November 2006

Anne Harding - Guest Editor Some Real Action After Decades of Talk About Diversity In 1989, the number of PhDs in science and engineering awarded to blacks in the United States was 222, just 1.8% of the total - and a drop from 288 in 1977. More recently the numbers are better. According to the National Science Foundation, 661 blacks received a PhD in science or engineering in 2003

Myth: Diversity is good for business. Reality: It's a bit more complicated than that. Research from MIT's Thomas Kochan showed-controversially-that ethnic and gender diversity can harm team and company performance if they're not managed effectively. (see "Diversity: The New Business Case") Myth: Blacks and Latinos don't consider careers in researc

FROM THE FIELD There are no easy answers when it comes to building a truly diverse workforce in the life science arena. Many feel we've made little progress toward that goal during the last few decades, rightfully pointing to the continued disparity in representation, inc

By Clifton A. Poodry It's time to apply our scientific thinking to designing diversity programs. Here's how. Despite our scientific training, when we think about ways to build a more diverse biomedical research workforce, we may base our ideas on sentiments and preconceptions rather than the best evidence. One way to avoid this is to approa

Determining Program Efficacy © PETER M. FISHER / CORBIS In 2004, NIH's National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) launched a research initiative to understand the efficacy of interventions intended to increase the number of minorities in bio

By Damaris Christensen Losing Ground? Educators fear small gains of affirmative action are under threat from reverse-discrimination lawsuits. In 2003, in its first ruling on affirmative action since 1978, the Supreme Court affirmed in its University of Michigan Law School decision that diversity in the classroom, in and of itself, is a compelling state inter

By Kirsten Weir Old Problem, Old Solutions Failure to question conventional wisdom contributes to persistent leaks in scientific pipeline. © Getty Images/Jan Stromme Monique Ferguson nearly slipped through the cracks. Though she was a top student in high school and college, she faced a bumpy road as an African-American woman pursuing a science career in what she felt was "a good-old-boys

By Anthony H. Williams and Carole Williams-Green Environmental education center gets city kids started down the path to science. Just a stone's throw from streets sprinkled with shattered glass, in a largely African-American west Philadelphia neighborhood, exists a convergence of labs, volunteers, educators, and most importantly, eager students. We established the Cobbs Creek Environment

By Anne Harding Diversity efforts are unexplored territory for many European nations. The November 2005 riots across France made it clear why efforts to diversify Europe's workforce are important, and why these efforts may pose a particular challenge here. Frustrated at being shut out of the nation's economic and educational

By Ed Silverman Small World Globalization means broader definition of diversity, and broader opportunities. Weiyi Zheng says he loves his career in the New Jersey suburbs, but he wouldn't turn down an opportunity to return to his native China. And thanks to the increasing globalization of the pharma industry workforce, his employer just might give him the ch

By Amy Norton Juan Rivera Chief, Molecular Inflammation Section, National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Disease, NIH COURTESY OF NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ARTHRITIS AND MUSCULOSKELETAL AND SKIN DISEASES As a young teen in New York City, Juan Rivera was thinking

Jeff Getty in 1996 Jeff Getty: Lessons in desperate measures By Gail Dutton FEATURE ARTICLES The Elite Controllers of HIVGAIL DUTTON reports from San Francisco on how infected nonprogressors - also known as elite controllers - are providing clues to the control, and potentially the eradication, of HIV. 25 Years with HIV ARTICLE EXTRAS HIV Shows ItselfA 1981 report in the MMWR marks the beginning The Impact of HIVIts progressions, 1981-2006 and beyond Why Monkeys

By Kirsten Weir Erich Jarvis Associate Professor of Neurobiology, Duke University © LES TODD As the stage lights went down on his graduation dance performance at New York's High School of the Performing Arts, Erich Jarvis decided on his future. He'd been

By Damaris Christensen Donna J. Nelson Associate Professor of Chemistry, University of Oklahoma COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA, DEPT OF CHEMISTRY & BIOCHEMISTRY Perhaps it was her training as a chemist that led Donna Nelson to insist on filling out eve

