By Elie Dolgin Caught between a ROCK Courtesy of Xiangyunli The paper: K. Watanabe et al., "A ROCK inhibitor permits survival of dissociated human embryonic stem cells," Nat Biotech, 25:681–86, 2007. (Cited in 59 papers) The finding: To address the problem of human embryonic stem (ES) cells undergoing programmed cell death when dissociated into single cells, a team led by Yoshiki Sasai of the RIKEN Kobe Institute i

By Elie Dolgin Konrad Hochedlinger: A reprogramming revolutionary © 2009 Leah Fasten In 1999, Konrad Hochedlinger squeezed into a packed lecture at the Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna to hear stem cell researcher Rudolf Jaenisch talk about nuclear transfer cloning techniques. Hochedlinger, a biology masters student, knew little about cloning, but he'd been intrigued by the technique ever since scientists clon

By Elie Dolgin Hard bargains Gary Brouhard and his new camera. Five months after placing the orders, the cameras finally arrive. Biophysicist Gary Brouhard tears open the cardboard boxes, tosses the packaging aside, and gently places the two $47,000 cameras onto the cluttered lab bench, inconspicuously nestled between sheets of pink bubble wrap, unopened equipment boxes, and the week's growing heap of recycl

A fusion protein that ferries a healthy version of a bone-related enzyme gone awry has shown early clinical success in treating a rare bone disorder with no known therapy, researchers reported earlier this month at the Endocrine Society's linkurl:annual meeting;http://www.endo-society.org/endo/ in Washington, DC. The drug -- which is essentially a protein-based enzyme delivery mechanism -- could open the door to treatments of other skeletal disorders that have so far been deemed untreatable. Ra

A scattered array of DNA acquired via horizontal transfer can co-evolve into a well-tuned, efficient genetic network to maximize an organism's fitness, a new linkurl:study;http://www.nature.com/msb/journal/v5/n1/full/msb200940.html finds. Reporting online earlier this month in __Molecular Systems Biology__, researchers showed that a single transcription factor in a tiny, salt-loving archaeon coordinates the expression of more than 100 newly-obtained genes. Halobacterium salinarumImage: Wikimedi

Only a couple of the former University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) faculty members who challenged their terminations made in the aftermath of last year's Hurricane Ike have won their appeals in what some are calling "show trials," although some of the defeated professors have been rehired to the same or similar positions. Image: Wikimedia"The way that the whole thing was set up and executed, I think it was a farce," linkurl:Roger Vertrees,;http://www.utmb.edu/pathology/profiles/?user=rvertre

The French immunologist Jean Dausset, who won a Nobel Prize for his discovery of human leukocyte antigens (HLAs), key components of the human immune system, died on June 6 in Mallorca, Spain, where he had lived for the past two years. He was 92. Image: Foundation Jean Dausset-CEPH"He was really a very remarkable character," linkurl:Jean-Paul Soulillou,;http://www.fondation-centaure.org/fr/fondation/documents/CvJean-PaulSoulillou.pdf a transplantation researcher at the University of Nantes who c

Researchers claim to have the first direct evidence of a century-old idea that using tools changes the way the human brain perceives the size and configuration of our body parts, according to a linkurl:study;http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(09)01109-9 published in the June 23 issue of __Current Biology__. Holding the tool at an elongatedarm's lengthImage: Lucilla Cardinali"To be accurate in doing an action with a tool, you need to make the tool become a part of your body,

Everybody, yeah.Rock your body, yeah.Everybody, yeah.Rock your body right.Snowball's back, alright. linkurl:Snowball,;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7IZmRnAo6s the dancing cockatoo of YouTube fame, made an encore performance last Saturday (June 13) at the linkurl:World Science Festival;http://www.worldsciencefestival.com as part of__ linkurl:Avian Einsteins,;http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/2009/avian-einsteins __a panel discussion on the parallels between bird and human brains. Joined by s

Science is a story -- a story about ideas, but also a story about the remarkable people who devote their lives to unraveling the wonders of nature. Scientists themselves, however, rarely have a vessel to impart their personal wisdoms since the main outlet for scientific research -- peer-reviewed literature -- is typically devoid of narrative. Not so last Friday (June 12) night at the linkurl:World Science Festival;http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/ in New York City. Two Nobel Laureates, two n

A single base pair change that turned a colorful bird entirely black probably guided the formation of a new species, researchers linkurl:report;http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/action/showForthcomingToc?journalCode=an in the August issue of __The American Naturalist__. Melanic (above) and chestnut-bellied (below) Monarch flycatchersImage: J. Albert Uy"It looks like we have a single mutation that's driving speciation in these birds," linkurl:J. Albert Uy,;http://biology.syr.edu/uy/ an evolutiona

New York has become the first and only state to opt to pay women for eggs donated for human embryonic stem cell research. The linkurl:Empire State Stem Cell Board;http://stemcell.ny.gov/ (ESSCB), which oversees New York's $600 million stem cell research program that was launched last year, came to the decision last week (June 11) following "extensive deliberation" from its ethics committee. Human oocyteImage: Wikimedia"The Board agreed that it is ethical and appropriate for women donating oocyt