In a boost to the field of linkurl:synthetic biology,;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/18854/ researchers have created an RNA-based device that can control gene expression of target genes, thus regulating molecular processes in living cells, a linkurl:paper;http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/322/5900/456 in this week's Science reports. The paper "shows this design approach for the first time in a biological system," linkurl:Christina Smolke;http://www.che.caltech.edu/gr

The recent linkurl:suicide;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/54907/ of microbiologist Bruce Ivins, pegged by the US government as the culprit in a spate of deadly anthrax mailings in 2001, is already spurring a boost in linkurl:security procedures;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53626/ and screening at labs working on deadly pathogens. Boston University's biolab, a controversial high-security facility under construction in the city's South End neighborhood, plans to vet prosp

This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine will be shared by three researchers who identified two viruses that have had crucial impacts on human health. Harald zur Hausen of the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg will be honored for his work in the 1970s identifying the human papilloma viruses and their role in cervical cancer. Francoise Barre-Sinoussi of the Institut Pasteur, and Luc Montagnier, co-founder of the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention, will share the

Francoise Barré-Sinoussi of the Institut Pasteur in Paris and Luc Montagnier, cofounder and director of the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention, have won the 2008 Nobel in Physiology or Medicine for their the discovery of HIV. Harald zur Hausen of the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg also received the prize for his work identifying the human papilloma viruses and their role in cervical cancer. According to the Nobel Prize Committee, Barré-Sinoussi and Montagnie

Credit: ® CAMR/A. Barry Dowsett / Photo Researchers, Inc." /> Credit: ® CAMR/A. Barry Dowsett / Photo Researchers, Inc. The paper: T. Tobe et al., "An extensive repertoire of type III secretion effectors in Escherichia coli O157 and the role of lambdoid phages in their dissemination," Proc Nat Acad Sci, 103:14941-6, 2006. (Cited in 38 papers.) The study: Some virulent bacteria infec

Biotech's Hidden Stepsister The medical device industry, which grew as quickly as a teenager, now has some serious growing pains. By Alla Katsnelson Related Articles Financial Growing Pains of a Biotech Confronting Risk For the Hottest Jobs, Go Regulatory hen Amir Belson, an Israeli pediatric surgeon, came to Stanford University in 1998 for a fellowship in pediatric nephrology, in his pocket he carried a creased piece of paper on which w

Analysis of a newly-identified 48-year-old tissue sample from a woman infected with linkurl:HIV;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/53516/ has confirmed that the virus emerged in the early 20th century, researchers report today in Nature. By comparing the differences between the sequence of this sample from 1960, the second-oldest ever found, and that of a 1959 sample identified a decade ago, linkurl:Michael Worobey;http://eebweb.arizona.edu/Faculty/Bios/worobey.html of the Universit

How is a kidnapper's text message similar to a jellyfish? Both are tiny points in a sea of data that scientists can use to draw conclusions about a bigger picture -- be it identifying a serial rapist or measuring linkurl:biodiversity,;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/53881/ according to linkurl:Andrew Price,;http://www.bio.warwick.ac.uk/res/frame.asp?ID=36 a marine ecologist who is working with forensic scientists to apply taxonomic techniques to crime assessment. Ecologists routin

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) yesterday (September 16) announced it will turn over scientific evidence against their chief suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks, a US army microbiologist who linkurl:committed suicide;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/54907/ in July, to scientists at the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for independent review. Bruce Ivins, a researcher at the U.S. Army Medical Institute for Infectious Disease at Fort Detrick, Md, conducted studies on anthrax

In the largest act of US philanthropy for biomedical research, Eli and Edythe Broad have donated $400 million to the Broad Institute, a joint project between Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The gift builds on the $200 million with which the linkurl:Broads first funded the genomics institute;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/21404/ in 2003 and 2004. "We're now making a $600 million dollar bet in total that this will be the place where the world's greatest scien

To ensure complete accuracy and fairness in determining the winners for the Life Science Industry Awards, The Scientist selected BioInformatics, an unbiased third-party research firm based in Arlington, Va. The Life Science Industry Awards are unique as they allow the scientists to determine the winners. BioInformatics designed and fielded a 34-question electronic survey to registered members of The Science Advisory Boar

Lana Skirboll The hidden wizard of the NIH By Alla Katsnelson © Jordan Domont The Office of Science Policy at the National Institutes of Health, directed for the last 15 years by former neuroscientist Lana Skirboll, is sometimes jokingly referred to as the OKS - the Office of the Kitchen Sink: What comes over the transom is often half-baked, requiring some quick thinking and foundation-laying to shape useful policy. Skirboll displaye