November 2000

Disentangling the good from the bad--gene and protein data, that is--may be the toughest task for today's bioinformatics scientists assembling new models for proteins, says Greg Paris, executive director of biomolecular structure and computing at Novartis Pharma Research in Summit, N.J. "One of the major advances has been the speed with which new genomes can be characterized and at least partially annotated, and there are very good gene-finding tools that help in this endeavor," he explains. "T

Much of the promise of bioinformatics likely lies with the big money and novel approaches of the private sector. At a late October symposium titled "Biosilico 2000," several bioinformatics company executives came together at the Trump Plaza in New York City to discuss the state of the immensely expansive and increasingly heterogeneous field of bioinformatics. Not surprisingly, many touted their products and business plans; but they also discussed and compared philosophies for engaging in the dau

Last year, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) routinely assigned patent applications for bioinformatics inventions to examiners in diverse departments. Then the office made a projection, based on input from companies, that it would receive more than 300 such applications in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. To ensure consistent treatment for the predicted flood of filings, PTO created Art Unit 1631 (AU1631) last December. This unit now consists of 10 examiners holding degrees, sometim

The Stowers Institute for Medical Research Predictions and plans abound these days concerning Kansas City--that border town straddling Missouri and Kansas known for its jazz, barbecue, and riverboat gambling--as a future leader in biomedical research. But perhaps the most eloquent recent argument that such an ambitious goal might be achieved was a standing ovation given on Nov. 8 by 1,200 of the city's business and scientific community leaders to James E. Stowers Jr. and his wife, Virginia G. St

Accuracy in Recounts It can take a pathologist, moving a micrometer across a slide under a microscope, days to measure 10 different layers in a skin tissue sample. It can also take days to count regrown or restenosed endothelial cells to gauge the effect of a drug on, say, ruptured coronary artery elastic lamina. And a second pathologist may get different results. But Mark Braughler of TissueInformatics, speaking at the Techvest Tissue Repair, Replacement, and Regeneration conference in New Yor

There has been little notice of the Canadian government's recent action in a 15-year patent dispute with Harvard University, even though it may restoke the fires of controversy about the patenting of life.1 Last month, the government appealed to the Canadian Supreme Court the award to Harvard of a patent on a transgenic mouse.2 The university filed the patent application in June 1985 for the Harvard Oncomouse, so named because it is genetically engineered to be susceptible to cancer.1 The Canadi

The worldwide impact of discoveries over recent years in genetics is evident, but also worth considering is the potential effect on the performance of biology. Could these achievements spark an upsurge in creativity elsewhere within the life sciences? The reason this may be likely is that, since the dawn of the 20th century--and even earlier, going back to Gregor Mendel's experiments--the gene has been an abstraction par excellence, a chemical entity described without direct evidence of its exi

When properly understood, knowledge of the interaction and communication of cells with each other and their environment can be applied to the diagnosis and treatment of disease. For example, a recent study1 has shown that expression of CD11b on the surface of neutrophils increases during infection. This observation is the basis for a rapid screening test for dangerous early-onset neonatal infections that can provide confirmation of an infection in a few hours, as opposed to one or two days. Beca

There seems to be no end to the stream of optical technologies hitting the market. Cambridge Research & Instrumentation (CRI) Inc., of Woburn, Mass., has developed CellView and SpindleView imaging systems to apply the company's LC-PolScope™ technology1,2 to the subcellular organization of living cells without stains or fluorescent labels. Many subcellular structures are oriented polymers that are spatially organized, or anisotropic. This anisotropy causes the speed of light to v

Gentra Systems' AUTOPURE LS™ Nucleic Acid Purification System Automated nucleic acid purification systems capable of handling small samples (up to 1 ml) have become a time- and money-saving asset in recent years. However, clinical laboratories and clinical research groups requiring larger sample volumes have had to rely on time-consuming manual methods to purify nucleic acids--until now. Gentra Systems of Minneapolis has introduced the AUTOPURE LS system, the first instrument capable of is

Nurturing a career in bioinformatics takes a certain kind of aptitude, despite its popularity. First off, you have to like being intimately involved with computers, agree those who already work in this burgeoning field. "For some, staring at a glowing, blue screen all day is like a ring of Dante's inferno," says Larry Hunter, past president of the International Society of Computational Biology (ISCB) and director of the Center for Computational Pharmacology at the University of Colorado School o

Boosting Network Performance Information technology is playing an increasingly significant role in all facets of today's world, including scientific research. The National Science Foundation recently announced a new research collaboration to develop software that automatically tunes network protocols in computer operating systems to fully exploit available network bandwidth. NSF has given a three-year, $2.9 million award to the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, the National Center for Atmospher

Organizations are welcome to submit information for consideration for future listings by contacting kdevine@the-scientist.com Click to view the PDF file: Funding Opportunities in the Life Sciences

© 2000 Anthony Canamucio Resolving the question of whether cellular phones are safe has been complicated by conflicting information about electromagnetic fields (emfs): no danger; yes there is danger; well, we don't know. This has been unsettling for the public and has put pressure on health policy decision makers to act. But can they take action based on the biological data now available? I think not. In fact, I believe it would be unethical to use much of it to make public health decision