December 2006

Humans vs. chimps: Ajit Varki speaks var FO = { movie:"http://www.the-scientist.com/supplementary/flash/37162/varki3.swf", width:"400", height:"350", majorversion:"8", build:"0", xi:"true"}; UFO.create(FO, "ufoDemo"); Please download the Adobe Flash Player to view this content:

Ajit Varki: The Fascination of Glycans var FO = { movie:"http://www.the-scientist.com/supplementary/flash/37162/varki2.swf", width:"400", height:"350", majorversion:"8", build:"0", xi:"true"}; UFO.create(FO, "ufoDemo"); Please download the Adobe Flash Player to view this content:

In our September issue, Karen Hopkin profiled glycomics superstar Ajit Varki. Watch an excerpt. var FO = { movie:"http://www.the-scientist.com/supplementary/flash/37162/varki1.swf", width:"400", height:"350", majorversion:"8", build:"0", xi:"true"}; UFO.create(FO, "ufoDemo"); Please download the Adobe Flash Player to view this content:

var FO = { movie:"http://www.the-scientist.com/supplementary/flash/test/ball.swf", width:"550", height:"200", majorversion:"8", build:"0", xi:"true"}; UFO.create(FO, "ufoDemo"); Replacement content

Ajit Varki: Unique human infections var FO = { movie:"http://www.the-scientist.com/supplementary/flash/37162/varki4.swf", width:"400", height:"350", majorversion:"8", build:"0", xi:"true"}; UFO.create(FO, "ufoDemo"); Please download the Adobe Flash Player to view this content:

Credit: Courtesy of Prometheus Books" /> Credit: Courtesy of Prometheus Books NEW ANTIMICROBIALS » Two of this month's features look at ways to combat infectious disease: artemisinin to fight malaria on page 26 and developing a cytomegalovirus vaccine on page 40. For more on how the battle is evolving, pick up DNA: How the Biotech Revolution is Changing the Way We Fight Disease, by Frank H. Stevenson (pictured above) published this month by Prometheus Books. AN RNA BI

Beating Malaria Mang We Tin with her feverish five-year-old son Hla Win Tun awaiting treatment at a clinic in Mawker Tie. Nicholas White and François Nosten have shown that artemisinin in combination with other drugs are 90% effective at fighting the scourge of the world. So why isn't everyone using it? By Merrill Goozner ARTICLE EXTRAS 1 Yet there is still little understanding of how artemisinin-based derivatives and the other drugs used i

var FO = { movie:"http://www.the-scientist.com/supplementary/flash/36914/artemisinin_slideshow.swf", width:"600", height:"600", majorversion:"8", build:"0", xi:"true"}; UFO.create(FO, "ufoDemo"); Please download the Adobe Flash Player to view this content:

A military outbreak spurs research By Merrill Goozner FEATURE ARTICLE 1 However, their study used a Chinese version of the drug, which doesn't meet western manufacturing standards, and thus can't be used by the US military or purchased by aid agencies for the developing world. 1. South East Asian Quinine Artesunate Malarial Trial (SEAQUAMAT) group, "Artesunate versus quinine for treatment of severe falciparum malaria: a randomized trial," Lancet, 366:717-25, 2

The first 13-year-old patient   By Merrill Goozner FEATURE ARTICLE Beating MalariaNicholas White and François Nosten have shown that drugs in combination with artemisinin are 90% effective at fighting the scourge of the world. So why isn't everyone using it? MERRILL GOOZNER travels to Thailand and China to watch Nosten and White at work. ARTICLE EXTRAS A military outbreak spurs researchIn September 2003, the US 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit entered Liberia for a

Fifty Years with Double-Stranded RNA Courtesy of Alexander Rich The scientist who discovered hybridization and the "other" double helix describes what it meant to biology. By Alexander Rich ARTICLE EXTRAS An interactive look at original documents with commentary: The discovery of the dsRNA helix, 1956 Predictions on the regulatory potential of dsRNA, 1961 RNA Timeline: A History in Hybridization and StructurePodcast: Alex Rich discusses th

var FO = { movie:"http://www.the-scientist.com/supplementary/flash/36989/rich1_slideshow.swf", width:"536", height:"600", majorversion:"8", build:"0", xi:"true"}; UFO.create(FO, "ufoDemo"); An RNA prediction The regulatory potential of dsRNA circa 1961 Please download the Adobe Flash Player to view this content: Download the article

var FO = { movie:"http://www.the-scientist.com/supplementary/flash/36975/rich2_slideshow.swf", width:"536", height:"600", majorversion:"8", build:"0", xi:"true"}; UFO.create(FO, "ufoDemo"); Discovery of dsRNA Watson and Crick said "it was probably impossible." Please download the Adobe Flash Player to view this content: Download the article

RNA Timeline: A History in Hybridization and Structure Alexander Rich and David Davies discover the double-stranded RNA helix and show that polyribo U and polyribo A hybridize spontaneously.6 Ben Hall and Sol Speigelman carry out DNA-RNA hybridization in viral infected bacterial system.15 Rich and colleagues publish on two RNA double helix fragments solving the structure at atomic re

var FO = { movie:"http://www.the-scientist.com/supplementary/flash/36890/maul_slideshow.swf", width:"600", height:"600", majorversion:"8", build:"0", xi:"true"}; UFO.create(FO, "ufoDemo"); Science and Sculpture Gerd Maul's artwork reveals his two sides Please download the Adobe Flash Player to view this content:

A Long Shot on Cytomegalovirus An unlikely vaccinologist fights an unlikely foe. By Alan Dove ARTICLE EXTRAS Developing a hybrid CMV vaccine An economic boost for an unlikely target Two sides or more: from scientist to sculptorSlideshow: the artwork of Gerd MaulPodcast: A vaccine for cytomegalovirusProgress toward combating a rare but costly diseaseGerd Maul was frustrated. It was 1989, and the German-born researcher at Philadelphia's Wistar

Developing a hybrid CMV Vaccine Cytomegalovirus (CMV), upon entering the cell, releases a highly evolved protein arsenal to disrupt cellular defenses. One strategy to defeat the virus in humans may be to use a murine version of the pathogen, MCMV. Interspecies infections are inefficient because the mouse virus is attuned to infecting mice and is blocked in humans at several steps in its life cycle, especially at PML bodies in the nucleus. By adding certain human genes, researchers may be

An Economic Boost for an Unlikely Target By Alan Dove FEATURE ARTICLE A Long Shot on CytomegalovirusAn unlikely vaccinologist fights an unlikely foe. ARTICLE EXTRAS Developing a hybrid CMV vaccine Two sides or more: from scientist to sculptorSlideshow: the artwork of Gerd MaulPodcast: A vaccine for cytomegalovirusProgress toward combating a rare but costly diseaseEven though the National Academy of Science listed it as a top priority in

THE FUTURE OF THE FDA As the agency celebrates its 100th anniversary, what do Congress and others have in store? By Ted Agres ARTICLE EXTRAS Just another day at the office? KEN KAITIN and CHRISTOPHER-PAUL MILNE present their wish list for the FDA Timeline: 100 years of FDA historyThe Food and Drug Administration celebrated its first century in 2006, but as 2007 begins, it is also stepping into the cross-hairs of a new Democratic Congress.

Just Another Day at the Office? 10,000 drugs in the marketplace, 7,000 in development, and hundreds of applications to be reviewed each year: It's time to prioritize By Kenneth I Kaitin and Christopher-Paul Milne FEATURE ARTICLE The Future of the FDAAs the agency celebrates its 100th anniversary, what do Congress and others have in store? ARTICLE EXTRAS Timeline: 100 years of FDA historyThe priorities keep shifting, resources are static; staff is stretched

100 Years A Select History of the FDA 1906 Congress passes the Pure Food and Drugs Act, prohibiting interstate commerce in misbranded and adulterated foods, drinks, and drugs. 1912 Congress enacts the Sherley Amendment, which prohibits labeling of medicines with false therapeutic claims. 1938 After an elixir containing diethylene glycol kills 107 people in 1937, Congress passes the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act), requiring that

How it Works: Real Time PCR Brendan Maher The instrumentation is basic: a thermal cycler for amplification, a light source for excitation of fluorescent probes (see chemistries below), a camera for recording, and a computer to control the instrument and record data. Increasingly sophisticated instruments, such as those capable of multiplex experiments, are becoming affordable in academic labs. The light source in the Applied Biosystems 7500 (represented here) is a simple haloge

Why we should worry about the upcoming fish apocalypse.

A butterfly explodes the theory.

A double life for the target of rapamycin muddies its role in cancer

Using an innovative in vitro model of the blood-brain barrier, Dennis Grab of Johns Hopkins University and his colleagues found that Trypanosoma brucei gambiense requires calcium ions and cysteine proteases to migrate across.1 "This is a big technical and scientific advance," says Paul Roepe of Georgetown University. "We have the beginnings of a real molecular model for how trypanosomes are crossing the blood-brain barrier." "The authors successfully cultured the endothelial cells t

Credit: Courtesy of Kevan Shokat" /> Credit: Courtesy of Kevan Shokat Applying chemical genetics to mice, Roger Davis at University of Massachusetts Medical School and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and colleagues found that JNK2 promotes phosphorylation and activation of cJun.1 "It is an elegant and solid paper that illustrates the power of chemical genetics and it settles a controversy in the field," says Faculty of 1000 member Filippo Giancotti of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Ca

C. Heurteaux et al., "Deletion of the background potassium channel TREK-1 results in a depression-resistant phenotype," Nat Neurosci, 9:1134-41, September 2006. A deletion in the KCNK2 gene encoding the two-pore domain potassium channel Trek-1 results in antidepressant-like behaviors. Intriguingly, a previous report showed that this channel is inhibited by antidepressants that target neurotransmitter reuptake inhibitors at near-therapeutic concentrations (

Among the usual suspects, some won't be entering the $10,000 genome contest.

From picking standards to finding those low-copy transcripts, experts offer solutions to users' dilemmas.

It's more likely to be cash than equity, depending on where you work.

Formal plan: The most popular kind of bonus plan, which 70% of biotech companies use, is the formal plan, in which a company establishes a matrix to fund the plan at the beginning of the year, says John Radford, senior vice president of Radford Surveys and Consulting. This establishes criteria including: who participates in the plan, how company and individual performances are weighted, how much money goes into bonuses if all goals are met, and individual target goals. At Amge