The National Cancer Institute recently allocated about $1 million to its public information outlet, the Cancer Information Service, to increase awareness of and improve access to Internet-based cancer information in minority communities. Four of 14 regional CIS centers will make use of the funds: CIS of New York (based at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center), CIS of the North Central Region (University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center), CIS of the Mid-West Region (Karmanos Cancer Cent

NIH Lauches Global AIDS Initiative On World Aids Day last December 1, President Bill Clinton announced a new global initiative whereby the National Institutes of Health will spend more than $100 million in FY 2001 research funding with international partners. Jack Whitescarver, acting directing of the NIH Office of AIDS Research formally announced the "Global AIDS Research Initiative and Strategic Plan" at a lecture later that day. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allerg

Collaborating on Russia's Microbial Diversity In an effort to control the propagation of biological warfare expertise, the Department of Energy (DOE) Initiative for Proliferation Prevention (IPP) program has launched a collaborative effort with four Russian biological institutes and a U.S. corporation to create a Russian Ecological Biotrade Center in Puschino. The goal is to use biomolecular techniques to evaluate the range, extent, and potential value of Russia's microbial diversity. DOE will

Boosting Network Performance Information technology is playing an increasingly significant role in all facets of today's world, including scientific research. The National Science Foundation recently announced a new research collaboration to develop software that automatically tunes network protocols in computer operating systems to fully exploit available network bandwidth. NSF has given a three-year, $2.9 million award to the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, the National Center for Atmospher

SIDS Cause Discovered? While child care experts have suspected for some time that the prone sleeping position of infants can be related to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), the reason for this major cause of postneonatal death in the developed world has long been a mystery. Based on previous work that implicated Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium that colonizes the gastric lining (C.P. Pattison, B.J. Marshall, "Proposed link between Helicobacter pylori and sudden infant death syndrome," Medic

Whether sitting down to a relaxing dinner or grabbing fast food, people don't think about the origin of every ingredient in the food they eat. But as biotechnology applications in commercial agriculture increase, controversy over the risks versus the benefits also continues to rise. In mid-September, public citizen groups, including Genetically Engineered Food Alert and the Union of Concerned Scientists, requested a recall of taco shells that allegedly contained genetically engineered corn. Inde

The presidential campaign has focused heavily on topics such as taxes, health care, and the elderly. Yet there are other issues on which the presidential administration will have a significant impact as well. A recent Gallup survey shows that science and technology issues may influence Americans' presidential choice.1 The survey reveals that more than two-thirds of those polled support recent budget proposals to significantly increase federal spending for scientific research and development. Sev

Alfred Gilman Completion of a draft of the human genome and advances in gene expression manipulation imply the potential capacity to predict altered behavior from factors such as pharmacological inputs. In an age where collaborations and joint ventures are typical, a Nobel laureate in biomedicine will lead a research alliance that ultimately should promote faster disease treatment via targeted drug remedies. Alfred Gilman, chairman of pharmacology at the University of Texas Southwestern at Dalla

A new strategic alliance has brought two countries separated by the Atlantic Ocean closer together, with Maryland becoming the first state to enter into a biotechnology agreement with Scotland. University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute's (UMBI) president Jennie Hunter-Cevera joined representatives from Maryland and Scotland's biotech communities at a recent ceremony where an agreement was signed designed to increase business and scientific collaborations. Hunter-Cevera was part of a 14-memb

Brain Disease Research Advances with Gene Chips Though there is no cure for the millions of Americans with epilepsy, recent advances using gene chip technology may have found a key to treatment for those recovering from seizure trauma. Researchers led by the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., report on using the gene chip technology that determines whether a gene is turned on or off by measuring its ability to bind to the corresponding DNA sequences on the chips. They c

Making an Impression Until about 15 years ago, scientists thought that the two copies of genes from both the mother and father are expressed equally. Since then, researchers have discovered that while such holds true for about 99.9 percent of the genome, there are about 100 genes where the mother's or the father's copy is permanently silenced. The expression of a trait being dependent on which parent from which the genetic material came is known as genetic imprinting. One of those currently re

Mount Sinai School of Medicine, in collaboration with international researchers, recently announced one of the first studies using the completed sequence of a human chromosome to localize, identify, and explain the function of a disease-causing gene. According to John A. Martignetti, of the departments of human genetics and pediatrics, Mount Sinai Medical School, and one of the project's researchers, working with a 112-plus member Italian family with the inherited bleeding disorder known as May-