The Scientist

© Christopher Zacharow/Images.comGene therapy's heady days of introducing the gene for adenosine deaminase into immune cells to treat a life-threatening congenital defect, as was done in the first gene therapy trial in 1990, have given way to an atmosphere of caution. In 1999, Jesse Gelsinger died of multiple organ failure four days after receiving adenovirus-based therapy for a rare liver disorder. In 2002, a child developed leukemia after receiving retroviral therapy for X-linked severe c

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TAMARISK ASSESSMENT:Courtesy of James ClossFour sites in Colorado and Utah where joint USGS-NASA teams are conducting studies of the invasive species, tamarisk.While aerospace engineers at NASA's Goddard Laboratories, northeast of Washington, DC, look down from the heavens, ecologists at a neighboring United States Geological Survey (USGS) have a closer view. Scientists from these disparate fields, ecology and aerospace, have begun collaborating in hopes of stemming a huge and ever-growing invas

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Courtesy of Cecil Fox and the National Cancer InstituteDifferentiation, the stepwise specialization of cells, and transdifferentiation, the apparent switching of one cell type into another, capture much of the stem cell spotlight. But dedifferentiation, the developmental reversal of a cell before it reinvents itself, is an important process, too. This loss of specialization is believed to factor heavily into stem-cell culture techniques and pathological conditions such as cancer. Determining its

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PATHOGENICITY MODEL:© National Academy of Sciences, USAViroid replication generates dsRNA intermediates, which are processed by Dicer into 21- to 25-nucleotide siRNAs. These siRNAs are then incorporated into siRNA – ribonuclease complexes (RISC). If the siRNA sequences significantly match host mRNAs, RISC may target them for degradation leading to disease symptoms. RISC can also target the viroid, forcing it to evolve and to adopt and maintain an RNA silencing-resistant structure. (Fr

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From the USDA to the NIH to the CDC to the MOM, health officials and parents alike are imploring: Eat more fruit. Recently, researchers following 118,428 participants in the long-term Nurse's Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study found that individuals eating three or more servings of fruit daily had a 36% reduced incidence of maculopathy, an untreatable age-related eye disease, compared to those eating less than one-and-a-half daily servings. Other studies show how specific

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