Giving a Scientific Talk

Giving a Scientific Talk

Tips for an Effective Scientific Presentation

• Know your audience• appropriate introduction- clinical references great!• appropriate amount of explanation and detail

• “Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, tell them what you told them.”• Can use outline, but only if necessary and helpful • Hit on a few major points- CRUCIAL• Title every slide with the point you are making! (ie the RESULT,

not the “effect of”)


• Use high quality charts• few words • never less than size 18 font – know your room! (this is 22)• large figures with readable axes and legends – know your room!• avoid “overproduced” effects like fancy PowerPoint backgrounds

and distracting movement• appropriate use of colors - use color for emphasis or clarity only• use easily-seen colors such as red, blue and green: and test them on

the screen first (not the computer). • Consider red/green color-blindness


• Be aware of your actions• don’t block screen in small room; • don’t move constantly• don’t speak with your back to audience – look at them, especially

at the key people (like your boss!)• use a microphone if available – it will always help – if not, talk

loudly and forcefully • don’t use a laser pointer, unless you can hold it very still: don’t

play with it!


• Always stay within your allotted time- wrap up immediately when the chairman indicates it is time to do so

• Answering questions• be respectful, regardless of the tone of questioner – “That is a very

good question…”• admit ignorance; avoid long rebuttals - “maybe we should discuss

it later”• anticipate questions – have some extra slides for expected

questions


• Speak from memory• DO NOT read from overheads• DO NOT read from a script• Use a few notes to remind you of key words and transitions

between slides• Practice repeatedly out loud; spend time working out the wording

on difficult sections and make sure timing is correct; re-order slides if another order makes more sense

• Show energy and enthusiasm• Try to minimize “uhs,” “ums,” and “likes”

What is wrong with this slide?

• Owpqjrepowqj – WEOPJRTPOEW JR

• WOPEJRPEWOJROPWEJ

• Oi;her p’o0pjer– OPE3WRJ POJ

• POWETJ POJTRO• [PEW

• Oiejr poej – WPOERJEWOPJ

– WEROPJ POJEWR

• Peowrj poEJR• PE[RKOEWJRK

(never use this type of outline)Outline

1. Introduction2. Experimental Methods3. Results4. Discussion5. Conclusions6. Future Work

(If you use this generic outline you will waste 45 s going through it and aggravate your audience)

Ask Questions to Create SuspenseAsk Questions to Create Suspense

• First delineate the problem that arises (from other people’s work or from your results)

• Then use a question slide: (“this led us to the following question: what does x do to y?”)

• Only then show results (remember to explain the method; if complicated, use another slide)

• Then confirmatory results• Then a conclusion• Talk should consist of several “story modules”

Always Provide a Rationale for Always Provide a Rationale for Your Experiments!Your Experiments!

Do not show a “data collection”

7B2 and ProSAAS Are Endogenous Inhibitors Co-localized with

Prohormone Maturation Enzymes-can 7B2 and proSAAS inhibit prohormone maturation in the

neuroendocrine cell?

Analysis of Cellular Prohormone Maturation

• We did this

• Then we did this

• I might add a diagram here if it makes the method clearer

• So now you understand the general approach to solving the question I posed

7B2 and proSAAS Control Prohormone Maturation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

1st Qtr 2nd Qtr 3rd Qtr 4th Qtr

East

West

North

(Here now are the data)

Conclusions

• This would be the place to write an important take-home message

• Remember people’s attention span is limited and if you put too much here they will remember nothing

• Therefore, less is more

Furin as a Therapeutic TargetFurin as a Therapeutic Target (rationale slide- why should the audience be interested in what I am

going to tell them?)

• Inhibition should destroy the biological function of pathogenic substrates which require furin processing for toxicity

• Inhibition should diminish activation of other furin-activated enzymes (matrix metalloproteases)

• Inhibitors could be useful therapeutics in bacterial disease and/or cancer

Testing D6RTesting D6R(questions)(questions)

• Is D6R toxic? • Is D6R efficiently transported into the cell?• Can D6R affect furin-mediated processes in

a cellular setting? – Pseudomonas exotoxin A (PEA) is cleaved by

furin in the endosomal pathway– Cleavage by furin is required for PEA toxicity– Can D6R block PEA toxicity?