A Revolutionary Approach to Biomarker Discovery Immunoassays coupled with mass spectrometrycould reveal new dimensions in the blood  By Emanuel F. Petricoin and Lance A. Liotta ARTICLE EXTRAS Proteomics: Promise and ProblemsSuch early disease detection doesn't always mean longer life, write JENNIFER MILLER and BARNETT KRAMER. INFOGRAPHIC: The Peptidome Hypothesis:What does a disease signature look like in the blood? Serum Proteomics ScrutinizedSELDI-TOF st

By Kirsten Weir Lyndon Mitnaul Research Fellow, Division of Cardiovascular Diseases, Merck Research Laboratories COURTESY OF LYNDON MITNAUL Lyndon Mitnaul remembers falling in love. "Around tenth grade I took my first chemistry class," he says, "and I fell in love with science."

By Karen Pallarito Sonya Summerour Clemmons Director of Business Development, MediVas, LLCBusiness Founder and Owner, SSC Enterprises © BLACK ENTERPRISE MAGAZINE Growing up in Gainesville, Ga., Sonya Summerour Clemmons could have easily made excuses not t

By Kirsten Weir Gwen D. Fewell, 40 Open Biosystems, Huntsville, Alabama; RNAi Product Manager COURTESY OF OPEN BIOSYSTEMS EDUCATION: PhD in neuroscience from Florida State University HOMETOWN: Bombay, India WORK/RESEARCH: Fewell is in charge of developin

Proteomics: Promise and Problems By Jennifer H. Miller and Barnett S. Kramer FEATURE ARTICLE A Revolutionary Approach to Biomarker DiscoveryEMANUEL PETRICOIN and LANCE LIOTTA describe how their methods for discovery could solve the seeming end to the pipeline of disease detection biomarkers ARTICLE EXTRAS INFOGRAPHIC: The Peptidome Hypothesis:What does a disease signature look like in the blood? Serum Proteomics ScrutinizedSELDI-TOF still struggles to prove its worth as a clinic

By Chandra Shekhar Sebastián Vélez, 33 Third-year graduate student at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University COURTESY OF SEBASTIÁN VÉLEZ HOMETOWN: Bayamon, Puerto Rico WORK/RESEARCH: Vélez's research is centered o

By Juhi Yajnik Maria Thelma Ocampo, 29 Postdoc, London Research Institute COURTESY OF MARIA OCAMPO HOMETOWN: Manila, Philippines, until she was 8 years old, then Arleta, Calif. WORK/RESEARCH: Ocampo works on DNA packaging and the cohesion complex that holds sis

PRODUCT RISK ASSESSMENT By Donald Esker and Robert Gauss FEATURE ARTICLE Confronting RiskChallenges to your business - both daily and long-term competitiveness - lurk in surprising places. BRUCE BELZAK explains how to protect your company. ARTICLE EXTRAS Case study:What happens when a fire strikes your production facility? Four ways to save money - and your business Five Things Not to Forget When ForecastingForecast models can become complex, but the principles for gatherin

CASE STUDY: BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING By Fred Klapetzky FEATURE ARTICLE Confronting RiskChallenges to your business - both daily and long-term competitiveness - lurk in surprising places. BRUCE BELZAK explains how to protect your company. ARTICLE EXTRAS Case study:A medical device component manufacturer faces nervous senior executives Four ways to save money - and your business Five Things Not to Forget When ForecastingForecast models can become complex, but the princi

By Anne Harding Diversity: The New Business Case Helping different departments collaborate is part of diversity's new meaning. For Paul Graves of Schering-Plough, managing diversity is about much more than hiring minorities — although that's certainly part of it. It's really about helping people from very

By Charles Q. Choi Getting Results You've started a diversity program. But how do you know if it's having any effect? Harvard Medical School has offered a voluntary diversity-training program every year since 2000. Immediately after each session, organizers asked how much volunteers liked learning about the importance of diversity for organizations. People

