Acknowledging that it is important for medical schools to adapt educational programs to changes in the real world, Michael Whitcomb, senior vice president for medical education at the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), explains, "Successful medical education will produce doctors who are effective practitioners." The AAMC is establishing three Medical School Objective Project (MSOP) expert panels on health care quality, clinical research, and basic science. The MSOP was started four

Model of an inhibitor targeted to g-secretase interacting with presenilin. The background shows an Alzheimer's brain that carried a presenilin mutation, with immunohistochemistry revealing abundant amyloid plaques (red-orange patches). For years researchers have been perplexed by the identity of g-secretase, an enzyme that cuts amyloid precursor protein (APP) into amyloid ß (Aß) fragments that form telltale plaques in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. Now researchers from Merck Rese

Biomedical scientists from 16 countries who are supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's (HHMI) International Research Scholars program will meet as a group for the first time this month in Maryland. The meeting provides a forum for both technical presentations and discussions about how researchers in different parts of the world might work together more effectively. Since 1991 HHMI has awarded more than $53 million in five-year grants to 177 research scientists working at their home i

For this article, Nadia S. Halim interviewed Kenneth W. Kinzler, professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins Oncology Center. 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. T.C. He, A.B. Sparks, C. Rago, H. Hermeking, L. Zawel, L.T. da Costa, P.J. Morin, B. Vogelstein, K.W. Kinzler, "Identification of c-MYC as a target of the APC pathway," Science, 281:1509-12, Sept. 4, 1998. (Cited in more t

For this article, Nadia S. Halim interviewed Christopher K. Glass, professor of cellular and molecular medicine at the University of California, San Diego. 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. M. Ricote, A.C. Li, T.M. Willson, C.J. Kelly, and C.K. Glass, "The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-g is a negative regulator of macrophage activation," Nature, 391:79-82, Jan.

Courtesy of Media Services, Yale School of Medicine Left, a stained section of spontaneous lung metastasis showing normal lung tissue adjacent to melanoma tissue. Arrows delineate melanoma composed predominantly of melanin-containing cells. Right, cultured cells from spontaneous lung metastasis. Metastasis, the spread of cancer cells from primary tumor to new sites, often prevents successful cancer treatment. But how or why certain cells detach from a tumor, travel to distant locations in the bo

Common Denominator in Breast Cancer While breast cancer devastates all those affected, researchers have had a tough time finding a common denominator at the molecular level. Now Saraswati Sukumar, associate professor of oncology and pathology, and colleagues at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center have identified a molecular alteration affecting the vast majority of primary breast cancers. Hypermethylation of the 14-3-3 s gene (s) and subsequent loss of expression are the most consistent molecular

Women in Cancer Research Women in Cancer Research (WICR) will dissolve as an independent organization and become a council in the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). In essence WICR is going back to its roots. According to Mary Jean Sawey, immediate past president of WICR and research associate professor of radiation oncology at Temple University Medical School, several years ago many female scientists felt they needed a vehicle to promote advancement of women in cancer-related bio

Cancer Research Topics Researchers discussed new approaches and promising drug targets at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in San Francisco last month, including protein delivery and metastasis. Protein Delivery: Steven Dowdy, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Washington University, reported on a way to get large proteins into cells in vivo. Typically only small molecules can cross the lipid membrane surrounding the cell. Dowdy and his colleagues circ

When all fails, try a new attack. That's exactly what researchers do when they use genome sequence data to develop vaccine candidates against the most difficult pathogenic adversaries. Recent efforts are revealing previously unknown microbial genes that may encode proteins important in triggering immunity. "Whole-genome data provides insight into all the features of [organisms] including access to virtually every single antigen that may provoke an immune response," explains Michael Gottlieb, pa

First came the talk about a trend: Fewer physicians are entering biomedical research. Now come the data: results from a study published in February by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB).1 "Opportunities for applying research results to patients have never been greater. At the same time, the number of physician-scientists who can carry out that kind of translational research is declining significantly," comments Kenneth Shine, president of the Institute o

For this article, Nadia S. Halim interviewed Tony Kouzarides, professor in the Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research Campaign, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom; Annick Harel-Bellan, research director at Laboratoire Oncogenese, Differenciation et Transduction du Signal, Villejuif, France; and Douglas Dean, head of the division of molecular oncology at Washington University, St. Louis. Data from the Web of Science (ISI, Philadelphia) show that these papers have been cited significantly more of