs have been implicated as key components of two important cell death mechanisms, programmed cell death and the plasmid addiction system. Programmed cell death (PCD; apoptosis) is a normal regulatory process that allows for the destruction and removal of unneeded or damaged cells. PCD results from highly regulated biochemical processes that are activated by a variety of mechanisms, including damage to DNA and external chemical signals, and trigger death. In the plasmid addiction system, a type of programmed cell death, a toxin-antitoxin pair resides on a circular piece of DNA (called a plasmid) in the cytoplasm of a bacterial cell. During replication, those bacterial cells that do not receive the plasmid undergo cell death, while those that do receive the plasmid survive and replicate. Understanding these mechanisms are extremely important in diseases where cell proliferation goes unchecked, such as cancer, because in many of these diseases, there is abnormal suppression of PCD.
It has been recently discovered that these toxin-antitoxin pairs not only reside on plasmids, but are also integrated into the genomes of many bacterial species. The Escherichia coli genome has been found to contain at least ten of these toxin-antitoxin pairs at seven different locations. The incorporation of these toxin-antitoxin pairs into the E. coli genome suggests they play an important function in regulating cell death and / or cell survival. Utilizing E. coli provides us with a highly accessible way of gaining insight into the mechanisms underlying cell death / cell survival mechanisms.
TIMELINE
27 July 2007 Written / visual draft of all necessary project components
28 September 2007 Draft of all textual aspects of this project submitted to Biology Advisor
26 October 2007 Final draft of all textual aspects of this project
28 December 2007 Completed compilation of audio / visual components
29 February 2008 Rough draft of final multimedia project
28 March 2008 Second draft of final multimedia project
18 April 2008 Third draft of final multimedia project
May 2008 Final draft of multimedia project
BUDGET
To be determined.
CONFIRMED ADVISORS
Steven Finkel, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Molecular and Computational Biology
University of Southern California
1050 Childs Way
Ray Irani Hall 319B, Mail Code 2910
Los Angeles, CA 90089-2910
Phone: (213) 821-1498
Email: sfinkel@usc.edu
PRESENTATION PLANS
This project will be presented at the end of the Spring 2008 semester, as a part of the Institute for Multimedia Literacy Honors Program. This multimedia project will be accompanied by a written thesis that will be submitted to the University of Southern California Biology Department for a letter grade.
PRODUCTION RESOURCES
SOFTWARE / HARDWARE
Literature review and laboratory research will be conducted in Ray Irani Hall in the USC Department of Molecular and Computation Biology. The multimedia aspect of this project will be primarily Macromedia Flash-based. Animations and images will be downloaded from the Internet or they will be generated in Macromedia Flash or Microsoft PowerPoint, and interviews and videos of the experimentation process will be shot and captured and edited in Final Cut Pro.
COLLABORATORS
Finkel Laboratory, University of Southern California
Journal of Visualized Experiments (Tentative)
PRESENTATION NEEDS
This multimedia project will be designed to be viewed on a computer and the final project will be delivered in Flash on DVD.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Toxin-antitoxin (TA) pairs are gene pairs that coexpress a stable toxin and a labile antitoxin (Brown and Shaw, 2003). Within the cell, toxin and antitoxin proteins bind to form a toxin-antitoxin complex that is harmless to the cell; however, when free toxin is allowed to accumulate in the cell (via disruption of TA transcription and/or translation, deletion of the TA pair, etc.), it dies. For this reason, TA pairs have been implicated as key components of programmed cell death mechanisms and the plasmid addiction system, though the modes of action of most TA pairs remain undetermined.
Ten toxin-antitoxin pairs have been identified at various loci on the E. coli genome, and seem to be associated with cell death mechanisms triggered by large chromosomal deletions in long-term cultures. Preliminary studies suggest that these toxin-antitoxin pairs play a key role in cell survival, as E. coli strains mutant for seven TA pairs put into direct competition with the wild type strains show reduced competitive ability and large population reductions (Finkel laboratory, unpublished).
