The killer will be turned against itself, if a human trial of gene therapy for AIDS goes forward in a few months, using a vector derived from HIV-1. Biotech startup VIRxSYS Corp. of Gaithersburg, Md., is complying with requests for more information concerning its clinical protocol that were made in October by the National Institutes of Health Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee and the Food and Drug Administration. The candidate drug's inventor, Boro Dropulic, says VIRxSYS has received about $18

Pop quiz: in one sentence, describe public health. Never mind, it's a loaded question. "We've joked among the deans that we'll give a magnum of champagne to whomever can come up with a one-sentence description," says Susan C. Scrimshaw, dean of the University of Illinois at Chicago's school of public health. "No one has claimed it yet." The obstacle is the field's immense breadth. Scrimshaw notes wryly that public health can involve toxic spills, smoking, or leaving out the potato salad out of

In biomedical research, is the "gold standard" of controlled studies that analyze individual therapies the only way to get trustworthy results? That question is central to what has arguably become America's most profound public health development: the boom in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). That question also was pondered frequently at the fourth annual Comprehensive Cancer Care Conference recently in Arlington, Va. Cosponsored by the nonprofit Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Wa

Does the brain have a center of consciousness? Until now, the prevailing opinion has been that anesthetics and other agents of unconsciousness act widely across the cerebral cortex and spinal cord. But a new finding suggests the existence of a barbiturate-sensitive switch (M. Devor, et al., "Reversible analgesia, atonia, and loss of consciousness on bilateral intracerebral microinjection of pentobarbital," Pain, 94:101-12, October 2001). Using barbiturate microinjections, Hebrew University of Je

As an intramural science showcase, the National Institutes of Health Research Festival on the Bethesda campus is dominated each year by reports on cutting edge biomedical research. But at one mini-symposium during the 15th festival last month, several NIH researchers described innovations that have already reached the marketplace, and the challenges surmounted along the way. The session was conceived as "sort of a greatest hits package," says Steven Ferguson, deputy director of the NIH divisi

Strange as it seems, a new class of diseases is emerging that appears to be caused by mutations in untranslated regions of RNA. The protein-coding sequence of the relevant gene is uninterrupted and yet features of the disease flourish. Exactly how this happens is the subject of keen investigation that now promises to further intensify, following the publication in August of an important discovery. Researchers at the University of Minnesota showed that myotonic dystrophy, known formally as dyst

Even standing still, Cathy H. Wu gives the impression of being on the move. In the foyer of the National Biomedical Research Foundation (NBRF) at Georgetown University, she listens while founder and president Robert S. Ledley tells an anecdote to a visitor. Wu, diminutive and neat in a lilac blouse and dark slacks, smiles and almost imperceptibly fidgets in place until it's time to lead a visitor away. Then she's off, veering around the corner toward the library like a commuter spotting a gap in

The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) will become fully functional by Oct. 31, burying a two-decade struggle between powerful foes. That fight reached crisis point on the last working day of 2000, when former President Bill Clinton was faced with deciding whether to sign a federal law sanctioning the 19th institute at the National Institutes of Health. To approve NIBIB, he would have to override the opposition of numerous scientific groups and of his Health and

Boosted by revenue from lotteries and tobacco company settlements, state-financed basic research in the life sciences is soaring. The goal of such funding is usually to create wealth by attracting federal and private money. But this strategy raises difficult questions about how best to measure research outcomes, policy specialists say. At least 17 states have directed tobacco settlement money into research and all but three of them are focusing on fundamental studies rather than direct commerc

For this article, Steve Bunk interviewed Tina Romeis, postdoctoral researcher, Sainsbury Laboratory, John Innes Center, Norwich, UK. 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. Romeis, P. Piedras, S. Zhang, D.F. Klessig, H. Hirt, J.D.G. Jones, "Rapid Avr9- and Cf-9-dependent activation of MAP kinases in tobacco cell cultures and leaves: convergence of resistance gene, elicitor, wou

A paneless window offers a view from an overhead walkway onto the artificial ocean of the Biosphere 2 Center, or B2C. It's a strange and fascinating sight, here under the Santa Catalina Mountains near dry little Oracle, Ariz., about 30 miles north of Tucson. Except for the walls and ceiling of glass triangles that enclose this million-gallon simulation of a Caribbean-type sea, the only obvious, unnatural object is a vacuum pump that provides a tidal pulse at the 25-foot deep end. Near the shallo

For this article, Steve Bunk interviewed Rudolf Aebersold, cofounder, Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle. 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. S.P. Gygi, Y. Rochon, B.R. Franza, R. Aebersold, "Correlation between protein and mRNA abundance in yeast," Molecular and Cellular Biology, 19:1720-30, March, 1999. (Cited in 114 papers) At virtually all levels of life sciences, fro