May 1997

The recent success of Imitrex-the antimigraine drug made by Glaxo Wellcome Inc. of Research Triangle Park, N.C.-has ignited a fury of pharmaceutical research. Imitrex (generic: sumatriptan) is the first serotonin (5-HT) agonist, or mimic, made to fight migraines. In 1996, Imitrex tablets reaped $840 million in worldwide sales. Now, a half-dozen companies are creating new brands of migraine relief-and opening the door to neuroscientists and molecular biologists in the process. A TRAILBLAZER: Th

GOOD NEWS: NSF's Paul Herer found the positive reaction to his agency's new review criteria somewhat surprising. Scientists who review National Science Foundation grant applications soon will have a new system by which to judge them. Beginning October 1, the current four merit-review criteria will be eliminated, and reviewers will be asked to assess research proposals based on the proposals' "intellectual merit and property" and their "broader impacts," such as potential effect on societal nee

The job is a juggling act, with administrative duties that sometimes lead to opposition from scientists. CONFLICTS OF INTEREST? John Vandenbergh contends the IACUC veterinarians should "be an integral part of the committee, but not as in a chair role. Research with laboratory animals involves a great deal more bureaucracy than it used to, and veterinarians frequently find themselves in the position of administrators of that bureaucracy. Under the 1985 revision to the Animal Welfare Act, every

Sidebar: Ethics Journals The rise in bioethics centers, courses, and degree programs within the last decade has spawned an expansion in the literature devoted to the subject. According to scientists and ethicists, this is exemplified by an upswing in the number of periodicals and, particularly, individual articles in peer-reviewed publications. This new literature genre covers such areas as scientific fraud and integrity; patients' rights; informed consent; genetic screening; and the disseminat

A sampling of relatively new journals related to science, medical, and engineering ethics that have started in the past seven years: Cambridge Quarterly Journal of Healthcare Ethics Cambridge Univeristy Press 40 W. 20th St., New York, N.Y. 10011-4211 Tel: (212) 924-3900 Fax: (212) 691-3239 E-mail: journals_marketing@cup.org http://www.cup.org First issue published in 1992 Ethics and Behavior Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc. 10 Industrial Ave., Mahwah, N.J. 07430 Tel: (201) 236-9500 Fax: (201)

By Eric Albert Email: ealbert@world.std.com ACROSS 1 Alanine derivative 5 Virion's outer shell 10 Digit with only two phalanges 11 Woman after whose homeland an element is named 12 Antibody that appears upon initial antigen exposure 13 Type of track 14 Most structurally sophisticated molecular type 15 Mammal's first fluid 16 Plantae and Fungi, say 18 Potassium-____ dating 20 Any of the -omas 22 Iris layer 23 Most sensible location? 25 Rod-shaped bacteria 27 Pelvis's posterior wall 29 "Bad" kin

By Eric Albert Email: ealbert@world.std.com ACROSS 1 Alanine derivative 5 Virion's outer shell 10 Digit with only two phalanges 11 Woman after whose homeland an element is named 12 Antibody that appears upon initial antigen exposure 13 Type of track 14 Most structurally sophisticated molecular type 15 Mammal's first fluid 16 Plantae and Fungi, say 18 Potassium-____ dating 20 Any of the -omas 22 Iris layer 23 Most sensible location? 25 Rod-shaped bacteria 27 Pelvis's posterior wall 29 "Bad" kin

The "new growth theory" of economics is getting much attention in the popular press these days. For example, Paul Romer, a leading proponent of the new growth theory, is on the list of Time's 25 most influential Americans and Newsweek's list of 100 people to watch as America moves into the next century. Does the new growth theory have anything to do with science, and if so, what? In an article I recently published in the Journal of Economic Literature entitled "The Economics of Science" (P. St

Universities are traditionally organized into departments. This organization is more than some quaint academic custom-it evolved for solid reasons. A department provides a home for scholars having similar interests and backgrounds, somewhat like a family. It keeps the truth and determines the future directions of a field. A department is also the natural teaching unit, particularly at the undergraduate level. Indeed, to be a faculty member in a university and not a member of some department is

The Scientist Date: April 26, 1997 THE SCIENTIST® The Newspaper for the Life Sciences Professional (609)-786-7207 For Fast Service "It's obviously very important to stay up to date, and since I define my field broadly, THE SCIENTIST has the most comprehensive coverage of a wide range of topics. THE SCIENTIST is a good way to stay connected with policy, policymakers, and the general scientific community." ALAN LESHNER Director National Institute On Drug Abuse National Institutes Of Heal

Your readers should be advised that the editor of Scientific American spoke inaccurately when he said, "In cases where the authors were making statements of unsubstantiated facts, we obliged the authors to change them" (T.W. Durso, "Animal Research Articles Draw Fire," The Scientist, March 31, 1997, page 1). The correct phraseology would have been "Barnard and Kaufman" instead of "the authors," for we were obliged only to agree to a shortening and stylistic editing of our article, as well as to