REFERENCES
Brown, J. M., and K. J. Shaw. 2003. A Novel Family of Escherichia coli Toxin-Antitoxin Gene Pairs. J. Bacteriol. 185(22): 6600-6608.
Datsenko, K. A., and B. L. Wanner. 2000. One-step inactivation of chromosomal genes in Escherichia coli K-12 using PCR products. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97:6640-6645.
The Role of Toxin-Antitoxin Gene Pairs in Cell Death/Cell Survival in Escherichia coli
ABSTRACT
Toxin-antitoxin pairs are pairs of genes that encode the information necessary for the generation of a toxin and an antitoxin. Within a healthy cell, toxin and antitoxin proteins are simultaneously produced, and bind together to form a complex that is harmless to the cell; however, in an abnormal cell, the toxin protein accumulates, disrupting normal cellular functions and ultimately causing cell death. For this reason, toxin-antitoxin pairs have been implicated as key components of programmed cell death mechanisms and the plasmid addiction system (a mechanism in which a cell dies if it does not receive a copy of a small, circular piece of DNA called a plasmid). Understanding the basic mechanisms underlying programmed cell death and plasmid addiction is an important step in gaining insight into disorders/diseases caused by uncontrolled cell proliferation like cancer, and may yield important molecular tools for initiating death in specific, undesired cells in laboratory experiments.
The aim of this project is to generate a miniature database documentary about toxin-antitoxin pairs, and more specifically toxin-antitoxin pairs in the bacterium Escherichia coli. This will be a referential and educational tool that includes a review of toxin-antitoxin pair literature, as well progress on toxin-antitoxin pair research being conducted in the Finkel laboratory at the University of Southern California.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
DEFINITION OF PROJECT
Genre and Delivery Format
Data presentation is one of the most important aspects of the scientific process, regardless of whether the project is a literature review or laboratory-based research. The publication of papers and the presentation of works at conferences and symposiums allow researchers to present their findings to the scientific community, as well as the general public. This generates a forum for the discussion and exchange of ideas, which is inherently important to scientific progress.
There are three primary modes of presentation in the sciences: paper publications, oral presentations, and poster presentations. Despite the inherently scholastic nature of science, which demands careful note-taking, attention to detail, and the analysis and interpretation of data, there are many aspects of science that are better explained through images, especially for lay audiences or those unfamiliar with the research topic. These components include physical, chemical, or physiological mechanisms, experimental procedures, and data. For instance, it is much easier to understand how a neurotoxin can cause paralysis via a schematic drawing or an animation, than it is to read a dense passage detailing each step in the process. Likewise, it is much easier to understand data presented as a graph than as a list of numbers.
For this reason, this project will be a multimedia-based project in the form of a database documentary. It is critically important to maintain a textual, scholarly component in the presentation of this project because of the scholastic nature of the research: at the core of this project are a literature review of toxin-antitoxin pairs in the bacterium Escherichia coli and data collected from ongoing research. However, there are also multiple components of this project that are far better served by visual aids, including pictures, animations, interviews, and data. A database documentary will allow for the incorporation of scholastic and multimedia components, as well as allow the audience to explore and learn about toxin-antitoxin pairs in E. coli at their leisure and personal level of understanding.
Research Methodology
The specific aim of this research project is to conduct an extensive literature review of toxin-antitoxin pairs in the bacterium Escherichia coli, and compile the information in a cohesive and understandable multimedia format that is accessible to both the layperson and the professional researcher. This project will be comprised of five major components: (1) general information about toxin-antitoxin pairs, (2) toxin-antitoxin pairs in E. coli, (3) proposed theories for the role of toxin-antitoxin pairs in E. coli death and/or survival, (4) potential applications of toxin-antitoxin pair research, (5) progress with research that I am conducting in the laboratory.
