Genomic study revises understanding of primate origins

Systems biology is... Two scientists founded BioSeek to do their version of systems work. Is it a stretch? Brendan Borrell ARTICLE EXTRAS 1 "I really didn't like the early descriptions of systems biology from Hiroaki Kitano and Lee Hood, where their definition of systems biology was, 'We have to measure all of the components over time and then we're going to build a model of the system,'" says Berg, who (with Butcher) founded BioSeek in Burlingame, Calif. To her, the defi

Systems biology at biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies In an effort to restock the dwindling pipeline of new treatments, systems biology is increasingly becoming a part of drug discovery efforts. Company Approach Location Bioseek Screen novel compounds with combinations of human primary cells to measure activity and understand their mechanism of action Burlingame, California Gene Network Sciences Use models to improv

Selling Systems Biology Can this still-unproven (and much-hyped) field revolutionize drug discovery? By Brendan Borrell ARTICLE EXTRAS 1,2 suggested that the drug works primarily in patients with mutations in the ErbB1 epidermal growth factor receptor. The inner workings of the ErbB receptor family, with its sprawling pathways and multiple phosphatases, had long been a headache for drug makers. That complexity showed itself in this instance, too - sometimes the drug wa

A New Dynamic With an eye toward host-pathogen interactions, can a Penn State center predict and prevent the next pandemic? By Brendan Borrell ARTICLE EXTRAS 1 "Our vision really is to have a systems approach to disease," says Hudson. "Issues that go from intracellular interactions between viruses and cells right the way through to pandemics, something we call the protein-to-pandemic link." Pathogens don't just interact, they evol

Evolving Epidemiology ARTICLE EXTRAS 1 Epidemic patterns are largely determined by the time course of an infection, whether it's measured in days, weeks, or years. Phylogenetic patterns result from an interaction between natural selection mediated by the immune system (and/or drug treatments) and random epidemiological processes. Here's how some common pandemics play out. Measles is a highly conta

Healthy Antagonism ARTICLE EXTRAS 1 Just a year ago, Peter Hudson, who helped develop the center, invited Poss to come to CIDD. "You want me to come for a seminar?" Poss asked. "No, no," she recalls him saying. "We want you to come." She's already having an impact. At a recent lab meeting, Hudson's postdoc, Sarah Perkins, was presenting an idea to test how an intestinal worm and a respiratory bacterium, Bordete

Audio Slideshow: The Parasites of Beaver Pond Tom Raffel of Penn State's Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics takes writer Brendan Borrell on a trip to Beaver Pond where the parasites are jumping. var FO = { movie:"http://images.the-scientist.com/supplementary/flash/53152/cidd.swf", width:"550", height:"511", majorversion:"8", build:"0", xi:"true"}; UFO.create(FO, "ufoDemo"); Please download the Adobe Flash Player to view this content:

Ana Vicente and her team at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute in Rio de Janeiro began their quest for ancient pinworm RNA at San Pedro de Atacama, a pre-Incan village that was once part of an important trade route to the Pacific coast. Considered the driest place on earth, the region boasts 35 mm of rainfall in its wettest years and is considered a veritable time capsule for archaeologists, says paleoparasitologist Adauto Araujo, "There are so many bodies there, that archaeologists no longe

Origin of a controversy By Brendan Borrell ARTICLE EXTRAS 1 it was a leap of faith to test whether females might choose males based on asymmetry between the left and right sides of the body. Such asymmetry had been known to correlate with stress and other environmental factors, but not to mate selection. M?ller is a strong proponent of the "good genes" model of sexual selection, 2,3 which holds that certain characteristics, for example, the tail feat

Accused of fraud, Anders Pape Möller has traveled from superstar evolutionary biologist to pariah.