By Charles Q. Choi Getting Results You've started a diversity program. But how do you know if it's having any effect? Harvard Medical School has offered a voluntary diversity-training program every year since 2000. Immediately after each session, organizers asked how much volunteers liked learning about the importance of diversity for organizations. People

Four Ways to Save Money - and Your Business An underwriter reveals the must-do items he looks for when evaluating a company for coverage. By Philip W. Fiscus FEATURE ARTICLE Confronting RiskChallenges to your business – both daily and long-term competitiveness – lurk in surprising places. BRUCE BELZAK explains how to protect your company. ARTICLE EXTRAS Case study:A medical device component manufacturer faces nervous senior executives Case s

By Charles Q. Choi Who's in Charge? What it takes to manage diversity. © JENNIFER TRENCHARD Ten years ago, a chief diversity officer or vice president of diversity was almost unheard of, but today about one in five Fortune 1000 companies have diversity ma

Resources More Information The Athena Project www.athenaproject.org.uk Joint government/university effort to promote women's participation in science, engineering and technology in the UK. European Commission Science and Society

The Life Sciences Salary Survey Compensation soars as demand for highly-skilled professionals heats up. By Karen PallaritoRelated Articles: Salary by Highest Degree Earned Salary by Area of Specialization Salary by Gender Salary by Ethnicity Salary Map: salaries and costs of living in 19 US metropolitan areas Salary Charts Salary by Job Activity, type of research, age, and job title 2006 Salary Survey Methodology Salary Survey ArchiveThe que

The Life Sciences Salary Survey: Methodology By Karen PallaritoRelated Articles: Salary by Highest Degree Earned Salary by Area of Specialization Salary by Gender Salary by Ethnicity Salary Map: salaries and costs of living in 19 US metropolitan areas Salary Charts Salary by Job Activity, type of research, age, and job title 2006 Salary Survey Salary Survey ArchiveThe survey, ?Compensation of Life Scientists in the USA,? was conducted by Abbot

Lance Liotta (top) and Emanuel Petricoin (bottom) made a splash in 2002 when they used mass spec techniques coupled with pattern matching software to identify proteomic signatures indicative of ovarian cancer. Now co-directors of the Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine at George Mason University, they continue searching for diagnostic signals in blood serum, which they write about on page 32. "In some ways we're even more optimistic as to the potential and

ELITE HIV RESEARCHERS » On November 17, the Institute of Human Virology, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, will hold its 2006 International HIV/AIDS meeting in Baltimore. No doubt, elite controllers of HIV - the subject of a feature on page 26 - will come up at least a few times at the conference, which features many of the top researchers in AIDS. For more, see www.ihv.org/meeting/index.html. BIOMARKERS IN VIENNA » If Emanuel Petricoin and Lance Li

SPARRING PARTNERS: Jo Handelsman and Daniel Lee Kleinman Credit: © MARTHA BUSSE" />SPARRING PARTNERS: Jo Handelsman and Daniel Lee Kleinman Credit: © MARTHA BUSSE Daniel Lee Kleinman and Jo Handelsman first sparred in 1995, when the University of Wisconsin, Madison sociologist spent six months as a guest in Handelsman's plant pathology lab. The sociologist's goal was to find out how financial incentives - say, profits from selling microorganisms as therapeutics - might shape the

Shivani Sud (right) with Jan Davidson of the Davidson Institute. Credit: http://www.LEPOLDPHOTOGRAPHY.COM LEPOLDPHOTOGRAPHY.COM _blank" />Shivani Sud (right) with Jan Davidson of the Davidson Institute. Credit: http://www.LEPOLDPHOTOGRAPHY.COM LEPOLDPHOTOGRAPHY.COM _blank When Shivani Sud was six years old, a member of her immediate family had surgery to remove a brain tumor. Desperate to help, Sud dragged a stepstool to the kitchen sink, sprinkled soap on a sponge and began w

