Using the immune system to fight the deadly disease shows promise, executives say, but vaccines may take years to bring to market. Biotech executives and cancer researchers are excited about a resurgence in basic studies and clinical trials involving immunotherapeutic approaches to fighting the disease. They caution, however, that because cancer is so poorly understood, products in the marketplace may still be years away. FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT: A technician from Cytel, one of the many immun

Daunting challenges, including implementation, assessment, and maintaining public support, lie ahead for NRC's K-12 guidelines Educators and scientists say they are encouraged by the latest version of the National Research Council's science education standards, an effort aimed at defining what United States K-12 students should know about science. The previous draft had been criticized for being at once too specific and inflexible on scientific subject matter and too vague about the practice o

Molecular geneticist Pamela Larsen, an assistant professor of gerontology at the University of Southern California, is the first researcher to hold the Paul F. Glenn Foundation Chair in Cellular and Molecular Gerontology. She received the appointment in February, when the foundation announced the $1.5 million endowment to establish the chair at USC's Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center. In what USC officials maintain is a unique arrangement, the chair is designated to pass from one promising

Veteran Administrators Sidebar: MINORITY SCIENCE EDUCATION RESOURCES Researchers, educators, and government officials involved in the effort to increase representation of ethnic and racial minorities in science, mathematics, and engineering are encouraged by the comprehensive and business-like approaches of several projects that have been instituted in the last few years. They say this despite being critical of the majority of such programs because of a lack of effectiveness and accountability.

On February 15, the New York-based Metropolitan Life (MetLife) Foundation recognized two teams of biomedical scientists for the significance of their research and the collaborative nature of their work. The cash portion of the prize, known as the Awards for Medical Research, totaled $500,000. It was shared by the team of Robert W. Mahley, director of the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease and a professor of pathology and medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and Ka

Following is a sampling of print- and computer-based directories of programs for minorities in science, mathematics, and engineering sponsored by professional societies, federal agencies, and universities. Some programs are not universal in whom they serve, but may vary according to minority or ethnic group, discipline, locale, and age group. HyperAMP, a three-part multimedia database of more than 1,400 financial aid sources for undergraduates and graduate students; a description of the Nationa

A marketing partnership between the Arthritis Foundation and McNeil Products stirs controversy among rheumatologists Last fall, the Arthritis Foundation, Atlanta, and Fort Washington, Pa.-based McNeil Consumer Products Co.--a Johnson and Johnson Inc.-affiliated pharmaceutical firm best known for producing Tylenol--teamed up to market a line of nonprescription analgesics called Arthritis Foundation Pain Relievers. According to foundation officials, a minimum of $1 million from sales of the pr

The 1994 Bower Award and Prize in Science--the most lucrative United States science prize--will be presented in May to Chen Ning Yang, a Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist. The $250,000 award is bestowed annually by Philadelphia's Franklin Institute to a "distinguished scientist for outstanding work in the life or physical sciences." Yang is being honored for his work in forming the Yang-Mills theory, which is widely held by physicists to be as basic a contribution to science as Albert

A recently established Department of Energy (DOE) initiative is expected to yield major scientific and commercial contributions as it embarks on its multimillion-dollar effort to sequence the entire genome of several free-living microorganisms. Scientists anticipate that the program will substantially expand understanding of evolutionary relationships, while it also advances genome-sequencing technology. Commercial application of the sequences, such as industrial enzymes used in cleaning up th

Two immunologists, John W. Kappler and Philippa Marrack, have been awarded Columbia University's 1994 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize for their ground-breaking work in identifying the mechanisms by which T cells, one of the immune system's central components, are able to differentiate between foreign antigens and proteins of the self. Kappler and Marrack both are Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators at the National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine in Denver and members

With plenty of hazardous sites still to be cleaned up,analysts call biological disposal of wastes afield with a bright future Amid the doom and gloom of the job outlook for United States researchers, employment analysts are pointing to the environmental services market as one bright spot for candidates with scientific training. A recent U.S. News & World Report employment guide lists "environmental manager" as one of the top-20 "hot job tracks." According to the magazine, government and indus

Traveling to the ends of the earth in pursuit of biological quarry is not part of the job description for the average molecular biologist. But for anthropologist Don Melnick, going to work means trekking through the jungles of Southeast Asia for blood samples from the Javan silvery gibbon and other endangered animals. And the jobs of geneticist John Avise and biologist Brian Bowen entail long nights on tropical beaches waiting for nesting sea turtles. The following are the top ecology journal