November 1995

Sidebar:NCI Divisional Structure Amid a swirl of controversy over leadership, budget priorities, and stifling bureaucracy, the new organizational structure of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) went into effect October 1. The reorganization was prompted by internal, agency, and congressional studies. Under the restructuring, many programs, laboratories, and branches fall under new or redesigned divisions, with an eye toward streamlining the agency, revamping its intramural program, and openin

Peace Prizes Author: Karen Young Kreeger Sidebar: 1995 Scientific Laureates Last month's announcements of the 1995 Nobel Prize recipients in the sciences were greeted with hearty approval by scientists from various sectors of the research community. Many of these investigators felt a sense of validation for their fields in the selection committees' choices. In physiology or medicine, the burgeoning discipline of developmental biology was recognized, and the subdiscipline of atmospheric chemi

When Michael Smith took a share of the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1993 for his work in reprogramming genes, 1989 Nobelist J. Michael Bishop, University Professor in the department of microbiology and immunology at the University of California, San Francisco, offered some friendly advice: Learn to say "no." JUST SAY NO: 1993 laureate Michael Smith was advised to turn down invitations. Previous Nobel laureates warn that the attention and instant celebrity in the first year-even up

Sidebar: Major Pharmaceutical Companies Are Diving Into the Gene Therapy Pool As gene therapy enters its sixth year of high-visibility research, major drug companies are buying in, helping lay the technology's foundation and launching clinical trials. More than 100 gene therapy trials-most privately funded-are under way. And while the field's ultimate success is still quite uncertain, one thing is clear: There is a lot of science to be done and research opportunities to be pursued. ACADEMIA, I

therapy pool Here are a few of the recent deals: The Giant The Gene Therapy Co. The Deal Biogen Inc. Genovo Inc. Seed money: $38 million, 5 years Bristol-Myers Somatix Therapy Corp. Initial $10 million Squibb Co. stock purchase Ciba-Geigy Chiron Corp. 49.9% stake for Ltd. $2.1 billion Glaxo Sequana Therapeutics Undisclosed Wellcome Inc. Megabios Corp. milestone Spectra Biomedical Inc. payments Merck & Co. Vical Inc. $10.4 million Inc. invested to date Rh’ne-Poulenc 14 gene therapy firms

Vitality, Resilience Author: Catherine Didion EDITOR'S NOTE: In September Didion, executive director of the Association for Women in Science (AWIS), was among an AWIS delegation attending the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, and the Non Governmental Organization Forum held in the small town of Huairou, an hour from Beijing. Noting that the torrential rain in Huairou -- the effects of which were exacerbated by the uncomfortable conference facilities -- and pa

In Science Author: Robert Finn Sidebar: PROPORTION OF FULL PROFESSORS AMONG FORMER POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS IN ACADEMIC SCIENCE A recently released study from Harvard University examining the careers of scientists who showed high promise as postdocs has found persistent gender differences in career outcomes. The study, called Project Access, reveals clear evidence of a glass ceiling for women in certain fields, notes differences in publication patterns, and elucidates the way that family-related

Laboratories and Branches Director, Richard Klausner Deputy Director, Alan Rabson Legislative Liaison, Dorothy Tisevich Associate Director for Strategic Planning, Edward Sondik Office of Extramural Management Associate Director, Philip D. Amoruso Office of Intramural Management Associate Director, MaryAnn Guerra Office of Cancer Communications Associate Director, J. Paul Van Nevel International Cancer Information Center Associate Director, Susan Hubbard Office of International Affairs Associat

F. Sherwood Rowland - Chemistry Mario J. Molina - Chemistry Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard - Physiology or Medicine Frederick Reines - Physics Joseph Rotblat - Peace Paul Crutzen - Chemistry Martin L. Perl - Physics Eric F. Wieschaus - Physiology or Medicine

FELLOWS IN ACADEMIC SCIENCE MEN WOMEN Biology PSME* Social Biology PSME* Social Sciences Sciences Ph.D. Pre-1978: 0.57 0.70 0.83 0.43 0.37 0.50 N**=56 N=105 N=24 N=23 N=19 N=14 Ph.D. 1978 and After: 0.03 0.10 0.33 0.04 0.00 0.00 N=32 N=89 N=9 N=28 N=16 N=8 *Physical sciences, mathematics, and engineering ** Number of respondents (The Scientist, Vol:9, #22, pg.9 , November 13, 1995) (Copyright © The Scientist, Inc.)

The pioneering contributions to lepton physics, atmospheric chemistry, and developmental biology honored by this year's Nobel Prizes were all made at least some 15 or 20 years ago. This illustrates a dilemma the Nobel committees are faced with every year in the selection of the prize winners. On the one hand, the committees have to follow, as far as possible, Nobel's intention to award the prize to those who, "during the preceding year," by their scientific achievements, have conferred the gre

In an article entitled "Clinicians Catch Top NIH Officials' Attention" (E. Marshall, Science, 267:448, 1995), Roy Silverstein of the New York University Medical Center said that he is convinced that "patient-oriented research is being underfunded because of some inherent flaws in the review process" at the National Institutes of Health. Alternatively, in a recent piece entitled "How Federal Funding Mechanisms Stifle Basic Biomedical Research" (The Scientist, Aug. 21, 1995, page 10), Edith Ros

