Notebook

Stem cells in Asia
One day early in November, all the doors of Stephen Minger's lab at King's College London were getting a fresh lick of pink paint in preparation for a royal visit.

The 50,000 club
On October 19, the Stanford Microarray Database recorded its 50,000th experiment since its creation in 1999.
Research

Rolling Back the Fog of War
The battlefield can be a laboratory for assessing response of the human body to stress.

New Models for Epileptogenesis
Epilepsy often develops after the brain is damaged, and patients commonly must take anticonvulsant drugs for a lifetime despite unpleasant side effects.

Brains and Genes in Perfect Clarity
Deciphering genetic relationships in cognitive function takes serious effort.
Hot Paper

Sending Out a Hypoxia SOS
Like Sting's omnipresent voyeur, specialized mechanisms in the cells of higher organisms carefully monitor oxygen intake.
Vision

Cells for Building
Tissue engineering has taken on a new meaning in recent years, bringing the stuff of science fiction to the operating table.

The Future Looks Bright for Genetic Medicine
Today, gene therapy, genomics, and stem cell therapy are considered to be discrete fields of research.
Briefs

Wax on, the Mammalian Way
Plants export wax from epidermal cells to their external surfaces through a lipid transporter similar to those present in mammalian cells, according to a study from the University of British Columbia.

Making Fish Genes Work in Human Cells
Findings on Fugu gene splicing could help scientists develop pufferfish transgenes for mammalian cells, say researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Interdisciplinary Research
Courtesy of Mike SextonThese papers were selected from multiple disciplines from the Faculty of 1000, a Web-based literature awareness tool http://www.facultyof1000.com.L. Li et al., "A small molecule Smac mimic potentiates TRAIL- and TNFα-mediated cell death," Science, 305:1471–4, Sept. 3, 2004.This is the first study in which a true Smac mimetic was synthesized to antagonize the inhibitor-of-apoptosis (IAP) proteins. … Importantly, these compounds synergize with TNFα and
Technology

Scratching the Cell Surface
Most biological microscopes delve deep into the cell, imaging optical slices that can be put together into a three-dimensional rendering of what lies beneath the cell membrane.
How It Works

The Confocal Microscope
In the mid-1950s, Princeton University researcher Marvin Minsky sought a way to increase signal-to-noise when imaging central nervous system samples.
Tools and Technology

PNNL Team Captures Individual Protein Interactions
Scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., have used an established technique to observe real-time interactions between single protein molecules for the first time.

Caryoscope: Putting Microarray Data in Chromosomal Context
Microarrays are wonderful tools for seeing global patterns of gene expression under different conditions.

Toward a Diagnostic "Swiss Army Knife"
Researchers at York University in Toronto are refining a new bioanalytical technique capable of simultaneously analyzing hundreds or thousands of proteins in individual human cells.

Automated Tissue Staining Reaches the Pathology Lab
Pathology labs worldwide face a shortage of trained histopathologists, says Dennis Chenoweth, corporate vice president of diagnostics at DakoCytomation of Carpinteria, Calif.

New and Improved Protein Analysis
Close may be good enough for horseshoes and hand grenades, but analyzing proteins requires hard numbers.
Editorial
BioBusiness

Trials of the Pharmaceutical Industry
An idea has been brewing quietly for years among doctors, healthcare policy wonks, medical journal editors, and others who make it their business to keep a close eye on the workings of the pharmaceutical industry.

Diversity in the Laboratory
As NexMed's director of human resources, Linda Burns often sends flowers to hospitalized employees.
Update

Biotech Executive Salaries on the Rise
Many chief executive officers of both profitable and not-yet-profitable biotechnology companies have multimillion-dollar pay packages, according to three recent surveys.
Closing Bell

The Meselson-Stahl Experiment Lives On
Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl's 1957 demonstration of DNA replication is considered "the most beautiful experiment in biology."
Opinion

Middle-Aged Scientists are Most Potent
Is science a young person's game?
Letter

The Clones' Yowl
or those pondering the cloning of their favorite feline should do a little research.

Simulations Closer to Nature
Your article made a very important point with respect to computer simulations of natural phenomena.

Election Editorial: A House Divided
I couldn't disagree with you more.