Articles by Andrea Gawrylewski

By Andrea Gawrylewski Leaping Laureates Martin Chalfie never envisioned celebrating his 2008 Nobel Prize in chemistry by toting a giant paper mâché frog on his shoulders across the Stockholm University campus on a cold, dark December eve. But three days after he crossed the stage of the Stockholm Concert Hall to receive his gold medal for the development of green fluorescent protein, he did—part of his induction into the Ord

Kozul holding standard chow (left) and purified chow (right). Credit: Photo by Jon Gilbert Fox" />Kozul holding standard chow (left) and purified chow (right). Credit: Photo by Jon Gilbert Fox Three hours after a particular poster session began at the 2007 Society for Toxicology meeting, the line to see Courtney Kozul's poster still wrapped around the room, and she had collected 90 business cards. Cl

Frankie Trull wants to sell your company to Congress.

Tips for preventing research misconduct and maintaining the integrity of your research.

By Andrea Gawrylewski Fancy this AFRMA Show Orange County Fair Best AOCP, Best Standard, Blue Splashed "KK2125-2" owned and bred by Karen Robbins.Photo by Craig RobbinsOne year ago this month, Jennifer Hipsley brought seven of her best mice to the East Coast Mouse Association's first mouse show in Lynchburg, Va. Her mice had an array of colorful coats, including splashes of chocolate, or black with striped

The Norwegian government hopes to stop its country's biotech from going out of business with a $418 million boost. The money is included in a new stimulus package released by the government Monday (Jan 26). "This is the most active political move in Europe regarding support to the biotech industry," Bjarte Reve, chief executive of the Oslo Cancer Cluster, which represents 25 Norwegian biotech groups told linkurl:Financial Times.;http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/522b1038-ebb5-11dd-8838-0000779fd2ac.htm

Pfizer will eliminate 5 to 8 percent of its global research staff this year, totaling about 800 people, according to a spokesperson for the company. Pfizer began one-on-one conversations today with colleagues getting the boot, with the majority of lay-offs happening in the next several months, company spokesperson Christopher Loder told The Scientist. Loder declined to provide details on which research divisions will be hit the hardest but emphasized that Pfizer is honing its research staff to

Adaptive immune cells like B and T cells aren't the only players in the immune system that can recognize antigens months after initially responding to them. A linkurl:study published online;http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature07665.html in Nature today identifies a specific ligand-receptor interaction through which natural killer cells, part of the innate immune system and the body's first line of defense against immune invaders, remember and recognize antigens in the l

Darwinian Time Does adaptation to an environment act as a speed bump for evolutionary change? By Andrea Gawrylewski Illustrations by JT Morrow Photos by Stephen Kennedy n a windowless room, three researchers hunker over a waist-high lab table. Dressed in white coats and latex gloves, the investigators, all members of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, get down to the business at hand: skinning frozen mice. Related Ar

How much can you see with non-functioning visual cortex? A clinically blind man, with lesions on both sides of his visual cortex, was able to flawlessly navigate an obstacle course, a paper to be published tomorrow in Current Biology reports. The patient, called only TN in the paper, is a former doctor, who had suffered two strokes that damaged both sides of his striate cortex, the brain region dedicated to processing vision. The findings reinforce previous observations that other routes in the

President-elect Barack Obama plans to nominate Harvard physicist John Holdren for role of presidential science advisor, according to Science's blog linkurl:ScienceInsider.;http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/ linkurl:Holdren;http://www.hks.harvard.edu/about/faculty-staff-directory/john-holdren is the director of the Science, Technology and Public Policy program at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He is also a professor of environmental science and public policy. His re

Another case of a potentially fatal brain infection has been reported in a patient taking the multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri, the biotech who developed the drug announced yesterday. This is the fourth case of infection, called progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) this year. They are the only cases reported since the drug was taken off the market in 2005 because of three cases of infection. The FDA allowed Tysabri back on the market in 2006 with restrictions and stronger warnings.

Six California stem cell biotech companies received more than $5 million in funding last week from the state's stem cell funding body -- the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), according to a linkurl:news release ;http://www.cirm.ca.gov/pdf/ICOC_121008.pdf from the agency. The money represents the first major pay out to companies from the state's $3 billion research enterprise. Until now, only Novocell Inc. had received a small grant of $50,000. The grants are part of 23 gr

Two employees in the pediatric neurological research department at Columbia University were arrested Wednesday (December 10) for scamming the institution out of more than $200,000. John Bzdil, the former manager of the pediatric neurosciences department at the university's Neurological Institute, and his wife, Heather Rinehart, will be presented with charges today (Dec 12) of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, a press officer from the US Attorney's office, Southern D

Biotech industry executives are beseeching Congress today (10 Dec) for a temporary change in the tax code that would give some struggling biotech companies a cash boost. The plan would funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to some biotechs in exchange for tax credits that the companies would not take if they make money next year and beyond. Nearly a third of publically traded American biotech companies have a six month's or less supply of operating cash, The New York Times linkurl:reported.;h