We found your article entitled "Animal Research Articles Draw Fire" (T.W. Durso, The Scientist, March 31, 1997, page 1) very revealing about the intransigence of some scientists when discussing the topic of animal research. If the forum on animal research presented in the February 1997 issue of Scientific American, and more specifically the article by Neal Barnard and Steven Kaufman (Scientific American, 276:80-2, February 1997), are actually causing scientists to "worry that the magazine's pri

FOR MORE INFORMATION - Caloric Restriction's Benefits Date: May 26, 1997 Professional Societies Gerontological Society of America 1275 K St., N.W., Suite 350 Washington, D.C. 20005 Tel: (202) 842-1275 Fax: (202) 842-1150 E-mail: geron@geron.org Web site: http://www.geron.org 7,000 members Executive Director: Carol Schutz Journals: The Gerontologist; Journal of Gerontology American Geriatics Society 770 Lexington Ave., Suite 300 New York, N.Y. 10021 (212) 308-1414 or (800) 2

Sidebar: For More Information - Caloric Restriction's Benefits Caloric restriction (CR) research has come a long way since Cornell University nutritionist Clyde McCay published a ground-breaking 1935 paper that showed that rats on calorically restricted, nutritionally sound diets lived longer than rats that were allowed to eat as much as they wanted (C.J. McCay, Journal of Nutrition, 10:63-79, 1935). Some 50 years of research since has confirmed that finding. In general, experimental animals fe

Edited by: Thomas W. Durso V.K. Kuchroo, M.P. Das, J.A. Brown, A.M. Ranger, S.S. Zamvil, R.A. Sobel, H.L. Weiner, N. Nabavi, L.H. Glimcher, "B7-1 and B7-2 costimulatory molecules activate differentially the Th1/Th2 developmental pathways: application to autoimmune disease therapy," Cell, 80:707-18, 1995. (Cited in nearly 260 publications as of April 1997) GOOD AND BAD: Harvard's Laurie Glimcher received a surprise after injecting a pair of antibodies into mice suffering from experimental alle

Edited by: Thomas W. Durso S. Matsuoka, M.C. Edwards, C. Bai, S. Parker, P. Zhang, A. Baldini, J.W. Harper, S.J. Elledge, "p57KIP2, a structurally distinct member of the p21CIP1 Cdk inhibitor family, is a candidate tumor suppressor gene," Genes & Development, 9:650-62, 1995. (Cited in 130 papers as of April 1997) Comments by Stephen J. Elledge, department of biochemistry, Baylor College of Medicine, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Cyclin-dependent kinases (Cdks) are a group of molecule

Sidebar: Some Organizations and Programs That Support New Investigators When it comes to funding, young researchers with minimal track records face a catch-22: They have problems getting funded without preliminary data on which to base their research, yet they lack the money to do that preliminary work. Several programs aim to remedy the situation by providing grants to help new investigators get started. The National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, as well as several

Behavioral Science Track Award for Rapid Transition (B/START) Mary Ellen Oliveri, Chief Behavioral, Cognitive and Social Sciences Research Branch National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health 5600 Fishers Lane, Room 11C-16, Rockville, Md. 20857 (301) 443-3942 - Fax: (301) 443-4822 E-mail: moliveri@nih.gov Web site: http://www.nih.nimh.gov First Independent Research Support and Transition Award (FIRST) Office of Extramural Research Office of the Director 6701 Rockledge Dr.,

Sidebar: It's Okay To Be Fast High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is a mainstay of biological and chemical research, analytical, and production laboratories. After a researcher loads a sample mixture, the instrument pumps mixtures of solvents-usually at high pressures-through a column packed with a material that slows individual compounds to different degrees, separating the substances as they pass through the column. Once the journey is complete, a detector and often an automatic fra

As in basketball, track, and sneaker commercials, speed counts in HPLC analysis. Fast liquid chromatography (FLC) takes advantage of smaller particle size or reduced pore volume to achieve faster performance. Perkin-Elmer's Fast LC columns are packed with 3-mm particles, resulting in shorter equilibration times and lower solvent usage. The columns can enhance productivity two to five times over that afforded by conventional 15-cm HPLC columns packed with 5-mm particles, the company says. MICRA

The Liposomat is designed for the preparation of reproducible, size-homogeneous, unilamellar, and stable liposomes in volumes of 3 ml to 100 ml. The liposomes can be prepared with virtually any lipid; desired biomolecules can be both encapsulated and coated on liposomes. The instrument has two serpentine channels superimposed on each other, separated by a membrane. Each channel has a volume of 3 ml and a length of 3 meters. Mixed lipid/detergent micelles are run in one of the channels while t

Nobel laureate David Baltimore will assume the presidency of the California Institute of Technology this fall. Baltimore, 59, tells The Scientist he is leaving his post as a professor of molecular biology and immunology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has been since 1994, because Caltech is "one of the premier scientific organizations in the world." Baltimore's tenure as president of Rockefeller University in New York lasted just 18 months; he resigned in late 1991 in the