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To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the discovery of AIDS, the National Institutes of Health announced on June 4 the launch of a new Web site chronicling the history of AIDS research. "In Their Own Words: NIH Researchers Recall the Early Years of AIDS" (http:// aidshistory.nih.gov) highlights five main periods in AIDS research: initial encounters with the disease, the AIDS epidemic, early research efforts, the discovery of HIV, and the search for effective treatments. Each section includes a

A power shutdown last month at the University of California, San Francisco, sent physiology professor Mary F. Dallman into a panic. Her lab studies the effects of stress on the pituitary-adrenal axis in rats' brains, and one of her postdocs had recently begun the sort of 20-day, $10,000 experiment typically conducted by her lab. The pituitary-adrenal axis "is highly circadianly driven," Dallman explains, "and when the lights go out in the middle of the day, you're giving the circadian clock a

An alternative analysis of the human genome sequence information refutes the assertion that genes have been transferred directly from bacteria to man.

A book about the mysteries of the World's Oceans scoops science's most prestigious literary award.

On June 5, 1981, a one-and-a-half page paper in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) noted cases of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia in five gay men in Los Angeles. The men also suffered from cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections and candidal infections of the mucosa,1 and they used recreational inhalant drugs. The editorial note pointed out: "Pneumocystis pneumonia in the United States is almost exclusively limited to severely immunosuppressed patients." "I was sitting in my office in Buildi

Research in pharmacogenomics points to a seismic shift in drug therapy, from a "one-size-fits-all" approach to a new era of personalized medicine, in which doctors will increasingly be able to prescribe the right drug at the right dose for the right person. Often used interchangeably with pharmacogenetics, pharmacogenomics is the study of how inherited genetic differences in humans influence individual responses to drugs. Courtesy of Genaissance PharmaceuticlsGerald F. Vovis Although a new worl

The American Museum of Natural History in New York, in creating what it claims is the first comprehensive museum exhibit on genomics, faced unique challenges. "The Genomic Revolution," which began May 26 and runs through January 1, 2002, explores the promise and the potential ethical perils of genomics advances. The exhibit, geared to ages 9 and up, according to exhibit curator Rob DeSalle, couldn't rely on an awe-inspiring specimen like the museum's famous blue whale to capture young imaginatio

For years, mind-body research has been conducted at the perimeters of the scientific mainstream, but that marginalization appears to have ended, as the National Institutes of Health funnels money and personnel into interdisciplinary investigations of the relationship between mental states and physical health. Oddly, the way mind-body medicine has achieved this acceptance is by establishing the very molecular and cellular evidence of the role that the mind plays in bodily health that it once esch

Click to view the PDF file: Important Events in Stem Cell Research Graphic: Leza Berardone As the Bush administration stood on the verge this month of announcing a decision on whether the federal government will fund embryonic stem cell (ESC) research, the scientists involved braced themselves for the worst and continued planning for ways to move ahead. An issue that is politically, ethically, and religiously loaded, this tempest, like the issues of RU-486 and abortion before it, has galvani

When New Jersey gave the Coriell Institute for Medical Research $5 million last year, it was the first time any state had funded an umbilical cord blood bank. But no other state has a research institute like Coriell, in Camden, across the Delaware River from Philadelphia. The nonprofit has, for nearly five decades, collected, stored, and cultured cells, providing them to almost every major research center worldwide. Courtesy of Coriell InstituteAn umbilical cord blood cassette used in storing t

When you fill out a customs declaration form for entering New Zealand, you are asked if you are carrying any of a long list of animal and plant products. Are you carrying camping gear and boots, riding equipment, and clothing that may have been in contact with farm animals? Have you been on a farm or in a forest in the last 30 days? In a world increasingly worried about alien species and imported livestock diseases, perhaps no other country has been as traditionally concerned about introducing

The flaws that mar proteins as drugs would be a lot easier to eliminate, or at least reduce, were it not for the one thing that gives protein engineers fits: allergic reactions. The protein engineer's doctoring arts are balm for many a malady, but not allergic reactions. A protein too unstable, too toxic, maybe too costly to manufacture, or burdened by some other problem, changes for the better when the appropriate amino acid residues are altered. The catch is that protein engineers never know w