Why Attempt to Find Other PC2 Why Attempt to Find Other PC2 Inhibitors?Inhibitors?

• PC2 is the enzyme responsible for the synthesis of glucagon

• Glucagon acts in functional opposition to insulin (whose synthesis is not PC2-dependent)

• Animals lacking PC2 have low blood sugar which is raised by glucagon restoration

• Therefore, PC2-specific inhibitors might assist in lowering blood sugar in diabetics

Use separating slides if there are Use separating slides if there are totally different parts to your totally different parts to your

presentationpresentation

FurinFurin

Use summary slides both within Use summary slides both within the presentation and at the endthe presentation and at the end

Limit the number of points you make!

Summary, Inhibitor StudiesSummary, Inhibitor Studies

•Both PC1 and PC2 possess potent endogenous inhibitors; other convertases such as furin are also likely to have endogenous inhibitors

•The function of endogenous inhibitors may be to control activity during intracellular transport rather than during prohormone maturation

•Proprotein convertases- and in particular furin- represent important therapeutic targets

Add human interest whenever Add human interest whenever possiblepossible

•Create suspense by asking questions

•Describe any Eureka or unusual moments you had while doing the research

•Add humorous slides

•Relate your work to human disease

Human PC1 null

Jackson R.S. et al. Nature Genetics Jackson R.S. et al. Nature Genetics 16,16, 303-6 (1997) Naggert J.K. et al Nature Genetics 303-6 (1997) Naggert J.K. et al Nature Genetics 1010, 135-142 (1995), 135-142 (1995) --

CPE mutationfat/fat mouse

Local Color Is Local Color Is Great When Great When Travelling Travelling Somewhere Somewhere ElseElseIris Lindberg

LSU Health Sciences Center

New Orleans

Louisiana

Future ResearchFuture Research

Not too broad and not too specific: outline for future experiments-

convey your curiosity and enthusiasm!

The 50 Minute Seminar vs the 10 Minute Meeting Talk

Rule of thumb is 1 min per slide (the longer the talk, the more you can add

to this)

The Ten Minute Talk

• You must usually oversimplify • You do not supply detailed information on

methods • You show only about six pieces of actual

data • All the standard elements (rationale, titling

of slides with findings, summary) are present

NEVER- EVER!- go beyond 10 min or 50 min!

You will be perceived as 1) a bad speaker; and 2) arrogant- why is your

time more important than the audience’s?

Writing an Abstract

for fun and profit

(assistance from K.C. Breitbach’s website)

General

• 200-300 words- MUST fit guidelines• Persuades the reader that you did something

new and worthwhile• Often the only published record of the work

(meetings) – until the paper appears• Limit jargon and abbreviations; no citations• Polished: elegant, clear sentences which are

error-free

Title

The title should be short, but descriptive. It should indicate the relationship or question you investigated.– Effect of time spent on homework on student

performance in Physics – Better yet- give the result: Increased homework

effort results in increased student performance

Author(s) and address

• Student A. Student, Department of Stuff, So-and-So Medical Center, Yourcity, ST

Introduction

Write one sentence describing the general topic to be investigated and/or why it is important or what remains to be done– It has been previously noted that the amount of

study time devoted to a particular subject can influence student performance. However, the relationship between student effort and performance has not been systematically investigated.

What you did

Write one or two sentences describing the specific question you are addressing or relationship you are investigating with this investigation – In the work reported here, we examined the

effect of time engaged in homework on overall student performance (can continue sentence… by…)

Method

Write one or two sentences describing how you did the investigation. Do not attempt to write a detailed procedure; instead, just give a general idea of methods. – Students self-reported the number of minutes

spent doing homework for physics each night for four weeks. This number was averaged and plotted against the average grade of the student for all tests and quizzes during the same period.

Results

• Write one or two sentences explaining what you found out. Be as specific as possible, but state only your main point(s). Use the past tense.– We found a positive relationship between the

average number of hours/week spent doing homework and the average grade for each student. The correlation coefficient for the entire class was 0.933.

Conclusion

• Summary of everything you found, in different words

• What are the implications of the research?• Usually do NOT say what remains to be done

(unlike a paper) – Students can increase their performance in school by

increasing the amount of time they spend engaged in homework. These findings are especially important for those low-performing students who are on the verge of flunking.

