March 1998

Few who have suffered from influenza need to be reminded of the misery it can inflict. Recent outbreaks in Hong Kong serve as a strong reminder that influenza is a costly and often fatal disease. In December, an outbreak of a deadly strain of avian influenza in Hong Kong caused the government there to mandate the slaughter of more than 1.5 million chickens. As of January, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) researchers have identified 16 confirmed cases of the avian flu in humans.

IT ALL CONNECTS: Ohio State's Janice Kiekolt-Glaser believes that the more mind-body medicine is used in general medicine, the better. Research into the effects of molecular pathways on brain and body functions is reviving old questions Backed by solid research in molecular biology and fueled by consumer interest, the role of the mind in bodily health is entering the arena of serious scientific consideration. Evidence of communication between the central nervous system (CNS) and the immune sy

PROCEED WITH CAUTION: There is no way to tell if rhesus macaques such as these are releasing the deadly herpes B virus into body fluids, researchers warn. The death last December of a 22-year-old research assistant at Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center in Lawrenceville, Ga., has cast a pall over Yerkes and its parent institution, Emory University, and reminded scientists once again that their occupation can be deadly. Elizabeth Griffin died on December 10 of complications from a herpes B

While the ethics of human cloning has dominated recent discussion of reproductive technologies, research involving human embryos has always been a political hot potato, entangled with the twin issues of abortion and the beginning of human life. Restrictive policies and negative public attitudes surrounding embryo research have made it increasingly difficult for the infertility research community to improve the success rates for assisted reproductive technologies. According to the Centers for Di

I read with considerable interest the recent article in The Scientist about the professional concerns of postdoctoral fellows (S. Bunk, The Scientist, Jan. 5, 1998, page 1). To bring postdoctoral fellows in our department into more active participation in the department outside their sponsors' laboratories, three years ago we instituted biweekly research meetings for them. These serve several purposes: Fellows present work in progress as quite informal "chalk talks" or, if they are ready to ent

I have read the article entitled "With Increasing Use Of Meta-Analysis Come Efforts To Boost Validity" (S.P. Hoffert, The Scientist, Jan. 5, 1998, page 7) with some interest, and I would like to comment on a few points. Everybody likes to write and to publish positive results of clinical trials much more than negative results. Thus, it is the responsibility of the editors of biomedical journals to work against their own bias and ensure that results of so-called negative trials are published as

Edited by: Eugene Russo T CELL STARTER: Harvard's Michael Grusby believes that research on Stat pathways will lead to a better understanding of T cell differentiation. M.H. Kaplan, U. Schindler, S.T. Smiley, M.J. Grusby, "Stat6 is required for mediating responses to IL-4 and for the development of Th2 cells," Immunity, 4:313-9, 1996. (Cited in more than 75 publications as of February 1998) Comments by Michael J. Grusby, Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard School of Public

Edited by: Eugene Russo Photo: Robert Neroni Photo: Michael Price PERFECT FHIT: Kay Huebner and Carlo Croce of the Kimmel Cancer Center discovered a correlation between the deletion of the FHIT gene and the onset of lung cancer. G. Sozzi, M. L. Veronese, M. Negrini, R. Baffa, M.G. Cotticelli, H. Inoue, S. Tornielli, S. Pilotti, L. De Gregorio, U. Pastorino, M. A. Pierotti, M. Ohta, K. Huebner, C. Croce, "The FHIT gene at 3p14.2 is abnormal in lung cancer," Cell, 85:17-26, 1996. (Cited in mor

Date: March 2, 1998 Chart 1 efrigeration is wonderful, especially when applied to centrifuges. Not only does refrigeration help maintain the stability of biological compounds whirling along at several thousand revolutions per minute, it also enables the use of higher speeds and g-forces. The friction encountered by a rotor spinning through the air in its chamber is enough to raise its temperature several degrees. Refrigeration counteracts this effect and thus expands the usefulness of centrifug

Cytokine and Growth Factor Suppliers A-E Cytokine and Growth Factor Suppliers E-W Cytokine Guide t is difficult to name a class of molecules that has had more impact on biomedical research than cytokines and growth factors. As the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries train their sights on cancer, AIDS, and various autoimmune diseases, the machinations of the immune response are slowly being revealed, and it is clear that cytokines and growth factors play key roles in orchestrating def