The first component of this project will present a broad overview of toxin-antitoxin pairs – the background information. It will begin with two basic concepts that are crucially important to toxin-antitoxin pair action, programmed cell death and plasmid addiction (a mechanism in which a cell dies if it does not receive a copy of a circular piece of extra-genomic DNA called a plasmid). The discussion will continue with the identification of toxin-antitoxin pairs on bacterial genomes, what they are, how they are thought to act, and their potential significance for cell death or survival.
The second component of this project will concentrate on the main focus of this project, toxin-antitoxin pairs on the E. coli genome. This section will include information about each of the toxin-antitoxin pairs identified in E. coli, their locations on the E. coli genome, their putative modes of action, and other pertinent information.
The third section will be focused on the major theories regarding the purposes of these toxin-antitoxin pairs in E. coli. The theories proposed by the two major camps of toxin-antitoxin pair research, the Gerdes laboratory and the Engelberg-Kulka laboratory, will be discussed here, as well as the theory proposed by the Finkel laboratory.
The fourth, and final section of the literature review, will be concerned with the potential applications of toxin-antitoxin pair research. Understanding the mechanisms of toxin-antitoxin pairs is a major step forward in understanding programmed cell death mechanisms, and possibly the mechanisms underlying the termination of programmed cell death abnormal proliferation of cells (e.g. cancer). Additionally, toxin-antitoxin pairs have the potentially of being a very useful molecular technique that can be used to terminate certain, unwanted cells in controlled experiments.
The final component of this project will be concerned with my own research. This section will consist primarily of the protocols and processes that are involved in my research, with a little bit of data. Realistically, there will be little data to present, as current research endeavors are focused on the generation of mutant E. coli strains required for the study of toxin-antitoxin pairs.
PROJECT GOALS
The primary goal of this multimedia project is to generate a miniature database of information regarding toxin-antitoxin pairs in Escherichia coli. This will be an interactive project that can be used as both a source of reference for people conducting research on toxin-antitoxin pairs in E. coli and an educational experience for people of all educational backgrounds who have an interest in learning about toxin-antitoxin pairs.
To accomplish this goal, the information contained within this project will be made accessible to both the layperson and the professional researcher. a researcher can browse through the project, looking at current information and research about toxin-antitoxin pairs and bypassing explanations and images that describe basic knowledge (e.g. transcription and translation), while a lay person can browse through the project, bringing up annotations (textual and/or visual) that explain concepts they do not know or understand.
SIGNIFICANCE
Toxin-antitoxin pairs have been implicated as key components of two important cell death mechanisms, programmed cell death and the plasmid addiction system. Programmed cell death (PCD; apoptosis) is a normal regulatory process that allows for the destruction and removal of unneeded or damaged cells. PCD results from highly regulated biochemical processes that are activated by a variety of mechanisms, including damage to DNA and external chemical signals, and trigger death. In the plasmid addiction system, a type of programmed cell death, a toxin-antitoxin pair resides on a circular piece of DNA (called a plasmid) in the cytoplasm of a bacterial cell. During replication, those bacterial cells that do not receive the plasmid undergo cell death, while those that do receive the plasmid survive and replicate. Understanding these mechanisms are extremely important in diseases where cell proliferation goes unchecked, such as cancer, because in many of these diseases, there is abnormal suppression of PCD.
It has been recently discovered that these toxin-antitoxin pairs not only reside on plasmids, but are also integrated into the genomes of many bacterial species. The Escherichia coli genome has been found to contain at least ten of these toxin-antitoxin pairs at seven different locations. The incorporation of these toxin-antitoxin pairs into the E. coli genome suggests they play an important function in regulating cell death and / or cell survival. Utilizing E. coli provides us with a highly accessible way of gaining insight into the mechanisms underlying cell death / cell survival mechanisms.