Tissue distribution and processing of proSAAS by proprotein convertases. M. Sayah, Y. Fortenberry, A. Cameron, and I. Lindberg, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, LSU Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, LA

The conversion of inactive precursor proteins into bioactive neuropeptides and peptide hormones involves the proteolytic enzymes prohormone convertases PC1 and PC2. The neuroendocrine protein 7B2 represents a specific binding protein for PC2, and the protein proSAAS, which interacts with PC1, exhibits certain structural and functional homologies with 7B2. With the intention of better understanding the physiological role of proSAAS and its derived peptides, we investigated its tissue localization using a new radioimmunoassay (RIA) to a carboxyl terminal proSAAS-derived peptide. Immunoreactivity corresponding to this SAAS-derived peptide was mostly localized to the brain and the gut. Analysis of the brain distribution of the proSAAS-derived peptides indicates that the hypothalamus and the pituitary are the two richest areas, consistent with the previously described high expression of PC1 in these two areas. In order to investigate the cleavages of proSAAS by prohormone convertases, we incubated recombinant His-tagged proSAAS with recombinant mouse proPC2 or furin, separated the cleavage products by HPGPC and analyzed the products by RIA. Our results indicate that either PC2 or furin can accomplish in vitro rapid removal and efficient internal processing of the carboxyl terminal peptide (CT peptide), exposing the inhibitory hexapeptide to possible further digestion by carboxypeptidases. Finally, we also studied proSAAS processing in the brains of wild type and PC2 null mice and found that proSAAS is efficiently processed in vivo. Whereas the CT peptide is mostly internally cleaved in wild type mouse brain, it is not processed as efficiently in the brains of PC2 null mice, suggesting that PC2 is partially responsible for this cleavage in vivo. These data support a complex interrelationship between the two convertases and their inhibitors.

Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes: Establishment of a Model System for Studying Differentiation of Cardiac Pacemaking Myocytes. Steven M. White. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, LSUHSC, New Orleans, LA 70112.

Embryonic stem (ES) cell-derived cardiomyocytes provide unique models for studying cardiac development and differentiation in vitro. Our goal is to use genetic selection as a means to isolate a pure population of cardiac myocytes that function as specialized pacemaking or conducting cells from differentiating, genetically-altered murine ES cells. By using a cell-specific promoter controlling expression of a drug-resistance gene and later applying that drug, we are able to select a pure population of the cells of interest. By including the promoter/enhancer region of the cardiac-specific -myosin heavy chain ( -MHC) gene in a selection vector, we have isolated pure populations of cardiomyocytes.

Endothelial-derived paracrine signaling molecules have been shown to induce cardiomyocytes to differentiate into conducting cells. Preliminary results using the HL-1 cardiomyocyte line indicate that treatment of HL-1 cells with the endothelial-derived factors endothelin-1 and neuregulin-1 induces expression of genes characteristic of conducting cardiomyocytes. By following the expression of a genetic marker for the murine cardiac conduction system, the potassium channel b subunit minK, we are currently attempting to isolate conducting cardiomyocytes. Preliminary studies examining the developmental expression of minK in differentiating ES cell aggregates (called embryoid bodies) using lacZ under control of the endogenous minK promoter, show that minK expression begins between days 7 and 8 of development within discrete regions of the embryoid bodies. The ability to isolate pure populations of conducting cardiomyocytes will permit the development of model systems to study cardiomyocyte differentiation, which should lead to new pharmaceutical agents and cellular therapies to treat heart disease.

The EndThe End

What was this “other” influence?Top Ten Reasons for “going into science”:

10. Parents really wanted me to be a doctor, but I couldn’t get into medical school

9. The scientist who discovered leptin got $20 million dollars for this. Need I say more?

8. Thought it was a great way to meet men / women / mice

7. Wanted to save money by making my own drugs in basement

6. Thought that being a scientist beats working for a living

What was this “other” influence?Top Ten Reasons for “going into science”:

5. Mis-read sign in library that said “Silence is Golden”

4. Strong desire to find cure for my unique brain disorder that causes me to waste time writing “top 10 lists”

3. Top secret plan to become evil scientist and rule the world

2. Really like the smell of chemicals

1. Can’t function in the real world

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Giving a Scientific Talk