Articles by Arielle Emmett

Unlike the chicken-and-egg dilemma, scientists know that genes come before the environment. In genetically based diseases, however, the question is not when but how. How do environmental conditions and lifestyle choices interact with a person's molecular structure? "We're all groping in the dark to find out how to get a handle on this complexity," says Marianne Berwick, an epidemiologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York. Although scientists can now assess exposure levels to

Two years do not a trend make, but it does seem that with each passing summer, the number of human West Nile virus cases tends to decline. That said, there is no reason to relax. No one can predict reliably from year to year whether this, or any other mosquito-borne viral illness, might come back to infect humans, says Jim Miller, West Nile coordinator for New York City. "West Nile has been well documented since it was introduced here two years ago. It's a totally new virus in this part of the w

President John F. Kennedy's famous White House secretary Evelyn Lincoln described her key to maintaining intellectual vitality 21 years ago: "It's not who you are, but who you associate with that's important in life," she told a Detroit Free Press reporter.1 Although Lincoln was describing a philosophy of deep involvement with family, learning, and career--a career that kept her life enriched through a series of fascinating relationships with power figures--her philosophy now is gaining new cre

James Cassatt What if biologists gave grant awards to mathematicians and computer wizards to study complex human systems--and no one showed up? The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) is tackling this exact problem. For the last three years, the institute has created new grant initiatives to support a widening area of interest involving medical science and biocomplexity--specifically, the interactions, couplings, modeling, and computational analysis of multifaceted cell and or

Disentangling the good from the bad--gene and protein data, that is--may be the toughest task for today's bioinformatics scientists assembling new models for proteins, says Greg Paris, executive director of biomolecular structure and computing at Novartis Pharma Research in Summit, N.J. "One of the major advances has been the speed with which new genomes can be characterized and at least partially annotated, and there are very good gene-finding tools that help in this endeavor," he explains. "T

The Scientist 14[20]:0, Oct. 16, 2000 NEWS Two Companies: Microscopic Collaborations By Arielle Emmett Some of the more established companies seem to hedge their bets by forming complex, multiple collaborative relationships with a number of companies. Neose, for example, a Horsham, Pa.-based biotech venture specializing in complex carbohydrate development, now has five formal corporate collaborations in place, according to P. Sherrill Neff, president and CEO. "One

The Scientist 14[20]:1, Oct. 16, 2000 NEWS Biotech Needs Collaborations, Joint Ventures Necessary for survival in today's world, partnering also has its perils By Arielle Emmett The biotech industry can no longer survive as a city of independent ventures. Collaborations, commercial alliances, joint ventures--a web of scientific, manufacturing, sales, and financial partnerships--is now the norm rather than the exception. Overwhelming benefits have resulted in terms of a f

Excerpts from Rita Colwell's interview with The Scientist.This interview was not published in the print edition. Q. Is biocomplexity your own idea? A. The biocomplexity initiative was begun at NSF after I arrived, building on programs already instituted, such as Life in Extreme Environments. The fundamental and underlying principle is that we must move from strictly reductionist research to research that synthesizes information and work toward a holistic approach to understanding and wisely m

Life sciences took center stage virtually around the world June 26. President Bill Clinton, flanked on the left by Celera Genomics Group president J. Craig Venter and on the right by National Human Genome Research Institute director Francis S. Collins, announced the completion of "the first survey of the entire human genome."

In mid-April the Department of Energy (DOE) stole thunder from the National Institutes of Health when it announced the draft decoding of DNA on human chromosomes 5, 16, and 19. Containing an estimated 10,000-15,000 genes, the chromosomes constitute 300 million bases, or an estimated 11 percent of the total human genome. Genes on chromosomes 5, 16, and 19 have been linked to certain forms of kidney disease, prostate and colorectal cancer, leukemia, hypertension, diabetes, and atherosclerosis. But

Graphic: Cathleen Heard Twenty years ago, venture capitalists knew little about biotechnology. The scientific community knew only a fraction more. "With respect to immune system hormones, not a single interleukin gene had been cloned by 1981. No cytokine had actually been purified to molecular homogeneity," writes Steven Gillis, chairman and CEO of Corixa Corp., a Seattle-based immunotherapeutics company.1 Gillis recollects that preclinical efficacy data in animals did not exist for the earliest

You can't confuse the dot-com revolution with biotech and its stock options," says Edward Abrahams, executive director of the Pennsylvania Biotech Association. "Biotech has much longer lead times to profitability and it's risky business--rooted in the transformation of the [National Institutes of Health] economy," he says. "Scientists shouldn't be in biotech just for the stock. The motivation has to be discovery and creating something--the process of making a contribution for the betterment of

Graphic: Cathleen Heard SmithKline Beecham and Glaxo Wellcome; Pfizer and Warner-Lambert; Pharmacia & Upjohn and Monsanto; PE Biosystems and Third Wave; Astra and Zeneca. In the last year, many top-tier biotech and pharmaceutical giants have reached definitive agreements to merge. The unions are touted as hostile or friendly, strategic or tactical, market driven, Machiavellian, culturally astute, even desperate. Competition has forced drug companies to up the ante for blockbuster development

Unplanned obsolescence is the fallout of risky biotech businesses, especially in glycobiology, a small niche marketplace. A specialty manufacturer can spend millions in R&D to bring a new piece of equipment to market, only to find that customer demand never catches up with cost. As a result, high-profile customers can be left high and dry with brand-new instruments and little or no guarantees for parts, reagents, or support. Also, manufacturers sell off product lines and offer limited period

Graphic: Cathleen Heard It's what the government doesn't know about food that can kill you, says a federal science-policy analyst. "We do rely on Centers for Disease Control [and Prevention (CDC)] data, and the new numbers on foodborne illness are certainly something we didn't want to see," the analyst says. She is referring to a disturbing CDC report issued in September1 that ups the ante for foodborne diseases to an estimated 76 million incidents per year--twice the number reported in a widely