The article "NIH Study Section Members Acknowledge Major Flaws in the Reviewing System" (R. Finn, The Scientist, Aug. 21, 1995, page 1) highlights some serious problems that beset a review system that is indeed out of step with the present (financial) times. However, a pattern of funding, apparently prevalent for some time, was not mentioned. Based on National Institutes of Health-published data (Peer Review Trends 1981-1991, DRG Study Section Trends, FY 83-92, Statistics, Analysis and Educati

I was shocked by some of the attitudes expressed in your article on the growth of anti-science sentiments (F. Hoke, The Scientist, July 10, 1995). Most striking, and disturbing, was the close resemblance of the indignant scientist to the self-righteous fundamentalist Christian. They clearly have the same capacity for tolerance and open-mindedness. While the influence of fundamentalist Christian groups is both frightening and incomprehensible, I find no reassurance in the flight from rational di

I was pleased to read Phillip Sharp's remarks regarding genetics and complex human behavior [N. Sankaran, "Honorary Degree Recipients' Speeches Focus On Increasing Role Of Research In Society," The Scientist, June 26, 1995]. I infer that he meant his remarks to be in part a response to the recent controversy surrounding the book The Bell Curve and biological determinism in general. I take arguments like those in The Bell Curve to be a sophistic racial slur. There has been no gene or loci of ge

When time permitted in 1969, I joined the hepatitis research lab of Alfred Prince and M. Edward Kaighn at the New York Blood Center, where liver cells were being grown in culture, and began to try out my ideas. It was then a small step to the artificial liver concept based upon hollow fibers as a supporting matrix. Carl F. W. Wolf Director, Blood Bank and Transfusion Service New York Hospital Professor of Clinical Pathology Cornell University Medical College New York Hospital-Cornell Medical C

Patients recovering from an operation will often find themselves given elasticated stockings to wear and injections of subcutaneous heparin to undergo. These are ways of trying to prevent clots forming in the deep veins of the legs. Pulmonary thromboembolism caused by the migration of such clots remains a potentially fatal complication of surgery. Cancer can put patients at risk of venous thrombosis, but all too often, even when there is a family history of this condition, laboratory tests thro

MAY AND JUNE 1995 Rank Paper Citations Totals May-June Thru Aug. 1995 1995 1 W.S. El-Deiry, T. Tokino, V.E. 84 516 Velculescu, D.B. Levy, R. Parsons, J.M. Trent, D. Lin, W.E. Mercer, K.W. Kinzler, B. Vogelstein, "WAF1, a potential mediator of p53 tumor suppression," Cell, 75:817-25, 1993. 2 J.W. Harper, G.R. Adami, N. Wei, 84 498 K. Keyomarsi, S.J. Elledge, "The p21 Cdk-interacting protein Cip1 is a potent inhibitor of G1 cyclin-dependent kinases," Cell, 75:805-16, 1993. 3 G. Gyapay, J. Moris

Editor's Note: In honor of last month's announcement of the 1995 winners of the Nobel Prizes, The Scientist here reprints essays written by two of this year's laureates: Martin Perl, a co-winner in physics, and F. Sherwood Rowland, a corecipient of the chemistry prize. These articles discuss the situation surrounding the research, writing, and submission of the extraordinarily highly cited (and, now, Nobel Prize-winning) research papers describing their investigations. These two pieces were f

F.S. Rowland, M.J. Molina, "Chlorofluoromethanes in the environment," Reviews of Geophysics and Space Physics, 13:1-35, 1975. (Cited in more than 430 publications through August 1995) Written by F. Sherwood Rowland, department of chemistry, University of California, Irvine, for the Dec. 7, 1987, issue of Current Contents. During 1973, I proposed to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)-which had sponsored my radiochemical research since 1956-that we expand our investigations to trace radioac

KATHLEEN MULLINIX President and Chief Executive Officer Synaptic Pharmaceutical Corporation Paramus, N.J. "I like THE SCIENTIST's profiles of people and the coverage of issues and opportunities for science to be applied to practical goals. For people who want to know what's going on, THE SCIENTIST is very important." Kathleen Mullinix relishes the role of pioneer. Mullinix and her colleagues at Synaptic Pharmaceutical Corp. combine cutting-edge technologies in molecular biology, medicinal c

Anthologies Author: Ricki Lewis When mathematics professor Mark Snavely needed a textbook for his interdisciplinary science course-called, simply, "Discovery"-at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis., he didn't know where to turn. What text covered chaos theory, climate change, infectious disease, and the theory of relativity? Unwilling to make students purchase several books and use little of each, Snavely did what many creative professors are doing-he designed his own text. WHAT THE PROFESSOR

Biological Research Author: Holly Ahern It's the type of problem that crops up in cell biology, molecular biology, and neuroscience laboratories constantly. Hidden amid a compendium of compounds in a crude cell extract is a protein that researchers have sought since its gene was cloned months before. Perhaps the protein is an enzyme for which the catalytic mechanism has not yet been determined. Or maybe the compound is a recombinant protein that shows promise as a pharmaceutical agent. In eith

Another Lasker Legacy Dedicated The Next Best Thing to Being There Turbine With A Twist Big Barbie and No-Neck Ken French Foundation Funding Renaissance Scientist NIGMS Web Site MacHome Page Brookhaven As Curator A GOOD NAME: The new biotech building honors biomedical activist Mary Lasker The late Mary Lasker, renowned for her devotion to the cause of advancing biomedical research, was honored with the dedication of a science-park building in her memory on November 2. New York City's first