TIMELINE
27 July 2007 Written / visual draft of all necessary project components
28 September 2007 Draft of all textual aspects of this project submitted to Biology Advisor
26 October 2007 Final draft of all textual aspects of this project
28 December 2007 Completed compilation of audio / visual components
29 February 2008 Rough draft of final multimedia project
28 March 2008 Second draft of final multimedia project
18 April 2008 Third draft of final multimedia project
May 2008 Final draft of multimedia project
BUDGET
To be determined.
CONFIRMED ADVISORS
Steven Finkel, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Molecular and Computational Biology
University of Southern California
1050 Childs Way
Ray Irani Hall 319B, Mail Code 2910
Los Angeles, CA 90089-2910
Phone: (213) 821-1498
Email: sfinkel@usc.edu
PRESENTATION PLANS
This project will be presented at the end of the Spring 2008 semester, as a part of the Institute for Multimedia Literacy Honors Program. This multimedia project will be accompanied by a written thesis that will be submitted to the University of Southern California Biology Department for a letter grade.
PRODUCTION RESOURCES
SOFTWARE / HARDWARE
Literature review and laboratory research will be conducted in Ray Irani Hall in the USC Department of Molecular and Computation Biology. The multimedia aspect of this project will be primarily Macromedia Flash-based. Animations and images will be downloaded from the Internet or they will be generated in Macromedia Flash or Microsoft PowerPoint, and interviews and videos of the experimentation process will be shot and captured and edited in Final Cut Pro.
COLLABORATORS
Finkel Laboratory, University of Southern California
Journal of Visualized Experiments (Tentative)
PRESENTATION NEEDS
This multimedia project will be designed to be viewed on a computer and the final project will be delivered in Flash on DVD.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Toxin-antitoxin (TA) pairs are gene pairs that coexpress a stable toxin and a labile antitoxin (Brown and Shaw, 2003). Within the cell, toxin and antitoxin proteins bind to form a toxin-antitoxin complex that is harmless to the cell; however, when free toxin is allowed to accumulate in the cell (via disruption of TA transcription and/or translation, deletion of the TA pair, etc.), it dies. For this reason, TA pairs have been implicated as key components of programmed cell death mechanisms and the plasmid addiction system, though the modes of action of most TA pairs remain undetermined.
Ten toxin-antitoxin pairs have been identified at various loci on the E. coli genome, and seem to be associated with cell death mechanisms triggered by large chromosomal deletions in long-term cultures. Preliminary studies suggest that these toxin-antitoxin pairs play a key role in cell survival, as E. coli strains mutant for seven TA pairs put into direct competition with the wild type strains show reduced competitive ability and large population reductions (Finkel laboratory, unpublished).
REFERENCES
Brown, J. M., and K. J. Shaw. 2003. A Novel Family of Escherichia coli Toxin-Antitoxin Gene Pairs. J. Bacteriol. 185(22): 6600-6608.
Datsenko, K. A., and B. L. Wanner. 2000. One-step inactivation of chromosomal genes in Escherichia coli K-12 using PCR products. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97:6640-6645.
Thesis Proposal Presentation Schedules
4/19
Hsieh, Ashley Fu-Jun
Jung, Matthew
Seetharaman, Sonia Lakshmi
Clair, Pierson
Stooker, Elissa Ann
Johnson, Dustin
Ikeda, Tiffany Miyumi
Lindquist, Alexis
4/26
Allison, Mike
Gieszelmann, Erik Edward
Hogan, Andrew M
Lee, Matthew David
Nakasone, Elizabeth
Shepherd, Anastasia Ruth
Skelly, Patrick
Freddie Wong
Hsieh, Ashley Fu-Jun
Jung, Matthew
Seetharaman, Sonia Lakshmi
Clair, Pierson
Stooker, Elissa Ann
Johnson, Dustin
Ikeda, Tiffany Miyumi
Lindquist, Alexis
4/26
Allison, Mike
Gieszelmann, Erik Edward
Hogan, Andrew M
Lee, Matthew David
Nakasone, Elizabeth
Shepherd, Anastasia Ruth
Skelly, Patrick
Freddie Wong
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