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Biotechnology Boom Molecular biologists find niche as new technologies are adapted to the animal health market. While the biotech boom resounds in human health research, the technology has made less of a roar in the animal health field. Uncertainty over product costs and regulatory approval has left some animal health companies hesitant to embrace biotechnology. But this situation could be changing. A growing number of vaccines for cats, dogs, and fish are based on recombinant DNA techniques.

Anxieties Hospital mergers are becoming a national trend, as institutions from New England to the San Francisco Bay area combine to strengthen their competitive positions in a changing health care market. The phenomenon has now emerged in New York, where the proposed merger between Mount Sinai Medical Center and New York University Medical Center (NYU), announced June 18, appeared to set off a flurry of similar transactions. In addition to combining their two hospitals, the institutions will me

Researchers Wait For Federal Guidelines Two reports, one from each side of the Atlantic Ocean, conclude that research on xenotransplantation-the transfer of organs, tissues, or cells from animals to humans-should be pursued because the potential benefits of the practice outweigh its possible risks. But scientists in the United States are frustrated by the Public Health Service's slow pace in issuing federal guidelines for the research. CAUTIOUS STEPS: Xenotransplantation pioneer Suzanne Ilst

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,