Prion disorders riddle the mammalian brain with plaque and holes, the precise pattern and resulting symptoms--dementia, extreme fatigue, or loss of balance--depending on whether one is human, bovine, or ovine. The agent of such a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) is an infectious form of prion protein, called PrP scrapie (PrPSc), named after the long-known sheep illness. In bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease) and its human version, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vC

Move over golden rice, genetically modified cats are in the works. Syracuse, N.Y., residents Jackie and David Avner, among the 10 percent of the population who have cat allergies, are working to create a feline that won't make their eyes water. Their privately held company, Transgenic Pets LLC (www.transgenicpets.com) is using knockout technology to create kitties that are missing the sole human allergen. David Avner, an emergency medicine physician, got the idea about seven years ago, according

Understanding how bacteria resist antibiotics lies at the crux of staying ahead in the resistance game. A research group at the New York State Health Department's Wadsworth Center in Albany offers a vivid view of how a bacterial protein called Tet (0) shoves aside the antibiotic tetracycline. (C.M.T. Spahn et al., "Localization of the ribosomal protection protein Tet (0) on the ribosome and the mechanisms of tetracycline resistance." Molecular Cell, 7[5]:1037-45, May 2001.) To be an effective dr

Undergraduates may soon sequence genomes, thanks to the brainchild of Steven Verhey, an assistant professor in the department of biology at Central Washington University (CWU) in Ellensburg. His idea to create a network of two- and four-year colleges whose sophomores would tackle a genome began when he had students at Evergreen State College sequence part of the carrot mitochondrial genome and the daffodil and red bell pepper plastid genomes. "I wanted to include as many students as possible to

The Human Genome Project's discovery1 that the human body runs on an instruction manual of a mere 35,000 or so genes--compared to the worm's 19,000, the fruit fly's 13,000, and the tiny mustard relative Arabidopsis thaliana's 25,000--placed humanity on an even playing field with these other, supposedly simpler, organisms. It was a humbling experience, but humility quickly gave way to awe with the realization that the human genome might encode 100,000 to 200,000 proteins. Scientists base this num

With true success stories in cancer treatment so rare, the flood of recent papers validating the 1998 Food and Drug Administration approval of Herceptin (trastuzumab) stands out.1-3 In a broader sense, the drug's rocky road from conception to clinic also validates the concept of rational drug design, an approach that will become more common as pharmaceutical companies mine human genome information. "It is extremely gratifying to have gone though the first laboratory determinations, to clinical

It has long been known that a little hydrogen sulfide (HS) contributes a lot to the distinctive odor of intestinal gas. Researchers at the Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition in Leicestershire, U.K., report a series of experiments that confirms this wisdom and validates a treatment approach for reducing the malodorous fumes from one's canine.1 The successful recipe combines activated charcoal, which sequesters HS in its nooks and crannies; zinc acetate, which binds the gas; and an extract of the yu

Researchers are inching ever closer to a treatment for the inherited neurodegenerative disorder Huntington's disease (HD). Following close on the heels of recent optimistic reports on fetal cell implants1,2 comes a report from Johns Hopkins University that sheds light on a possible mechanism of neuronal destruction in HD.3 The work reveals possible new drug targets. Legendary folksinger Woody Guthrie's fight with HD brought the disease into the public eye in the 1960s. Today, some 30,000 peopl

Antibiotics that enable ribosomes to "read through" premature stop codons (nonsense mutations), which truncate proteins, may kick-start a new approach to gene therapy. A team of researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and from the Women's and Children's Hospital in South Australia applied a long-ago observation about the antibiotic gentamicin on ribosomes to correct the enzyme deficiency that causes Hurler syndrome, in cultured fibroblasts from patients.1 The antibiotic apparent

The field of human genetics has never been "politically correct." The first gene screens created in the 1970s, for sickle cell disease and Tay-Sachs disease, targeted African American and Ashkenazi (eastern European) Jewish populations, respectively. This targeting made economic sense as these conditions are more prevalent within these populations. It isn't that genes discriminate, but that the human tendency to select mates like themselves tends to keep particular gene variants within certain g

Graphic: Leza BerardoneA technique not deemed "sexy" enough for commercialization a decade ago may finally find its niche in proteomics. SomaLogic Inc. of Boulder, Colo. is pioneering aptamers, which are modified DNA molecules that bind specific proteins in body fluid samples. Aptamers are initially selected for specific binding activities from a huge starting pool, then variants are obtained during subsequent rounds of amplification. The technology builds on the ability of aptamers to bind tena

There may be more significance to the color of one's eyes than cues to wardrobe selections. One study links dark eyes to lower incidence of noise-associated hearing loss (M.-L. Barrenas, F. Lindgren. "The influence of inner ear melanin on susceptibility to TTS in humans," Scandinavian Audiology, 19:97-102, 1990), and another indicates that having brown eyes raises the risk of hearing loss following cisplatin chemotherapy (T.N. Wendell et al., "Cisplatin in children: hearing loss correlates with