August 2001

More than 80 percent of the planet's living organisms exist only in aquatic ecosystems. Some may harbor secrets to human origins, and clues, treatments--perhaps even cures--for human disease. Some are critical bioindicators that portend the health of the biosphere. Yet, overall, scientists know little about the biochemical processes of these life forms. The vast, rich knowledge within the oceans and freshwater systems on Earth remains virtually untapped, because in the world of biological resear

Late last year, while watching a news report that examined the challenges of annotating the human genome sequence, Bill Long had an epiphany. A programmer at Seattle-based Cray Inc., Long realized that many bioinformatics complexities are basically problems of pattern matching--a Cray specialty. So, Long phoned the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Advanced Biomedical Computing Center (ABCC) and suggested a collaboration. He was well received. Says ABCC director Stan Burt, facility researchers "

Biopharmaceutical researchers fear how pending federal legislation outlawing the cloning of human cells will restrict their abilities to find cures for major degenerative diseases.1,2 Some also see lawmakers impinging on established nonhuman cloning techniques essential for the discovery of new drugs and therapies. The source of all this worry? The US House of Representatives passed July 31 by a wide margin a bill (H.R. 2505) sponsored by Reps. David Weldon (R-Fla.) and Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) th

The American Society of Plant Physiologists recently changed its name to the American Society of Plant Biologists and celebrated the event during its summer meeting in Providence, R.I. More than 1,400 scientists, including members of the Canadian Society of Plant Physiologists, heard and presented results on everything from genomics to pathogenesis to pattern formation, and some of the work had strong biotechnological implications. Here's a sample of what transpired: Salt of the Earth A little

Scientists who gathered in Providence, R.I. in late July for the annual meeting of the American Society of Plant Biologists paused one evening to honor a pioneer in plant biotechnology. The society gave Swiss researcher Ingo Potrykus its Leadership in Science Public Service Award for his molecular tour de force in creating beta carotene-enriched 'golden' rice. Along with Peter Beyer of the University of Freiburg in Germany, and Xudong Ye, now at Agricetus Monsanto in Madison, Wis, Potrykus moved

Unlike the chicken-and-egg dilemma, scientists know that genes come before the environment. In genetically based diseases, however, the question is not when but how. How do environmental conditions and lifestyle choices interact with a person's molecular structure? "We're all groping in the dark to find out how to get a handle on this complexity," says Marianne Berwick, an epidemiologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York. Although scientists can now assess exposure levels to

While touting its support for large increases in research funds for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Bush administration engaged in a backhanded slap to scientists in all divisions of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In mid-March, Ed Sontag, deputy chief of staff for operations in HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson's office, issued a memo to all HHS divisional staff heads requiring that they "must clear all domestic travel" with his office. International travel for certai

Four pharmaceuticals have joined the National Institutes of Health to find early warning signs and potential drug targets for osteoarthritis. The Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI) will provide approximately $8 million a year over the next five-to-seven years to support clinical data collection from 5,000 people at high-risk for osteoarthritis. GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, and Pfizer have each committed $800,000, and the majority of federal funding comes from the coffers of the

Many news outlets covering the Houston flooding chose to highlight the loss of thousands of laboratory animals. However, The Scientist refocused the issue and covered the research opportunities that also were lost in the flood.1 The physical damages sustained by the research facilities amounted to almost $5 billion, but one can't assign a price tag to the research that has been destroyed and/or interrupted. How does one calculate the human costs of delayed therapies or even cures for diseases

Let me strongly second the view of T.V. Rajan1 (June 25, 2001) that a lack of understanding of mechanism should not invalidate the recognition of scientific phenomena. The most egregious example of mechanistic thinking impeding scientific progress is that of continental drift. Alfred Wegener in Germany (1910) and F. B. Taylor in America (1908) proposed this theory, but lack of a plausible mechanism prevented most geologists from accepting the hypothesis for 50 years despite the obvious fit of th

In 1996 geneticist Gilles Thomas and colleagues at the INSERM, the French Institute for Health and Medical Research in Paris, reported that IBD1, a region on the long arm of chromosome 16, was a Crohn's disease susceptibility locus.1 Five years later, in a second study, they announced that they had pinpointed the exact gene. The researchers contended that the connection between Crohn's and NOD2, the implicated gene located in IBD1, provided evidence to support the hypothesis that the disease is

The idea that a virus could aid in killing cancer began to take hold after 1904, when scientists observed tumor regression in a cervical cancer patient after she received a rabies vaccination.1 Other anecdotal evidence that viruses could repress tumors appeared throughout the 1900s, but research tapered off as toxic effects outweighed the benefits. Now, recent advances have scientists revisiting abandoned notions. "It's a combination of a much improved understanding of virology and of tumor biol

Likening his discovery to a paleontologist unearthing a new dinosaur species, Vladimir Kapitonov, a staff scientist at the Genetic Information Research Institute, recently revealed a new class of transposable elements in eukaryotes. These jumping genes use rolling circle replication--an ancient process characteristic of some plasmid replication in bacteria--to copy and insert itself throughout entire genomes (V.V. Kapitonov, J. Jurka, "Rolling circle transposons in eukaryotes," Proceedings of th

Despite the widespread use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural basis of everything from digestion to facial recognition, scientists have never definitively shown that fMRI measurements directly reflect neural activity.1 But in late July, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany, presented the newest concrete information concerning exactly what fMRI measures.2 The results, achieved through use of a specially

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

For this article, James Kling interviewed Eric W. Overström, associate professor biomedical sciences, Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, North Grafton, Mass. 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. A. Baguisi, E. Behboodi, D.T. Melican, J.S. Pollock, M.M. Destrempes, C. Cammuso, J.L. Williams, S.D. Nims, C.A. Porter, P. Midura, M.J. Palacios, S.L. Ayres, R.S, Den

Click to view the PDF file: Suppliers of Integrin-Related Reagents Courtesy of Rick HorwitzReprinted with permission from the Journal of Cell BiologyPaxillin-GFP in WI38 human fibroblast cells showing paxillin turnover as cells migrate. The image is an overlay of 2 separate time points. Editor's note: A group of scientists led by M. Amin Arnaout at Massachusetts General Hospital published the first crystal structure of the human integrin aVb3 extracellular domain, on September 9, 2001.(www.sc

Click to view the PDF file: Proteomic Mass Spectrometry Equipment Courtesy of CiphergenCiphergen's SELDI process, a MALDI variant that includes a surface-based enrichment step Early in the twentieth century, scientists puzzled over the observation that certain elements that were otherwise physically indistinguishable from each other nevertheless exhibited different radioactive decay characteristics. These elements would ultimately come to be known as isotopes, but at the time this concept was