FEATURELSIA 2006 Our fourth annual event celebrates excellence in life science product development and services BY JEFFREY M. PERKEL AND ISHANI GANGULI It has been said that scientists stand on the shoulders of giants. Generally that refers to researchers' intellectual forebears, but it also is true of the life science industry - technology giants that provide the scientific community with the tools, equipment and

Wildlife biologist Rick Hopkins Credit: COURTESY OF RICK HOPKINS" />Wildlife biologist Rick Hopkins Credit: COURTESY OF RICK HOPKINS When Vicki Long visited California's Western Riverside County Regional Conservation Authority to find out what it was doing to protect the mountain lion, her favorite cat, from land development, she decided the answer was "not enough." And while she had read every study she could get her hands on as part of her life-long fascination with the mountain lion, al

Credit: © DAN BRANDENBURG" /> Credit: © DAN BRANDENBURG Models don't always have to be correct to be helpful. In 2004, Paul Talalay and his team at Johns Hopkins University published evidence that the sensory protein Keap1 dissociates from the transcription factor Nrf2, allowing Nrf2 to induce detoxifying enzymes that protect the cell from carcinogens and oxidants.The team demonstrated that external chemical cues, such as sulforaphane found in broccoli, directly modified two

Credit: CUSTOM MEDICAL STOCK PHOTO /SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY" /> Credit: CUSTOM MEDICAL STOCK PHOTO /SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY While much research focuses on T and B cells entering lymphoid organs, Jason Cyster says he's more curious about how they get out. He and colleagues at the University of California San Francisco found a clue to lymphocyte escape, both from the thymus and secondary lymphoid organs, in an immunosuppressant drug, FTY720. The drug sequesters T and B cells in lymphoid organs

The National Academy of Sciences is organizing a new committee to periodically update voluntary guidelines it issued last year (http://nap.edu/catalog/11278.html?onpi_newsdoc02162006) on human embryonic stem cell research. A call by several scientific organizations and individual scientists prompted the decision, according to Bill Kearney, spokesperson for the Academy. The committee, under the auspices of the organization's National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, will be suppor

New York State researchers would like to jump on the bandwagon for state- supported embyonic stem cell research. The heads of 17 New York universities and institutions with substantial biomedical research programs released a white paper (www.rochester.edu/news/pdfs/stemcellwhitepaper.pdf) in February that makes a scientific and economic case for the state to fund such research. The document, urges Albany legislators to pass two stem cell funding bills that would allocate $300 million and $125

Credit: COURTESY OF YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS" /> Credit: COURTESY OF YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS On every other Thursday evening, Ellen Daniell and six San Francisco Bay Area scientists come together to talk about managing their careers. In addition to all being successful, they are all women. In 1977, researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, formed the original gathering, simply referred to as "Group." Its members have been giving each other practical and emotional suppor

Mentoring skills aren't as readily taught as cell culture or microarray analysis, but on the receiving end, such skills can make or break a career. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have devised a way to address what they call a critical gap in faculty training, and they have reported their outcomes in a recent issue of Science (311:473-4, Jan. 27, 2006).Based on a survey of more than 150 mentors and undergraduate researchers, trained mentors were significantly more li

Timeliness and risks to eggs in avian flu pandemic lead companies to seek other production methods

Textual model questions efficiency of gaining scientific knowledge

FEATUREBest Places to Work 2006: Postdocs Cancer Centers Court PostdocsBY ISHANI GANGULIARTICLE EXTRASRelated Articles: Best Places to Work 2006: Postdocs The J. David Gladstone Institutes Top 2006 List Feds Win with D.C. Centrality Postdocs Blossom at Plant Science Centers Switzerland: High Standards and Quality Science Long Live the Northland! Life on the Upswing for UK PostdocsTables: Top 35 Institutions

FEATUREBest Places to Work 2006: Postdocs Feds win with D.C. CentralityBY ISHANI GANGULIARTICLE EXTRASRelated Articles: Best Places to Work 2006: Postdocs The J. David Gladstone Institutes Top 2006 List Cancer Centers Court Postdocs Postdocs Blossom at Plant Science Centers Switzerland: High Standards and Quality Science Long Live the Northland! Life on the Upswing for UK PostdocsTables: Top 35 Institutions