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Manufacturer Up In Arms Incensed that the terms exclude industrial scientists, Merck announces sponsorship of competing project A powerful new, privately held database of human complementary DNA (cDNA) sequences has become available to researchers eager to test its capabilities to rapidly identify new genes. The proposed terms of access to the database, however, exclude pharmaceutical and other industry-affiliated scientists, angeri

Date : December 12, 1994 Incensed that the terms exclude industrial scientists, Merck announces sponsorship of competing project A powerful new, privately held database of human complementary DNA (cDNA) sequences has become available to researchers eager to test its capabilities to rapidly identify new genes. The proposed terms of access to the database, however, exclude pharmaceutical and other industry-affiliated scientists, an

Molecular biologist John Fagan made nationwide headlines the week before Thanksgiving when he said thanks--but no thanks--to the National Institutes of Health, returning a grant of nearly $614,000. Fagan, a professor of molecular biology at Maharishi International University (MIU) in Fairfield, Iowa, returned the grant--for research on two genes that are blueprints for cytochromes P450, involved in carcinogen and toxin metabolism-

Margaret A. Hamburg, health commissioner of the New York City Department of Health, became the third member of her family to be elected to IoM. Her parents, psychiatrists David A. Hamburg, currently president of the New York-based Carnegie Corporation, and Beatrix A. Hamburg, who now serves as the president of the William T. Grant Foundation, were elected to the institute in 1971 and 1979, respectively. Margaret Hamburg recalls tha

Date : December 12, 1994 Sidebar: PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY JOB STATISTICS As 1995 approaches, changing economic forces in the pharmaceutical industry are presenting its scientists with tough challenges, both professional and scientific, according to researchers, company officials, and other observers. Financial setbacks and shifting business dynamics, such as mergers and takeovers, have caused companies to drastically downsize thei

Along the way, she bumps into an old friend and current colleague, a radiologist with whom she shared an early-morning physics class in her undergraduate days; he is now a nuclear science professor at the school. Reliving old times and casually discussing their disparate research, they settle in a nearby alcove, one of several "interaction spaces" that dot the architecture of the building. An off-hand remark by her friend implants

Beatrice Mintz, a senior member of the Institute for Cancer Research at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, was presented with the John Scott Award during a reception on November 18 at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. The prize was set up in the early 1800s by John Scott, a Scottish druggist, who entrusted the administration of the award--originally $20 and an inscribed copper medal--to the city of Phila

In a Nov. 7, 1994, letter, Marvin Cassman, acting director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), informed NIGMS grantees that the institute is "making special efforts" to fund applications that contain risky or unorthodox ideas or methods. Specifically, these would be applications that contain ideas that challenge current dogma; include experimental approaches that have inherent or unavoidable elements of ri

Among scientists, Joachim Messing, in his excellent commentary (The Scientist, June 27, 1994, page 13), made the case for supporting many small, rather than a few large, projects. Some excellent suggestions on improvements have also been proposed by Jose M. Musacchio, though he, too, refrains from suggesting major changes in the peer-review system (FASEB Journal, 8:679-83, 1994). Of all the information recently brought out on spons

Cancer Researcher For 'Crazy Ideas' AUTHOR: NEERAJA SANKARAN, pp.23 AUTHOR:BARBARA SPECTOR, pp.23 DATE: December 12, 1994 Cancer Researcher For 'Crazy Ideas' Author : NEERAJA SANKARAN, pp.23 Date: December 12, 1994 Beatrice Mintz, a senior member of the Institute for Cancer Research at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, was presented with the John Scott Award during a reception on November 18 at the American Philosophi

But, just as antibodies are finding increasing utility in cell biology, a new Food and Drug Administration classification for those products with clinical utility may affect researchers' access to the important technology (see accompanying story). Monoclonal History MAbs were born in 1975, when Georges Kohler and Cesar Milstein at the Medical Research Council Laboratories in Cambridge, England, fused two types of cells to form a hy

Date : December 12, 1994 Back To: Pharmaceutical Companies Stress Innovative Research For Success The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), a trade association of research-based pharmaceutical companies, reports an almost 15 percent reduction in the overall work force in the past two to three years, with current employment totaling 266,000. 19900 19912,700 19925,950 199324,850 199412,880 TOTAL46,380 Ma