Caroline Snyder Credit: COURTESY OF CAROLINE SNYDER" />Caroline Snyder Credit: COURTESY OF CAROLINE SNYDER It was sometime in the late 1990s that Caroline Snyder first read news reports about a couple in Greenland, NH, who were blaming recycled sewage sludge - also known as biosolids - for the death of their son. Although she was an environmental scientist, Snyder didn't really know anything about sludge, but the story piqued her interest because she had recently retired to New Hampshi

On a brisk August morning in southern Australia, 16 recent PhD graduates and postdocs from around the country are sitting in a windowless room, fretting about the way science is portrayed in the media. They're attending a weeklong media-training boot camp, and the fraying of their nerves is palpable as they talk about what worries them most: the superficial way their research might be handled, overhyping, and how to handle difficult questions. "What's the point of science communicati

When the space shuttles Discovery and Atlantis blasted off in the direction of the International Space Station (ISS) this year, passengers of a more botanical variety vastly outnumbered the seven astronauts on board. Secured in small seed cassettes, some 1600 seeds of the cress species, Arabidopsis thaliana, took the flight for a research project designed to help tease out the tropic influences of gravity and light on plant growth, while perhaps helping to find a way to grow crops for lo

What states and the Federal government should do to ensure progress in the life sciences.

R.J. Dawson and K.P. Locher, "Structure of a bacterial multidrug ABC transporter," Nature , 443:180-5, Sept. 14, 2006. "This paper reports the first high resolution crystal structure of an ABC transporter carrying out multidrug efflux. This structure from the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus may be useful to interpret the mechanism of cystic fibrosis and other human diseases." Andrè GoffeauCatholic University of Louvain, Belgium

Credit: COURTESY OF ANDRE FIALA AND THOMAS RIEMENSPERGER" /> Credit: COURTESY OF ANDRE FIALA AND THOMAS RIEMENSPERGER Using light to activate specific brain cells that release chemicals implicated in positive or negative experiences, Andrâ Fiala and colleagues at the University of Würzburg identified neurons that are responsible for assigning value to a neutral odor in the Drosophila.1 "It is a very elegant study revealing both impressive technical and scientific findings," says Facu

When combined, the effects of mutations in different genes often deviate from what would be expected by looking at them separately. Researchers at the University of València in Spain have shown that an organism's genomic complexity may predict these epistatic gene interactions.1 It is a "fascinating new synthesis of published experiments," writes Faculty of 1000 member Richard Lenski of Michigan State University, adding that it is "sure to stimulate empirical and theoretical research fo

Credit: JASON VARNEY | http://www.VARNEYPHOTO.COMVARNEYPHOTO.COM_blank" /> Credit: JASON VARNEY | http://www.VARNEYPHOTO.COMVARNEYPHOTO.COM_blank Commenting on the immaculate desk of Sohyun Ahn elicits an embarrassed giggle, but practically any other question gets a thoughtful look from behind her blue cat's-eye glasses. Throughout her career, Ahn has made a habit of stepping back and studying the situation before acting. "It's important to take a break and think about thing

Musings on a product catalog.

How one company used the growing nonprofit funding pot to jump-start its development program, and how you can do the same.

To attract not just more candidates but the right ones, pay attention to the basics and follow these tips.

Russian scientists are testing a proposed system to bring a more merit-based approach to the doling out of funds supplementing basic salaries. The effort by the Russian Ministry of Science is meant to address criticism of the current system, "a crazy combination of uniformly low pay with distribution of extras by the will of the management," says Mikhail Gelfand, a scientist at the Institute for Information Transmission Problems in Moscow. Paychecks for Russian post-docs are about 5,000-

Graduating from a mid-ranked university may put you at even more of a disadvantage than finishing a life sciences doctorate at a lower-ranked school, according to research by Laurel Smith-Doerr, an assistant professor of sociology at Boston University. Smith Doerr sampled 2,062 life scientists who were on average 5 years out of grad school. As she reports in the June issue of the Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society, those who had completed their PhDs at elite universities were mu