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During the same week that Americans Kerri Strug, Tom Dolan, and Amy Van Dyken struck gold at the Atlanta Olympics, President Clinton was presenting medals of a different sort to eight of the United States' top scientists in Washington, D.C. The researchers were lauded at a White House ceremony late last month as winners of the celebrated National Medal of Science, the U.S. government's highest honor in science. They represent a wide range of disciplines and include two life scientists. Joinin

PETERSEN LEAVIN NSF: Deputy director Anne Petersen will become senior vice president at the Kellogg Foundation Expect to see several new faces at the National Science Foundation this fall. Deputy director Anne C. Petersen, the first woman ever to serve in that position, will leave in September for a new post, as senior vice president for programs at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Mich. "They focus on areas that I really care about," says Peterson, cofounder of the Society for Res

Sidebars How to Get the Guide Committee to Revise the ILAR Guide REVISIONIST: Retired teacher Jo Ann Steggerda's presence on the panel was criticized. Most laboratory scientists, and even some animal-welfare advocates, are applauding the newly published seventh edition of the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. The new edition, the first update since 1985, was published by the National Research Council's Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources (ILAR). It places far greater rel

Therapy Researchers Sidebar: Summary Table of Vectors PROGRESS: Forrest Anthony says some FDA concerns have been allayed. Despite safety questions from federal agencies, the gene therapy industry is hotly pursuing new vectors. Since 1990, dozens of biotech and gene therapy companies have hired life scientists and launched research programs to find safe, effective carriers to shuttle therapeutic genes into the body. According to the Pasteur Institute, a nonprofit research organization in Pari

Testing, Information Access Many question whether the initiative can adequately address issues of privacy and the need for education. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is planning to launch a potentially controversial national information network in the fall. It will provide cancer genetic testing information to physicians and patients in an attempt to help them stay up-to-date, as well as access to the latest genetic testing protocols that NCI offers. IN FAVOR: OncorMed's Doug Dolginow b

SIDEBARS Implementation Group on Research Integrity and Misconduct Definitions of Misconduct in Science Scientific misconduct is front-page news again. Late last month, Tufts University immunologist Thereza Imanishi-Kari was cleared of misconduct by an appeals panel of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In October 1994, she had been found guilty by the department's Office of Research Integrity (ORI) of fabrication and falsification related to a 1986 paper entitled "Altered re

OVERSATURATED: "There are more funded projects than we can absorb," says HGS's William Haseltine. Earlier this month, Human Genome Sciences Inc. (HGS), a biotech firm in Rockville, Md., and Philadelphia-based pharmaceutical giant SmithKline Beecham widened their almost three-year-old exclusive agreement to include more companies in their bioprospecting of the human genome. In research and marketing deals totaling more than $90 million over the next five years, Schering Plough Corp. of Madison

Fresh Air Into Biotech With high-priced products and numerous regulatory roadblocks, biotech firms are having a hard time finding public and venture-capital funding, industry analysts report. To sustain themselves through years of development, trials, and marketing, these companies are adopting novel capital-preserving tactics. One such strategy is "enhancement"-inventing and marketing drug-delivery methods and other technologies that "give new life" to established drugs, as well as to generic

Genome Project Progress Some firms and institutions are establishing ethics branches to focus on policy issues left unresolved by NIH's ELSI project. RULES REQUIRED: Stanford's Paul Billings thinks ELSI has fallen short in creating a "regulatory arena". Many scientists are finding that concerns about the complex ethical, legal, and social issues surrounding genetic testing and the use of the resulting information are taking up a larger part of their time. In response to this shift in focus,

Of Building Boom Faced with decreased federal funding and corporate cuts in R&D, science complexes turn to economic development and incubation for help. 'GOOD NEWS': University Park at Southern Illinois University has seen small companies blossom. Research parks, like other facilities that house working scientists, are facing some new economic realities. Growth has slowed since the mid-1990s, government funding of research is down, and corporate tenants are looking to please Wall Street i

On June 14, a House Appropriations subcommittee gave some researchers cause for celebration when it surprisingly voted to remove a provision in a government spending bill that extended a ban on federal funding of human embryo research. However, their glee was short-lived. The full panel turned around on June 25 and adopted an amendment to continue the research ban. John Eppig, senior staff scientist at Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, doubts that the ban will be overturned anytime soon,

Managed-Care Organizations In Clinical Trials RAY OF HOPE: Cancer-prevention specialist Jon Kerner says MCOs support Phase III trials in some cases. With the advent of managed-care organizations (MCOs) and their focus on cost competitiveness, academic scientists are concerned that clinical trials will suffer from decreased patient participation. MCOs, they say, have been refusing to pay for ancillary tests and procedures performed in the course of a trial that they would otherwise pay. Resear