April 2005

In this issue of The Scientist, we bring you an article by Ricki Lewis on somatic cell nuclear transfer (p. 12) and a Vision by cloning pioneer Ian Wilmut on why research needs cloned human embryonic stem cells (p. 16). On the research front, things are progressing in leaps and bounds. But in other respects the stem cell phenomenon remains, to borrow Winston Churchill's famous observation on Russia, "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma."Take the introduction of therapies. It's a riddl

, best known for leading the team that cloned Dolly, earned his PhD in 1971 for research that included work that led to the birth of Frosty, the first calf born from a frozen embryo.

Biology is undergoing a fundamental shift from a descriptive to a quantitative, and ultimately, predictive science.

It isn't often that a magazine gets to crow about the fact that something its editor suggested in its pages was put into action, especially by a large bureaucratic agency like the National Institutes of Health.

Popularizing science has never been more popular.

, March 21, 2005), his name was added to a list of more than 40 other researchers currently enduring lesser penalties for similar but generally lesser crimes.

The ability to derive embryonic stem cells from cloned human embryos and to control their differentiation into different cell types provides revolutionary new opportunities in biology and medicine.

If you notice all the countries, states, and municipalities actively courting biotech companies, you might think science-based businesses are a surefire guarantee of a strong local economy.

As the gateway to the nucleus, the nuclear pore complex manages hundreds of intricate cargo-handling operations every second.

In November 2002, a deadly respiratory infection first appeared in the Guandong Province of China.

These papers were selected from multiple disciplines from the Faculty of 1000, a Web-based literature awareness tool http://www.facultyof1000.com.S.J. Lolle et al., "Genome-wide non-mendelian inheritance of extra-genomic information in Arabidopsis," Nature, 434:505–9, March 24, 2005.This paper reports an unusual form of inheritance in Arabidopsis "hothead" mutants, where DNA sequence information absent in the parent but present in previous generations reappears at high frequency in selfed

Researchers at Cornell University's Weill Medical College in New York have created a successful vaccine strategy in mice that uses the immune system's typical antibody response to adenoviruses – which can prevent modified viruses from expressing their payloads and thus diminish the vaccine's efficacy – to boost the antibody response to the vaccine.1By attaching 720 copies of an immunogenic polypeptide from Pseudomonas aeruginosa to the capsid shell of a replication-deficient adenovir

Researchers have discovered the first protein quality control system in the yeast nucleus.

Co. withdrew the painkiller Vioxx from the market last September after the drug was linked to increased risks of heart attack and stroke, more than one metabolomics researcher shook their heads and thought, "If only ...."

Fluorescence microscopy is ubiquitous these days.

Though agricultural biotechnology has the potential to transform small-scale farming in developing countries, such transformation faces a major bottleneck: the intellectual property landscape.

Billerica, Mass.-based Millipore showcased its new Direct-Q System for delivery of pure and ultra-pure water at the 2005 Pittsburgh Conference in Orlando, Fla.

To encourage human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) to multiply without differentiating, scientists currently use a complex chemical mixture provided by mouse embryonic fibroblast "feeder cells."

Given accelerated approval in 1996, the chemotherapy drug irinotecan (Camptosar) can attack metastatic colorectal cancers that don't respond to other drugs.

Biotech revenues soared 845% in Europe and 193% in Canada between 1998 and 2002, according to a 2004 report from the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO).

The UK Patent Office recently granted Sirna Therapeutics two broad patents that cover short interfering RNAs, and the company has similar patents pending in the US Patent and Trademark Office and the European Patent Office.

The head of the new European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Zsuzanna Jakab, has begun the process of hiring staff.

Spanish investigators warn that a national law governing research into foot-and-mouth disease could hinder international collaborations on the development of a vaccine for the veterinary pathogen.

An influential committee of British politicians recently advised the government to allow couples to use in vitro fertilization (IVF) purely for sex selection, as part of a package of fertility regulation reforms.

On a recent visit to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the witch hazel was just beginning to bloom, the magnolia trees were budding, but in the herbarium staging area, it was still spring training.