Articles by Charles Choi

Compared with cells taken from non-autistic controls, neural precursors from autistic boys proliferated in atypical ways, a small study finds.

Uncovering genomic instructions for how DNA is packaged reveals a new dimension of the genetic code.

By Charles ChoiCAROLINA CROs Contract research organizations extend the capabilities of biotechnology companies.Fred EshelmanCOURTESY OF PPDIn 1985, Fred Eshelman took a gigantic risk. He left Glaxo, now part of GlaxoSmithKline, where he'd served as senior vice president of development and vice president of clinical operations, to go home - literally. Working in a home office, he started a one-person consulting firm called PPD. This contract research organization (CRO) grew rapidly. Over the y

Industry has long questioned the feasibility of drugs mass-produced by transgenic animals, but recent first-time approvals by the European Commission and the US Food and Drug Administration suggest concerns are subsiding. The first transgenic drug approved in Europe, ATryn, is recombinant human antithrombin, an anticlotting protein secreted into the milk of transgenic goats developed by GTC Biotherapeutics in Framingham, Mass. Biotechnology analyst Philip Nadeau at Cowen and Com

Are women patenting as much as men?

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences will award $13 million to four centers over four years, or up to $944,000 annually per center, to create innovative therapies for wound healing. The centers in total will include 36 investigators at eight universities and medical institutions and are aimed at drawing together interdisciplinary teams. "A major goal is to set up a framework to establish larger centers in the future," says Gregg Semenza at Johns Hopkins University in

Study reports a generalized means of upsetting RNA translation, causing misfolded proteins -- and, possibly, neurodegeneration

Findings may help explain why embryonic stem cells can self-renew and are pluripotent

First drug is approved for commercial production by transgenic animals, but another is hot on its tail

Mitochondrial genetic diversity may be influenced by natural selection, undermining its utility for population genetics research

New findings overturn longstanding dogma, could shed light on mysteries in immunity

Resurrection of 450 million year old protein illustrates how an integrated system evolved in a stepwise fashion

Studies in Science and PNAS may overturn dogma of genetically programmed fates for gonadal cells

Apparent absence of toxicity and persistence of silencing may bode well for humans

Nonconserved, noncoding regulatory sequences could be new mutation targets