Monkey Knockout In an early step toward developing a potentially invaluable animal model, scientists, for the first time, have genetically modified a nonhuman primate (A.W. Chan et al., "Transgenic monkeys produced by retroviral gene transfer into mature oocytes," Science, 291:309-12, Jan. 12, 2001). Researchers at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland used a replication-incompetent retrovirus as a vector to deliver the gene for green f

Credit: Howard Hughes Medical InstituteThe above graphs show data from teenagers and adults who participated in an 11-day activity study. Each person's Horne-Ostberg score was plotted on the x-axis and his average waking time on the y-axis. The Horne-Ostberg survey identifies a person as an "evening" or "morning" type. As part of its annual educational outreach lecture series, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute recently had high school students participate in a large-scale circadian rhythm sci

Although the world has yet to witness a major bioterrorist attack, the field of bioterrorism continues to capture the attention of scientists, policy makers, and public health professionals. Symposia and reports are commonplace, and relevant legislation recently made it through Congress. Two upcoming government reports reaffirm a bioterrorism preparedness problem and recommend remedies. One comes from the Department of Defense (DOD) Threat Reduction Advisory Committee (TRAC), the other fr

In honor of last year's 40th anniversary of the American Society of Cell biology, the society supported the creation of a book called Landmark Papers in Cell Biology, a collection of 42 papers from the last 40 years. According to Joseph G. Gall, a member of the embryology department at Washington, D.C.'s Carnegie Institution and one of the book's editors, Landmark is not meant to be completely comprehensive nor definitive. Based on the recommendations from the editorial board of the ASCB journal

Right to left (standing): Arnold Thackray, president of the Chemical Heritage Foundation; historian of science Tore Frängsmyer of Uppsala University; Alan MacDiarmid (2000 Nobel laureate in chemistry); Joseph Miller of DuPont; historian of science Everett Mendelsohn of Harvard University; Max Perutz (1962); Dudley Herschbach (1986); Rudolph Marcus (1992); and Harold Kroto (1996). Seated: Jerome Karle (1985) and Roald Hoffman (1981). Alfred Nobel, the reclusive inventor of dynamite, probably

Next Up for Gene Sequencing: Zebrafish Sequencing of the zebrafish genome will aid annotation of the human genome and facilitate gene identification. Already a widely used genetics animal model, the zebrafish will soon join the ranks of organisms whose genomes have been sequenced, thus boosting the popular aquarium pet's research value even more. The Sanger Centre of Cambridge, U.K., announced on Nov. 21 that it would head zebrafish-sequencing efforts, scheduled to begin in February or March o

For this article, Eugene Russo interviewed Axel T. Brunger, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and professor of molecular and cellular physiology at Stanford University. Data from the Web of Science (ISI, Philadelphia) show that Hot Papers are cited 50 to 100 times more often than the average paper of the same type and age. R.B. Sutton, D. Fasshauer, R. Jahn, A.T. Brunger, "Crystal structure of a SNARE complex involved in synaptic exocytosis at 2.4 angstrom resolution," Nature, 395:

For this article, Eugene Russo interviewed Michael E. Greenberg, a professor of neurobiology and neurology at the Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School. Data from the Web of Science (ISI, Philadelphia) show that Hot Papers are cited 50 to 100 times more often than the average paper of the same type and age.   F. Saudou, S. Finkbeiner, D. Devys, and M.E. Greenberg, "Huntingtin acts in the nucleus to induce apoptosis but death does not correlate with the formation of intranuclear incl

HEADY Role in Hydra Hydra, a multicellular, lower-eukaryotic, freshwater polyp, is known for its developmental idiosyncrasies. Slice off its head or its foot, and within two days either regenerates perfectly at the proper location. Although developmental biologists have some understanding of the molecular machinery involved in this feat, they have yet to isolate and prioritize many of the factors that play a role. In a recent paper, two scientists report the discovery of a signaling peptide ca

Much of the promise of bioinformatics likely lies with the big money and novel approaches of the private sector. At a late October symposium titled "Biosilico 2000," several bioinformatics company executives came together at the Trump Plaza in New York City to discuss the state of the immensely expansive and increasingly heterogeneous field of bioinformatics. Not surprisingly, many touted their products and business plans; but they also discussed and compared philosophies for engaging in the dau

At a featured symposium of last month's American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) meeting in Philadelphia, Bob Waterston, director of the genome sequencing center at Washington University in St. Louis, reviewed how and why the Human Genome Project (HGP) accelerated in 1998. Having at that point generated a disappointing 10 percent of the total human sequence, sequencing centers had to greatly scale up efforts in order to reach this past summer's milestone "draft" ahead of schedule. First, said W

Aerial shot of the HHMI's Maryland headquarters. On a pristine 23-acre campus in Maryland located just a few miles from the National Institutes of Health, a handful of scientists decides how America's richest privately held biomedical research organization should distribute more than $500 million in funding annually. But the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, perhaps America's most prestigious patron of biomedical research, has undergone a changing of the guard at its Chevy Chase headquarters in t