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The masses of sequencing information that now confront genomic scientists raise a huge question: Exactly what do the products of these genes do? About 30 genomes have been completely sequenced, and up to 100 will be done by year's end, perhaps including a roughly finished sequence of humankind's 100,000 or more genes. Sequence data can identify gene products involved in disease, but the challenge facing researchers is far broader than that. Somehow, they must characterize the biochemical functio

The University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Human Gene Therapy (IHGT) and its director, James M. Wilson, faced increasing pressure from the federal government in late January. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration suspended all eight of the institute's gene therapy clinical trials on Jan. 21. A few days before, the Office for Protection from Research Risks at the National Institutes of Health launched an investigation into whether a clinical trial violated federal regulations governing patien

Figure: Gaetano Montelione and Yuanpeng Huang of Rutgers UniversityX-ray crystal structure of human basic fibroblast growth factor. With a bit of luck and sometimes decades of dedication, scientists have in recent years revealed fascinating vistas of biological structures at the atomic level using X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. In 1997, Timothy Richmond, a professor of X-ray crystallography at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, complete

Most soldiers in the biotech revolution think the public will eventually accept genetically modified (GM) foods, thereby ending hostilities. However, science must first offer something of value, such as improved nutrition. Just making life easier for farmers with pest-resistant crops won't outweigh real or imagined risks to people or butterflies. That's the message of a new consumer poll done by Roper Starch Worldwide for the American Farm Bureau Federation.1 Metabolic or nutritional genomics--

Bioinformatics Tools With efforts mounting to characterize protein functions following genome sequencing, bioinformatics has emerged as a key technology. Three such developments were showcased at a recent genomics conference in San Diego: WHALES (Web Homology Alert Service)--This keeps National Institutes of Health intramural scientists aware of new releases in the databases for DNA and protein sequences. It's based on stored, user-defined profiles that are processed weekly, with results return

University-based researchers have reason for optimism following President Bill Clinton's request in his fiscal year (FY) 2001 budget for a $2.8 billion increase in science funding. As negotiations begin in Congress on the long, bumpy track toward budget approval, the fastest starter out of the gate is the National Science Foundation, which would receive double the largest dollar increase in its half-century of existence. The National Institutes of Health likewise is in line for a substantial fun

The problems of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection require legions of researchers and an urgency that relies on teamwork, creative thinking, and previous studies. The Scientist went behind the scenes of two unrelated HIV papers that appeared in the January 2000 issue of Journal of Virology to find out what tweaked the researchers' imaginations and led to intriguing results. The papers lay at opposite ends of the HIV spectrum. One looked at T-cell responses in infected children; t

Is it research misconduct if a scientist lies about her results at a departmental seminar but never publishes the results? Is it research misconduct if a scientist, in discussing research with a competitor at another institution, suggests performing an experiment he knows to be a waste of time, thus delaying and hindering his competitor? Is it research misconduct if a scientist agrees to be a coauthor of a colleague's paper to which he has made no substantive contributions? If

Last November, after several hours of tough debate, the Massachusetts Medical Society's House of Delegates voted down a proposal that would give future editors of the society's New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) complete control over the use and marketing of the prestigious journal's logo. Instead, in a concession to supporters of the journal's editors, the group agreed to set up a committee comprising deans of medical schools and schools of public health to arbitrate disputes between futur

Peruse the aisles of any supermarket, and the message that cholesterol causes heart disease rings loud and clear. But soon attention will likely shift to another culprit: homocysteine. This amino acid is usually scant in the blood. But when slightly elevated, it may set the stage for the atherosclerosis that is so tightly linked to cholesterol. Controlling homocysteine level is a simple matter of taking more vitamins--folic acid in particular. Donald Jacobsen "In the future, a homocysteine

Genetically modified (GM) crops, and foods derived from them, continue to ignite controversy and spur jockeying by trade groups and businesses. At its January convention in Houston, the American Farm Bureau Federation, which represents the interests of farmers, released results of a survey last summer on attitudes toward biotechnology and food. Biotechnology was supported by 57 percent of the 1,002 respondents if it improved taste, 65 percent if it improved nutritional value, 69 percent if it in

In 1990 Susumu Tonegawa, winner of the 1987 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, decided that he'd like to make something of a career change. Tonegawa, who won for his findings on the mechanism of antibody diversity and antigen recognition, chose to move away from his vocation as an immunologist and pursue a longtime fascination with neuroscience. He sought, in effect, to shift the focus of his entire lab. Nine years later, the conversion is complete: Tonegawa recently sent out his last